u/SuperNovaSoldier

Hi all,

Have posted here before the other day about the FRU. Unfortunately it appears I've missed the training deadline for this year.

Something that has been getting mulled over in my head is potentially applying to volunteer as a magistrate. I am 26 years old, and I get the impression that the magistrates court doesn't have many young magistrates.

I'm a BPC student, and I was just wondering if this is the type of thing that would 1) be helpful to me in future as an advocate; and 2) Make my application look just a bit more attractive to chambers in applying for pupillage. I know you have to do a minimum of 13 days a year for five years. If I was to do it I would have to consider how much I enjoyed it after 5 years if I was to continue with it.

On the face of it, it seemed to me like it would be really desirable for Chambers to see on a CV as having hands-on court experience and literally being in the position of someone making serious decisions about matters before you, but then on second thought I wasn't sure because it's a very different role to a barrister.

Thoughts would be welcome!

Hi all, I'm 26M dealing with sinovytis, quite a lot of pain in my joints (lower back most of all), morning (all-day actually) stiffness, occasional dactlylitis and psoriasis on multiple parts of my body (both feet, groin, genitals, thumb, inside of ear). I have had two positive FCP results (with blood in stool on two occasions, and mucus in others, + mixture of diarrhoea and constipation), a negative RF test, and a positive anti-CCP test with a result of 74.4, and two raised CRP results. FBC normal. No anaemia, nor B12, Vitamin D deficiency. I have had symptoms for nearly two years, but have been repeatedly dismissed as muscular pain by GPs.

I have had an urgent referral to rheumatology, as there are indications of IBD, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis.

I was told the wait to be seen was 31 weeks in my local health board. They later informed me when I queried this that "You are correct in saying that referrals triaged as suspected Early Inflammatory Arthritis are prioritised as being seen within 3 weeks, but sadly this is not how the rheumatology consultant has prioritised your referral."

Is this correct? Everything I'm seeing online suggests I should be on the suspected Early Inflammatory Arthritis pathway and seen urgently in 3 weeks. My partner is a final year medical student and they are insistent that this should be an early inflammatory arthritis pathway and seen in 2-3 weeks. The rheumatology department has suggested I go back to my GP and ask for an expedited request - but I don't have any *new* symptoms since I was referred on the 26th August. I think they have put me on the wrong pathway.

Hi all,

Starting my BPC in September at ICCA. I'm going to have to work near full-time alongside Part 1 of the course so it's gonna be really tough.

Just wanted to ask from people who have been there, done that - which areas of my GDL should I be prioritising to refresh my memory on? I completed my GDL last October.

Thanks all!

Content Warning: I'm gonna talk about Class A drugs like cocaine, MDMA/ecstacy, and Class B's like cannabis and ketamine. If you're in recovery or just sensitive to this topic for whatever reason :) This discussion is for people who are not going to be upset or triggered by this topic and I'm talking about people who have taken such substances willingly (i.e. not spiked etc).

I am aware of the very strong connection between ADHD and substance misuse / addiction so I'm anticipating that some people in this sub will have had or having problems with substance abuse, so please protect your peace and withdraw from this discussion if it would be upsetting/triggering for you :)

(Mods if this post isn't allowed, I apologise - I saw the rule about discussion of illicit and illegal use of ADHD medication but I didn't know if this gets caught under that ambit because it's about harder drugs not prescribed ADHD meds)

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Hi all

Not a pertinent question at all, I am purely just curious. For any of you that have ever taken cocaine or MDMA or other stimulants that I'd never even heard of until this morning like khat - did you feel anything from it at all? Did it have the desired effect/high?

I'm aware that with any substance, legal or illegal, it is never a one-size-fits-all situation. I was curious because I remembered a conversation with my friend about anti-depressant SSRIs and her explicitly saying to not waste money on MDMA if you are on SSRIs because they balance each other out so you don't get a high.

Speaking from personal experience from about 8 years ago, when I have taken cocaine on the rare occasion in the past (I am on medication now - would never take it now) I've always been thankful that I didn't buy it because I felt absolutely no effect from it whatsoever. I remember feeling similarly with MDMA. I have been in situations before where I have taken from the same MDMA or cocaine that my friends have (who are, to the best of my knowledge, neurotypical), and where they have been really high I have felt completely sober. I specifically remember taking cocaine for the first time, expecting to be climbing the walls or behaving like celebrities with famous cocaine issues behaved - but I just felt awake. Not wired, not jittery or high - just awake and aware. Where my friends were talking a million words a minute on cocaine or very visibly high on MDMA, I had basically no effect whatsoever.

