Cross Parliamentary Debate
Read all about our key note speech in Parliament......
News Update: December 2025
This month, our Chief Executive Officer took a significant step towards progress by meeting with Parliament. The meeting was a powerful demonstration of our ongoing commitment to championing change, for those affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
Leading Voices in FASD Advocacy
The CEO was joined by esteemed keynote speakers dedicated to advancing the cause of FASD awareness and support:
• Dr Raja Mukherjee MBE: Renowned as a FASD leading UK Consultant Psychiatrist and Honorary Professor, Dr Mukherjee is at the forefront of FASD diagnosis and treatment. He established the first NHS specialist FASD clinic in Surrey and is a trusted advisor to national bodies such as NICE and the British Medical Association.
• Professor Penny Cook: As a Professor of Public Health and Associate Dean for Research & Innovation at Salford University, Professor Cook has made significant contributions to research and advocacy within the field of public health, with a particular focus on FASD.
The Cross-Party Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood Chair: Anna Sabine MP welcomes members of parliament, representatives from Education, Clinical Health, Third Sector organisations including lead FASD Alliance representatives across the UK.
Representing Families and Professionals
Together, our CEO and these distinguished experts represented the voices of many families and professionals who support individuals affected by Prenatal Alcohol Exposure. Their advocacy extends not only to children, young people, and adults living with FASD but also honours the memory of those who are no longer with us—ensuring that every story is heard, and every individual is given a voice.
Ongoing Commitment
This engagement with Parliament marks another milestone in our relentless pursuit of positive change. By raising awareness, supporting research, and advocating for better services, we continue to strive for a future where those impacted by FASD receive the recognition, understanding, and support they rightfully deserve.
So what did we asked for?
1. With up to 75% and some areas 100% of all children in care and leaving it having been exposed to alcohol we need to include FASD in every government policy.
2. We need to urgently create regional 'FASD emergency response teams', a task force to support complex cases and review serious incidents to ensure professionals work together.
3. For every child in or leaving care where prenatal alcohol is likely, lets “rule it in”
If all professionals commit to consider prenatal alcohol from the beginning of their journey, we can start responsively supporting early intervention.
Many professionals tell us, as soon as they ‘consider alcohol’, it can be a gamechanger….. literally a lightbulb moment to support complex cases.
Early intervention is critical.
4. Carers and parents—be they birth, adoptive, foster, or kinship—must be heard and empowered.
They are the ‘experts’ the ‘specialist’ in their child’s needs; lets learn from them.
Lets be guided by what works and bring this into School.
Lets provide an achievable personalised management plan that is led by carers and parents and is 'FASD informed'.
Professionals listening and responding, no dismissal or blame.
Everyone working together.
5. At 16 years of age and over, all those with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure / FASD will be entitled to a specialist FASD Informed mental capacity assessment to comply with the Mental Capacity Act 2005
Life saving.
6. All carers should have access to tailored personalised training on prenatal alcohol exposure and the wide range of co-occurring needs—practical, bitesize, and peer-led………. not just handouts or weblinks.
Empowering self-advocacy.
7. The “Team Around the Child” meetings must be robust, responsive, and properly trained in FASD as well as how to run a productive meeting.
Meetings should support the family, not exhaust them with bureaucracy and repetition.
8. FASD diagnostic and support pathways must be rapidly established and available in every regional area in the UK.
Lets use the experience and skills of existing diagnosing Clinicians to cascade confidence to others. Share in good practice.
Celebrate peer to peer supervision, and provide tailored resources to diagnose and support.
9. FASD training must be embedded in all College and University curriculums in all areas of health, social care, education and criminal law; ensuring the next generation of professionals are highly skilled and prepared.
Lets use this cascading good practice in Colleges and Universities to support ‘FASD Champions’, to energise students and clinical expertise.
10. Lets get energised ourselves by running prevention campaigns nationally.
Commission adverts, signs on buses, billboards, toilet doors in pubs, posters in every doctors surgery, leaflets in every pub and café.
