Acquired Brain Injury Action Plan

Liz Twist Excerpts

Thursday 4th December 2025 Westminster Hall

[Liz Twist (Blaydon and Consett) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dame Siobhain. I congratulate the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes) on his opening remarks. We have served together on the all-party parliamentary group for acquired brain injury for a number of years. He gave a very effective summary of the impact of brain injury. I thank Chloe Hayward and everyone at the United Kingdom Acquired Brain Injury Forum and its constituent organisations for all the work and campaigning they do to improve services for people with acquired brain injuries.

There are so many aspects of this issue, including sport, other conditions and the justice system, but I will focus on children. I thank the Child Brain Injury Trust for its long-standing support in my constituency. A few weeks ago, its representatives accompanied me on a visit to Chopwell primary school, as they have come to other schools in past years, during GloWeek, which is always a big hit with children in Blaydon and Consett. It turns out that road safety is even more memorable if there are high-vis armbands and a visiting police car and fire engine. The purpose is not just entertainment; it is to say to children, “Be seen and be safe,” because so many acquired brain injuries in children are from road traffic accidents. It is entertaining, but it has a very serious message: “Let’s avoid those brain injuries in the first place.”

UKABIF and N-ABLES—the National ABI in Learning and Education Syndicate, a young people’s group—point out that acquired brain injury is an under-recognised and often hidden condition that can affect every aspect of a person’s life. About 40,000 children and young people report to hospital with an acquired brain injury every year, but it is likely that many thousands more have an undetected mild brain injury.

UKABIF and N-ABLES also say, however, that even mild injuries can be associated with a range of cognitive, behavioural and emotional symptoms, which can inevitably have an impact on a child’s education and health—indeed, on every aspect of their life, as we have heard. For those with moderate and severe injuries, the effect on all aspects of their life is often profound. The UK’s major trauma centres and advances in healthcare are saving more children’s lives than ever—thank goodness—but investment is needed in the quality of those lives after a brain injury. We hope those children will have a long life, but the support remains desperately poor. It is actually left to families and schools to provide much of that support.

Brain injuries are common, but the symptoms often go unrecognised or are mistakenly attributed to conditions such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Even with a diagnosis, there is no special educational needs category for acquired brain injury, which forces schools to record affected children under more generic categories. Many teachers say that they have never taught a child with a brain injury, but the evidence suggests that one child in every class will have sustained one by the time they leave school. It is vital that clinicians, teachers and carers consider the question, “Could this be a brain injury?” If that question is not asked, too many will miss out on the specialist support that they need. That is true not just at school but throughout their lives.

Rates of brain injury are alarmingly high in our mental health system, in prisons, and among those accessing domestic abuse support services. The risk of suicide is two to three times higher following a brain injury. One in four people report suicidal thoughts within a year of diagnosis, and that risk persists throughout life. Despite that, more than half of people with neurological conditions have not been asked about their mental health in the past three years.

Many people experiencing suicidal thoughts might not even be aware that they have a brain injury, particularly survivors of domestic abuse who might have experienced repeated mild injuries rather than one significant event. Research suggests that up to half of survivors have experienced brain injury, yet frontline support workers are rarely aware of that link. This matters because people experiencing mental health issues as a result of their brain injury require specialist neuro-psychiatric support. Often they are excluded from mental health services or told that the services they need do not exist.

With fewer than 20 full-time neuro-psychiatrists in the UK, there is a postcode lottery in accessing support, so those most likely to experience high rates of traumatic brain injury and mental illness also face the most significant barriers to accessing healthcare. That includes those who are homeless, those who struggle with substance abuse or those in prison. Some 60% of offenders are thought to have a brain injury, and yet there are no secure services in the UK for women with an acquired brain injury. Given the links between domestic abuse, offending, brain injuries and suicidality, that is particularly concerning.

What steps is the Minister taking to improve the integration of mental health and neurological care, and to ensure that clinicians are trained to recognise and respond to the needs of patients with brain injuries? The national service framework for long-term neurological conditions emphasises the need for provision at all levels, delivered through co-ordinated networks of specialist hospital and community rehab services. Having met local professionals in the north-east—in Newcastle and south of the River Tyne—I know that community provision varies significantly by postcode, some receiving none at all and others receiving great support. Without support, patients go on to have poorer outcomes, relying more heavily on other parts of our NHS and the care system.

What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that we develop the care pathways we need to give patients the best chance of recovery? I welcome the Government’s commitment to a more focused action plan, and I look forward to hearing the Minister’s thoughts on what steps will be taken to achieve it. If we get this right, we can transform outcomes for thousands of people and build a system that supports them throughout their lives.