Parents with a learning disability

Parents with a disability may need support to deal with their child's day-to-day care. It may also be difficult to communicate with the child and others in the community.

In 2006, the Norah Fry Research Institute identified a number of issues that affect parents with disabilities. They discovered that around 50% of children born to parents with a learning disability were removed from their care. We want to work with you so that you can care for your own child.

Making a plan and providing support 

Depending on the needs of you and your family, different people or services may work with you to make a support plan.  These could include: 

Children’s services: Social workers, family centres, home start and parents groups. 

Services for Adults: Community Learning Disability Teams, services for carers.

Health services: Midwives, health visitors, your GP (Family Doctor), specialist services like mental health services. 

Other Services:  Advocacy services, education services.  

Your plan will be checked regularly with you to make sure:

• people are working with you and doing the things they said they would do,
• the plan is working and your child and you are having the support you need,
• support needs to continue,
• we are aware if the support needs to change.

Everybody wants to be the best parent they can. Some parents may need more help than others. This might be before or after the baby is born or as your baby/child is growing up. Your doctor, midwife or health visitor might talk to you about having extra support. An assessment can be done to look at what you and your child needs, finding out if these needs are being met and looking at any risks. If you would like to talk to us about this call 01296 565325.

A group has been set up involving people from adults and children's services. This group has been set up to improve the way we work together. We have developed a interagency protocol document to explain this along with a staff training programme. There is also an easy read version.