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A hospital ward in Lancashire has been cleared to accommodate a teenage boy with significant mental health issues.
But while that arrangement is keeping him safe - it is doing absolutely nothing to treat his symptoms and conditions. His previous care accommodation admitted they cannot keep him safe.
A judge has criticised the failure of the state to allow people like the teenager to fall through the gaps in today’s edition.
Lancashire briefing
🗣️ The Reform UK group that runs Lancashire County Council has been accused of attempting to ‘silence’ opposition members – by limiting the number of debates they can control.
The party says it is simply making the arrangements proportional to the political make-up of the authority.
However, opposition councillors have claimed the changes – to what are known as ‘notices of motion’ – curtail their right to raise issues that matter to residents.
At each of the four ordinary ‘full council’ meetings held at County Hall every year, time is set aside for individual councillors to bring forward proposals, which – if supported by a majority after a debate – commit the county council to taking a particular course of action.
Successful motions can determine the authority’s own policy on an issue or require it to lobby government or another organisation over a matter that lies beyond its remit.
The opportunity is open to all 84 members and, until last year – when Reform took charge – was offered on a first-come-first served basis. However, a new rule was subsequently introduced which reserved for the ruling group two of the total four motions then permitted at each meeting.
Earlier this year, the overall tally was increased to five, with three of them being earmarked for the administration – broadly in line with their councillor numbers.
Now, however, amid concern about time running out to debate so many propositions, the total has been reduced to three, but in the same proportion – handing two motions to Reform and leaving just one between the six opposition groups.
🏠 Residents living near a site in Leyland where a new housing estate is set to be built have called for it to be radically redesigned to reduce the road safety risk they say it poses.
A government-appointed planning inspector earlier this year overturned a decision by South Ribble Borough Council to refuse permission for the 23-home development on land off Cocker Lane.
However, a neighbourhood group that had battled against the blueprint hopes that the next stage in the planning process could yet see the number of dwellings slashed – with affordable housing being replaced by high-end homes.
The Friends of Cocker Lane believe the change would make the plot more profitable for any housebuilder to deliver – and more palatable for those living close to it.
🗳️ A Reform UK councillor in Preston will take the rare step of trying to serve on two different borough-level councils in May.
Cllr Rob Walsh was elected to Preston City Council for Brookfield ward in May 2026. But Cllr Walsh lives in Bamber Bridge, and will stand in Bamber Bridge West which is currently represented by two Labour councillors.
One Lib Dem source spoke of it being a ‘gift’ to whomever stands against him in the 2027 elections while Labour’s Cllr Martyn Rawlinson and Cllr Walsh exchanged insults on social media after the announcement.
Cllr Walsh, who is perfectly within his rights to try to represent two different areas, has vowed to put the people of Bamber Bridge first, echoing his earlier promise to put the people of Brookfield first.
The Lancashire Lead looks forward to the people of Chorley being put first by Cllr Walsh in 2028.
Teenage boy being sedated, but not treated, on a hospital ward evidence of young people falling through the gaps
By Michael Holmes
A hospital has had to clear an entire ward in order to care for a teenager so intent on hurting himself that nowhere else can keep him safe.
The boy, who cannot legally be identified, is so poorly that his last care home admitted it cannot protect him - and there is nowhere else for him to go.
He is sedated and kept under round-the-clock supervision by three people - but is not being treated for his underlying mental illness, a family court judge has revealed.
“He is being confined. Nothing else,” he said.
“Those facts are extraordinary. Yet simultaneously the court is told that (the boy) does not meet the criteria for detention under the Mental Health Act.
“Not once, but repeatedly.”
The judge, who has now criticised the gap between children’s social care and mental health services, asked: “How can this young person be kept safe whilst receiving meaningful therapeutic help?
“Disturbingly, despite many months of intervention and many hundreds of pages of evidence, the court is still unable confidently to answer that question.
“That, ultimately, is the tragedy of this case.”
His Honour Judge Burrows, who has ruled that the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust must now become a party to proceedings, added: “One is left with the uncomfortable impression that mental health services have been rather more successful in explaining why they cannot help than in explaining how they will help.”
The trust, which provides mental health services across the county, said it is “unable to comment on individual cases”.
The teenager, who has a long history of self-harm, going missing and hospital admissions, has been described as a “deeply vulnerable child who has, for years, been oscillating between crisis and temporary stabilisation, whilst professionals struggle to identify a regime capable of meeting his extraordinary needs”.
While Blackburn with Darwen Council has worked hard to help him - searching for placements, reviewing risks, issuing legal proceedings and going to court to apply for restrictions designed to keep the boy safe, the “same unfortunately cannot be said with confidence about the response of the wider state”, the judge said.
And the case “raises once again an issue with which judges … have become depressingly familiar” - mentally ill children falling between the gaps.
Explaining his “profound frustration” at not being able to help the boy, the judge said he found himself “confronted by a case in which every professional agrees that a child faces extraordinary risks, every professional agrees he requires intensive support, yet there is no coherent agreement regarding who bears ultimate responsibility for ensuring that such support is delivered”.
He said Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust needs to be involved in the legal process to best help the child, who the judge said is “not an isolated problem to be solved”.