Got my ADHD diagnosis last year and remembered these nights for reasons unknown this morning and it just clicked in my head like - is ADHD why I didn't have seemingly any effect from these drugs? I'm taking pharmocologically modified speed every day which is just making me feel what I guess normal is supposed to feel like; did the cocaine or MDMA just make me feel normal?

Compared to ketamine or cannabis, where I definitely felt the effect, stimulants like cocaine or MDMA did almost literally nothing for me. I'm aware that there's certain ways about taking some of them that means they don't impact the same regardless of ADHD or not (e.g. taking MDMA on a full stomach), but I was curious to see if anyone else had this experience or not.

P.S.

In before "Good morning, officer", I'm not trying to get a confession just interested in discussion lol

Hi all. Not my first time in here screaming about Aneurin Bevan University Health Board's Adult ADHD services (see the outcome of my FOI back in February here)

I am at an absolute loss. I have been waiting nowhere near as long as other people and I feel like I am going mad with how poorly the Adult ADHD service in ABUHB functions.

I was referred by my GP in May 2025, and I was diagnosed privately via ADHD Certify in June 2025. Since then I've titrated onto Elvanse 70mg and I am still taking it. The total costs I have incurred so far is over £4,000, and I pay £176.29 every four weeks for my medication.

After initially being told that I would be expected to wait 18-24 months for an assessment, when they viewed my diagnostic report provided by my private clinician and accepted the diagnosis, they informed me that it would still be 18-24 months but this time for a brief conversation to discuss if I was happy on my medication and to be moved over to being prescribed on the NHS, rather than an assessment.

I have been told different things at different times, and the Adult ADHD service is not at all forthcoming with information in my experience. I was told by my GP that being privately diagnosed would put me on an "accelerated pathway", and when they received my diagnosis the AADHD service told me that I was placed on the "appropriate" pathway.

However, I when I carried out an FOI back in February 2026, I found the following information:

• 1. As of February 2026, there were 3,722 adults waiting for an ADHD assessment, and another 2,440 on a waiting list to be screened for suitability for to be put on an ADHD assessment waiting list.
• 2. There are only 5.6 whole-time equivalent clinicians in the entire service.
• 3. They have no plans to increase staffing levels.
• 4. Despite being told that I could expect to wait 18-24 months, there was someone on that list who had been waiting since July 2022 - nearly four years later.
• 5. Average time from GP referral to assessment was 907 days - two and a half years. Not 18-24 months.

I received an email last year on the 12th June 2025 to say that they were calling for patients that had been referred in November 2022. I emailed them again today to ask for a waiting list update, and their automated email reply said that they are now calling patients referred in December 2022.

Based on these two pieces of information together, they are disposing of patients off of the waiting list at a rate of a month's worth of referrals per year.

A second FOI that was submitted shortly after my own in February 2026 revealed that there was someone under the ABUHB who had already been diagnosed with ADHD in September 2022 - and as of February 2026, were still waiting to be titrated on to medication.

In the upcoming public board meeting of ABUHB on this coming Wednesday 24th June 2026, their Board Paper says the following on page 5:

"Whilst National Funding for Adults ADHD service ceased in 25/26 we put plans in place to manage the caseload and secured funding for ADHD for 2026/27 and will be developing the strategic direction for the service going forward."

It is certainly news to me that the Welsh Government ceased funding Adult ADHD services in Aneurin Bevan in 2025/26, until I saw this article from the Institute of Welsh Affairs.

The writer of this article received a letter to say that the Welsh Government had cut funding to adult ADHD and autism services and redirected them towards children's services in March 2025. This article on the IWA was published literally one month after the Welsh Government announced their plans to increase spending by £13.7m in February 2025.

This was under the previous administration, of course - thus far I haven't seen any news about Plaid Cymru's plans to fix this situation, if indeed they were sincere about their manifesto pledge (page 64) to:

"Work to reduce waiting times for neurodevelopmental assessments and support, exploring ways to streamline processes and ensure timely access to help, even before formal diagnosis – moving beyond over-medicalisation and rigid diagnostic thresholds."

