Introduction

The UK's child protection system is about ensuring the welfare of every child, providing them with high-quality and effective support as soon as their need is identified. While this is admirable because every child matters, and no child should be subjected to any form of abuse, there are significant flaws in the system whereby the needs of disabled children and autistic parents are being misunderstood and discounted. Across the UK, a high proportion of autistic parents (diagnosed, undiagnosed or self-identified) are being accused of exaggerating or making up their disabled child's difficulties, a term devised by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health as fabricated or induced illness (FII). FII is not a diagnosis. However, many professionals confuse FII with Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP), now redefined as factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIoA), which is an exceptionally rare psychiatric diagnosis (American Psychiatrist Association, 2013). The increase in accusations of FII is evidenced by the high proportion of inquiries two of the authors have received from parents, many of whom are autistic, requesting an independent social work assessment to assess their child's needs and potentially to challenge the misassumptions professionals have made about them, often because their parenting style is observed as deviating from the expected norm.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Bruno Bettelheim, who was thought to have become a self-styled psychologist, introduced the popular concept of a ‘refrigerator mother’. He significantly influenced the fields of child psychology and psychiatry despite questions about his academic background debated in published research.