‘A lot of vaccine hesitancy’: how north London council is responding to measles outbreak

For people living and working in Enfield, the current measles outbreak is a shock – but not a surprise. The borough has struggled with low vaccine uptake for years, fighting against vaccine hesitancy, online misinformation and health inequalities.Working closely with communities to persuade them to come forward for vaccinations is an “ongoing public health challenge”, which Enfield – like many boroughs – is grappling with, said Enfield council’s director of public health, Dudu Sher-Arami.“This has not come as a surprise to us. We’ve been trying to work to increase vaccination uptake for many years

‘The whole family is destroyed’: Australia’s inheritance disputes aren’t just increasing – they’re becoming messier

There are few parts of the law quite as fraught as succession. As the great wealth transfer gets under way, wrangling about who gets what is tearing families apartGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastRead more from The Age of Inheritance series hereIt wasn’t until Charlotte’s* father died that she learnt he had changed his will to leave his entire estate to one of her three siblings.“This is crazy,” she remembers thinking in the days afterwards. “Why wouldn’t we get anything? This just makes no sense.”She and two siblings contested; mediation collapsed

Families bid to take over their children’s care home that amassed huge tax debts

A group of families have launched an audacious bid to take over their disabled children’s residential care home after it emerged the charity running it faces closure after amassing huge tax debts and paying £1m in fees to one of its trustees.William Blake House faces a potential winding up order in seven weeks and is under investigation by regulators over serious financial governance concerns. The families said they no longer trust that the charity’s board has their children’s best interests at heart.The families said a parent-led takeover was the best solution given the urgency of the threat to the charity’s services and ethos and the need to overhaul what they see as failing management that has led it to near insolvency.They have accused the charity’s board of acting secretively and keeping parents in the dark about its £1

A new diagnosis of ‘profound autism’ is under consideration. Here’s what parents need to know

When it comes to autism, few questions spark as much debate as how best to support autistic people with the greatest needs.This prompted the Lancet medical journal to commission a group of international experts to propose a new category of “profound autism”.This category describes autistic people who have little or no language (spoken, written, signed or via a communication device), who have an IQ of less than 50, and who require 24-hour supervision and support.It would only apply to children aged eight and over, when their cognitive and communication abilities are considered more stable.In our new study, we considered how the category could impact autism assessments

Revealed: The true toll of female suicides with domestic abuse at their core

The number of women who are driven to suicide by domestic abusers is being under-reported, and their cases overlooked by police, in what has been described by experts as a “national scandal”.Domestic violence suicides are already growing at such a rate that a woman in an abusive relationship is now more likely to take her own life than be killed by a partner.But research into the number of women who take their own life in such circumstances has suggested official statistics could track as few as 6.5% of the true number of cases.According to the Domestic Homicide Project, a programme led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), there were 98 suspected suicides in England and Wales following domestic abuse in 2024, compared with 80 intimate partner homicides

Fast-spreading measles outbreak takes hold among under-10s in north London

A big measles outbreak in north-east London is affecting unvaccinated children under the age of 10, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed.UKHSA previously reported 34 laboratory-confirmed measles cases among children who attend schools and nurseries in Enfield from 1 January to 9 February, with some requiring hospital treatment.Measles is a highly infectious viral illness that can spread very easily among people who are not fully vaccinated. While many people recover, the illness can lead to serious complications such as pneumonia, brain inflammation and, in rare cases, long-term disability or death.Dr Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, said: “Our latest data shows we are now seeing a big measles outbreak in north-east London, mostly affecting unvaccinated children under 10 in schools and nurseries, with some being hospitalised