But that the Board Papers of ABUHB for next week said that national funding for adult ADHD services had ceased suggests that there was extremely little movement between April 2025 and April 2026 on how many patients were being disposed off correctly from these waiting lists.

The opacity of the Adult ADHD service, the unending frustration of the NHS acknowledging I have a condition and making me wait and pay in the meantime for treatment for it... I feel like this system is making me go mad. I know some people have been waiting far longer, and frankly I don't know how you do it. I have been on the verge of tears many times having to wrestle with this system, and with how much money I have spent on medication. I feel stuck - I don't want to go back to living with it untreated, but I am struggling to afford to keep paying for my medication.

I intend to put another Freedom of Information request into ABUHB, because that seems to be the only way we can get clear answers about the state of the Adult ADHD service in ABUHB.

Please comment below which questions you would like to see in the next FOI I submit. Below are some of the ones I already intend on submitting:

1. What is the current budget solely for Adult ADHD services in ABUHB for 2026/27?
2. What is the forecasted budget for Adult ADHD Services in ABUHB for 2027/28?
3. By the 6th April 2025 how many adults were on the waiting list for an ADHD assessment?
4. As of 6th April 2026, how many adults were on the waiting list for an ADHD assessment?
5. Between 6th April 2025 and 5th April 2026, how many adults on the waiting list underwent an ADHD assessment? Please provide the data month by month.
6. Of those people who underwent an ADHD assessment between 6th April 2025 and 5th April 2026:
   1. a) How many began titration onto prescribed ADHD medication?
   2. b) How long was the average wait from being diagnosed with ADHD to beginning treatment with ADHD medication?
7. Between 6th April 2026 and 30th June 2026, how many people on the ADHD assessment waiting list were called for an assessment?
8. On average, how many patients are being removed from the adult ADHD assessment waiting list because (please provide the number separately):
   1. They were called for an assessment and either attended the assessment or didn't attend for whatever reason?
   2. They withdrew from the service?
   3. They failed to return an online form asking them to continue to affirm their interest in remaining on the waiting list?
   4. They died whilst waiting for an assessment?
      1. If this information is held by ABUHB, how many of those who died whilst waiting for an assessment were deemed to be self-inflicted deaths (suicide)?
9. How many staff are currently employed in the adult ADHD service? Please include:
   1. Whole-time equivalent figures
   2. Raw number of clinicians / medical practitioners.
10. What plans does ABUHB have to increase the capacity of the service to reduce waiting times for patients?
11. If ABUHB does not have plans to increase capacity, why do they not have plans to increase capacity?

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head for now. Comment if you have any more to add. Frankly, I think FOIs like this should be getting submitted to every health board in Wales.

Now there's an idea...

Applied for a job as an FSA policy adviser which closed on the 8th June. They've said they expect to start interviews on week stating 29th June.

​

When roughly can I expect to hear back if they want to interview me? You'd hope it would be next week right?

Hi all

Recently submitted my first ever application for a civil service job as a policy adviser. Coming from a role as a generalist adviser at a charity currently.

Completed the Civil Service Verbal Test and it said "You scored better than 93% of test takers. You met the minimum requirements for this job grade, so are still being considered for the vacancy."

So that seems like a good score to me. I worked quite hard on my personal statement, but even when I try to apply the STAR method I feel like I'm scrabbling with it. I have a humanities undergraduate from a Russell Group uni, a first class postgraduate conversion degree in law, and my experience as a generalist adviser.

Basically want to know this - the Verbal Test. Does scoring better than 93% of test takers sift me differently, or is it more just a floor that you need to pass to even be considered? Like if the pass mark is i.e. 60%, does it make a difference whether you get 60% or 95%? Or both - you need to get a minimum amount and also the better you score does 'rank' you higher?

First time ever doing this so I don't know what to expect!

Feeling nervous about it because of this diabolical job market. Thank you all in advance.

Hi all,

Have posted in here before, looking for some advice this time. I was turned down in the last week for pupillage, a residential scholarship and Bridging the Bar so it's been....uhhh...a week.

Daft of me to have relied so heavily on getting the Residential Scholarship but it was pretty pivotal in my plans and it has now made the feasibility of me studying where I want to - ICCA - a lot harder.

I have an offer from ICCA and two ULaw campuses. I do not live in London, and the ULaw campus nearest to me is a 2-hour commute away, so 4-hour round trip. I do not have the money to live in the city it is in for ten months.

