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Loading… By Mary Baginsky
Research published this year by the Nuffield Trust found that just a quarter (26%) of people with a learning disability are on their GP’s learning disability register.
This indicates that the majority are unknown to services, including social services.Similarly, we know that many parents of children with learning disabilities cope without relying on services.
In a study published earlier this year, Professor Rick Hood and his colleagues found that 3% of evaluations carried out by child welfare agencies included a reference to “parental learning disabilities.”
Increased risk of child abduction
However, this does not reflect the number of cases that arise after a parent has been placed into child protection or during family court proceedings (Hood et al., 2024).Parents with learning disabilities are disproportionately represented in care proceedings and have been found to be much more likely to have their children removed from care (Booth, 2003).
Over the past two years I have been involved in the largest study ever carried out in the UK into how adult and children’s social care works with parents with learning disabilities.
Funded by the NIHR School of Social Care Research, the study began as a project investigating the support children with learning disabilities receive from adult social care when they are removed from their parents following a care procedure.
“Minimal support” from adult social services
It quickly became apparent that in many cases this was minimal and that it was more important to examine what had happened prior to that point.
After discussions with over 80 experts across the fields of law, social care, health and advocacy, as well as fieldwork including in-depth multidisciplinary case studies and interviews with parents in 22 local authorities, the system’s flaws were all too clear.
While there were some good examples of practice, such as specialist learning disability teams embedded in adult social care, most children’s social workers struggled to work with parents who had or were suspected to have a learning disability.
Care Act eligibility criteria
To meet the national minimum standards for eligibility to care and support, an individual must meet three conditions:
have needs arising from, or related to, a physical or mental disability or illness, such as a learning disability, are unable to achieve two or more of 10 specific outcomes, one of which is related to meeting child-care responsibilities, and have a significant impact, or are likely to have an impact, on their adult well-being as a result of this inability.
Lawyers interviewed for the study found it hard to believe that their clients would not meet at least one more of the specified outcomes, particularly maintaining habitable housing and providing and maintaining nutrition.
However, a parent will not be eligible for support unless the learning disability has a moderate to significant impact on their daily life.
The severity of the learning disability was important for access to adult social care services, and adult services were rarely involved with the parents.
Support can make a “huge difference”
Wherever they were, it could make a big difference in the support parents received.
For example, in one authority with an integrated learning disability service, we contributed to an evaluation that focused on identifying what parents needed to keep their children safe whilst ‘parenting’.
Elsewhere, it was often the commitment of individual social workers to argue for resources, forge links with other agencies, including child welfare, and decide to remain in the situation.
Adult health care workers ‘follow their children’s colleagues’
However, perhaps because of demand and workload, adult social work too often seems to take a back seat to child protection and cede it to colleagues in child welfare services.
However, child welfare workers may not be proactive in updating their adult colleagues, such as by inviting them to child protection meetings.
Lack of legal literacy
It was clear that many social workers working in child welfare had no training in learning disabilities or care law.
So unless you have worked or have experience working in teams that require a certain level of specialisation, it was difficult to gain the confidence and skills needed.
Similarly, one lawyer who was an expert on the Care Act 2014 recognised that child protection lawyers are not typically experts in adult social care and may not be aware that their clients were not being treated lawfully when receiving care and support.
There were real difficulties when parents were not targeted for any services: social workers might not realise that a parent might have a learning disability, or the parent might not be curious enough or act on their instincts.
Confusing learning disabilities with learning difficulties
The situation can be further complicated by the confusion between a learning disability and a learning difficulty, and the importance of social workers and other stakeholders being aware of the difference is closely linked to the support someone needs.
A learning disability does not affect intellectual ability and the person is still able to learn, although they may need to overcome certain barriers. In such cases, adult social services are unlikely to become involved.
People with learning disabilities need support to get through life, depending on the severity of their disability. This makes them eligible for social care, but adult services are unlikely to get involved unless they are already working with families.
Lack of advocates and intermediaries
There are also many loopholes in the system that parents with learning disabilities can fall into as they go through child protection and court processes.
Advocates and intermediaries to help vulnerable people give evidence in court may be there to support them along the way, but both are in short supply, and so are the budgets to support them.
Further, mediators are concerned that family courts may be hesitant to appoint mediators to assist parents throughout parenting proceedings, including where the necessary nature and extent of their involvement is difficult to determine in advance.
This is according to the opinion of Lord Justice Lieven in West Northamptonshire Council v KA and Others. [2024] The criminal justice guidance that, according to EWHC 79 (Fam), it is extremely rare for a mediator to be appointed for the entirety of a trial applies equally to the Family Court.
There is a long history of court cases involving parents with learning disabilities and a body of established case law and principles.
Court criticises council for not following guidelines
Several judgments have criticised local authorities for not applying the Good Practice Guidelines for Working with Parents with Learning Disabilities, published in 2007.
The guidelines, produced by the then Department of Health and the Department of Education and Skills, were aimed at improving both support for parents with a learning disability and the chances of their children remaining living with them.
In some ways, criticism of the judiciary for not following the guidelines is justified – our research has revealed how little awareness of them is in the adult and child social care sector – but blame must also be placed on successive governments who have failed to promote them.
Failure to promote or update government guidance
The guidance has since been updated, most recently for 2021, but this was not done by the government but by the Working Together with Parents Network, based at the University of Bristol.
Many changes have occurred in the child welfare field since it was first published, including a number of revisions to the statutory guidance on ‘Working together to safeguard children’.
The principles embedded in the guidance on learning disabilities remain valid, but the time has come for new guidance to be developed in collaboration with professionals in adult and children’s services, as well as parents and their supporters.
The need for statutory guidance
These guidelines should be statutory, meaning that councils and relevant agencies will have to follow them, except in exceptional circumstances.
Clear pathways for assessment and support should be identified, as well as the training that should be undertaken depending on the responsibilities held.
The policy, assuming it survives the general election, would also be consistent with the Department for Education’s child welfare reform program, which emphasizes family support, family networks and kinship care.
If this happens, the government will need to promote it, and it will be natural for the courts to criticize local governments if they fail to apply it.
Applying the same standards to everyone
Separating children from their parents is a very serious action taken by the UK Government.
It is then up to the state to ensure that the same standards are applied to all children.Currently, parents with learning disabilities are at risk of failure.
Mary Baginski is a Lecturer in Social Care in the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College London.
References
Booth, T. (2003) Parents with learning disabilities, child protection and the courts. Representing Children, 13, 3, 175-188.
Hood, R., Goldacre, A., Clements, K., Jones, E., King, A., Martin, E. and Webb, C. (2024) Research into the outcomes of child welfare service provision for different types of demand. London: Nuffield Foundation, Kingston University, National Children’s Agency.