openJustice: Investigation

A mother, her disabled daughter and the charity that's their “saving glory” (video)

One charity is on a mission to ensure that if there's another lockdown in Northern Ireland, thousands of learning disabled children will not again be left in dangerous situations

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Charlotte Threipland Oscar Rickett
12 October 2020, 11.21am
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In this video Tina Fyfe, mother of Lauryn, a 17 year old suffering from autism, severe learning disabilities and a mood disorder, tells the story of what happened to their family when all services were removed during the coronavirus lockdown in March 2020. We also hear from Rachel Logan of the Children's Law Centre in Northern Ireland who explains how the state was breaking the law by leaving Lauryn in danger during this time. Finally, we learn what steps the law centre is taking to ensure this never happens again.

Tina told us her story in more detail here. These stories are part of our series The Unlawful State: Stories from a Pandemic where we lift up the voices of those whose lives are being disproportionately affected by the coronavirus crisis and hear stories of how civil society are responding.

Why should you care about freedom of information?

From coronation budgets to secretive government units, journalists have used the Freedom of Information Act to expose corruption and incompetence in high places. Tony Blair regrets ever giving us this right. Today's UK government is giving fewer and fewer transparency responses, and doing it more slowly. But would better transparency give us better government? And how can we get it?

Join our experts for a free live discussion at 5pm UK time on 15 June.

Hear from:

Claire Miller Data journalism and FOI expert
Martin Rosenbaum Author of ‘Freedom of Information: A Practical Guidebook’; former BBC political journalist
Jenna Corderoy Investigative reporter at openDemocracy and visiting lecturer at City University, London
Chair: Ramzy Alwakeel Head of news at openDemocracy

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