I currently have about just over £7,000 in my own personal savings I've saved from working. I very desperately want to go to ICCA, because the stats (page 43) are just insane. ICCA in terms of academic attainment does appear to just be head and shoulders above other AETOs.

However, Part Two of ICCA is in-person for four days a week in London (Grays Inn I believe). The Part One is OK I don't need to be in London for that.

Part Two I am scared about, because I am currently worried as to how I will afford the maintenance costs of living in London. I have a BPC Scholarship from Grays Inn that has been means-tested up to £16,000, so tuition costs are fine - I'll have to pay like £150 out of pocket to go to ICCA but that's nothing in the grand scheme of the rest of the tuition costs.

My worry is affording the rent. I'm currently working in the charity sector on about £28K approximately - my take home pay each month after tax, NI, workplace pension and student loan is about £1,825 ish.

It is possible that I could save hyper-aggressively between now and September, putting away £1,000 a month. After my medication (£176 four weekly) and travel expenses (approx £55 a month) it would leave me with about £15 a day to live on, for all food and expenses aside from things like direct debits (Spotify, gym, etc). My concern is that money getting whittled down between September and February/March 2027 which would be the point at which I would be looking to move to London.

I cannot rely on my family for financial support. I already have the maximum BPC award Grays Inn will give me for my scholarship, I believe. I am wary about the idea of working alongside the Bar in Part One to save more money, even if I cut my hours dramatically (which I don't even know if that is an option). I set out on my QLD to get a Distinction and I worked really hard to get that, and I want to set out on my BPC to get an Outstanding mark. So my instinct is that I will need to resign from my job in September to be able to focus full-time on the BPC in order to get the best result I can for it.

The crux of it - are there any schemes or initiatives or programmes that I am not currently aware of (i.e. I haven't mentioned in this post) that could help? Family isn't an option (one half doesn't have the money, the other half might have the money - they're very secretive about it - but they won't help me).

I am in a better position than some already, I know. The fact I have this money I've saved up from working is a blessing as it is - but I do know that looking to rent in London, even looking in Zones 3/4 and commuting in to the City, the rent for a single bedroom in an HMO is looking at minimum about £1000 a month if you don't want cockroaches in your pillowcase.

If I saved about £1,000 a month, I think I would need to end up doing things potentially like skipping meals, alternating days of eating and not eating, and just cutting out the vast majority of liesure spending (which isn't much anyway).

I can't lie, I was a bit heartbroken when I got the news about the Residential Scholarship yesterday because I had this massive pit in my stomach that I would need to turn down my ICCA offer after working so hard to get it because of money. I am now trying my best to navigate my options to still be able to go to ICCA.

Any info or signposting you guys ccan provide would help massively.

Thank you.

Hi all, I posted here last week after saying I'd attended a pupillage interview at a leading set. Original post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/uklaw/s/i3yY58Mw6A

Just posting to update you all that I didn't get the offer but I had feedback on my paper application and written assessment. Had my marks back and on my paper application (so just what is submitted through the Gateway) I had very little room for improvement (I scored 93% on the paper application) and I scored about 77% on the written assessment. Haven't had my interview feedback yet.

I'm not feeling dejected by it really because, in all honesty, I'd put these applications in as a practice run this year. I anticipated being rejected at the paper stage by every chambers.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone who did get pupillage on Friday! I'm sure you must be chuffed! Well done! :)

As the title says, I was in London yesterday for a pupillage interview at a leading set.

Clerk and the barristers were absolutely lovely and very friendly. I was interviewed by a panel of four, in a 30 mins interview.

I did manage to glean the stats though. About 220 applicants - 17 called for interview. For someone who hasn't started their BPC yet and hasn't completed a single mini yet, getting called to interview was quite the shock.

I'm not a superstitious person so I don't know why something in my brain is latching on to me being interviewed last out of all the candidates. It is just a matter of scheduling and someone has to be last as well as first so I don't know why my brain is ascribing meaning to it. Silly, I know.

Anyway, as for how it went - no idea. I never trust my instincts on these things. They telephoned me to invite me to interview so if it's good news I assume they'll do the same again, and those unlucky this time will get an email. I have no idea though - this is the first time I've ever applied for any pupillage at all.

Interested in how other people felt coming out of their interviews. My guess is that you just have no idea how you did and you can't trust your feelings or instincts on the matter - that's how I feel anyway.