11. We need to mirror international standards in labelling guidance for the alcohol industry to put ‘no alcohol in pregnancy’ signs and health warnings on all bottles, cans and takeaway boxes of alcohol.
This is standard practice in many countries internationally.
12. We should celebrate ‘not drinking’ alcohol…. ‘lets make it cool!’
Lead change by good example lets hear from health workers, TV personalities and politicians who choose not to drink, promotional health campaigns to be embedded within every social environment to change the culture of the UK drinking patterns.
Saving lives.
13. Tax breaks to support those that produce 0% alcohol products.
14. For every police officer to record alcohol and drugs at a call out incident where a woman is present, pregnant or not pregnant.
Officers to understand why their role is vital to save lives, as this recording of alcohol evidence provides the key to early assessment and understanding of needs.
15. For the Judge in court to be clear on placement of every child, be it adoption or kinship; to ask social workers if they have dug deep for alcohol evidence.
16. Change gathering evidence basic templates in social care to record consideration and evidence of prenatal alcohol exposure on every child's file…. essential.
17. Education in School; the national curriculum currently in every School in the UK supports contraception and good health…… but nothing is included as part of the curriculum for FASD and drinking in pregnancy.
Include drinking in pregnancy and FASD in the curriculum.
Easy changes…. Live changing differences.
18. Rapid access to ‘specialist mental capacity assessments’ for those with suspected or diagnosed FASD—no more presumptions of capacity that cost lives.
19. Integration and recording of FASD into all government strategies for home office, child protection, SEND, poverty, and early years.
20. Responsive independent inquiries where local authorities are made accountable when acting unlawfully.
21. Priority health referrals for children previously looked after with prenatal alcohol exposure.
22. All Schools will receive tailored personalised training to support the child they care for; every child with FASD is different, Schools need to understand how to differentiate needs. FASD training to support robust risk assessment, to be responsive in adapting strategies quickly as needs change rapidly.
Training a skilled workforce.
What did we have to say....
‘Due to the lack of investment into research in this country we do not confidently know the true figure of the impact of alcohol financially across all sectors, but comparing it to our international colleagues, it is thought to amount to billions of taxpayers’ money through reactive spending rather than being part of a long-term strategic plan or in fact any investment into preventative initiatives.
Further to this, we know through the FASD Alliance support groups, that we have faced a tsunami of referrals of prenatal alcohol exposure post covid where these children are now entering the education, social care and health system.
The Lancet report tells us that drinking was at its highest in the UK during Covid lockdown, for many alcohol acted as a crutch to the next fix for drug addiction, lack of contraception, loneliness and domestic violence.
I wish to focus on the lived realities and the urgent action needed to protect and support individuals with FASD, those whose developmental age is often half or less their chronological age.
Their vulnerability, suggestibility, risk of coercion and exploitation are lifelong, not limited to childhood or adolescence.
Leading consultant Clinical Psychologist and Expert Witness for FASD, Dr Cassie Jackson references ‘FASD, as the most severe neurodevelopmental disorder, in terms of its far-reaching impact on functioning across the lifespan, and requires a unique approach to support and understanding.’
Some may see children or adults who superficially appear more able than they are. Some choose not to tune in at all, until it is too late.
Too often we see professionals supporting families—without the right tools, without training—sometimes making fatal assumptions. Sadly we see so many professionals leaving social care, health, education and the criminal justice system because they are placed with ‘no resources’ to support.
Symptoms are often misinterpreted as misbehaviour, emotion regulation challenges and are seen as something they’ll “grow out of,” when in fact the developmental gap only widens with age.
****These assumptions are not just harmful—they are a stark warning****
Left unsupported, children, young people and adults with FASD spiral.
We need to pause respectfully here, to remember the assumptions made by professionals and lessons of Victoria Climbié, whose horrific death led to the “Every Child Matters” reforms.
Those reforms showed that when agencies communicate, when they invest in training and work together, lives are saved.
But since further change of government, public spending cuts and the dismantling of Every Child Matters, children’s services have become overwhelmed, underfunded, and reactive rather than preventative.
The result: rising numbers of children in care and significant numbers of children returning to care, the BBC claimed last week that the true figures are hidden.
As to the numbers given, who has included those with prenatal alcohol exposure / FASD in youth offending, secure units or residential homes?
Too many children, young people, and families have been failed, blamed, and left to fight alone for support that should have been their right.
Too many have died, disappeared, or been lost to the criminal justice system where billions of £’s could be saved from the taxpayers purse, if early intervention is used effectively.
Lives can be saved.
We must be brave enough to confront these truths, hold the alcohol industry accountable with firm levies and to be bold enough to act.
As the recent BBC investigations into children returning to care and serious case reviews has shown, asking for help should never cause harm.
It is time to put a stop to systems-generated trauma.
I urge this committee: raise the detail of these cases at the highest level, demand accountability, and ensure that FASD is no longer the “forgotten” neurodevelopmental disability.
Let us protect our country’s most vulnerable—not just with words, but with decisive, enforced action.’
Julie Furney CEO of FASD Informed UK & FASD HUB South West
Case Studies have been removed from this published speech which were powerful and heart hitting; these represented the voice of two children and one adult who are no longer with us. Julie provided a pause to consider the real impact pf getting it wrong.
Other case examples with the kind permission of families gave direct examples of those whose children's capacity have been assumed which has led to catastrophic results.
Looking Ahead: Next Steps for Our Community....
The momentum from this speech has opened new doors for dialogue and action. We are dedicated to work collaboratively with other organisations, MPs and other stakeholders alongside FASD Alliance colleagues to ensure our families voices continue to be heard at the highest level.
Thank you once again for being our cheerleaders, colleagues, and inspiration.
Together, we are making FASD impossible to ignore and moving towards a future where every individual receives the understanding and support they deserve.
Minutes from the meeting can be found HERE
Stop Press:
FASD Informed UK Influencing Change... November News!
Adopting an FASD-informed approach is critical to improving outcomes for children and families affected by prenatal alcohol exposure.
By embracing the Department of Health & Social Care new guidance, fostering sensitive and collaborative practice, and advocating for systemic change, professionals can make a meaningful difference in the lives of those impacted by FASD.
Service providers and policy makers are encouraged to champion FASD-informed principles in their work and support the ongoing development of inclusive and effective interventions.
The clinical guidelines now state:
‘If children do not meet their developmental milestones, you should refer them through local FASD diagnostic and support pathways. This will usually mean referring the child to local services for children with established neurodevelopmental issues. You should sensitively discuss any need for assessment with the parents in a non-judgemental way. Where local pathways do not exist, you can refer children and adults to the national clinic for FASD (UK wide).’
24.9.2 Ongoing monitoring of the child’s development
‘Complex neurodevelopmental problems resulting from FASD may not appear until many years later, although a small number of babies could show features consistent with FASD. If there has been significant PAE, or babies have clinical features consistent with FASD, clinicians working with the baby should identify the baby as being ‘at risk of FASD due to PAE’ and refer them for follow-up using local pathways.’
24.8.3 The newborn baby with Prenatal Alcohol Exposure
‘If a child is adopted and later needs to be assessed for developmental problems, information on PAE should be considered as part of the assessment.’ 24.8.3 The newborn baby with PAE: ‘When considering safeguarding issues concerning the newborn infant, clinicians must act in line with child safeguarding legislation and guidance (see section 24.7.4 on safeguarding above). They should carry out any agreed actions recorded in the safeguarding birth plan and share all relevant information with local children’s social care services.’
24.8.3 The newborn baby with PAE
Find out more by downloading the new government guidance:
Clinical Guidelines for Alcohol Treatment Published November 2025
Department of Health & Social Care
FASD Informed summary of findings can be downloaded HERE
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