Parental Learning Disability and Children's Needs

Family Experiences and Effective Practice

Hedy Cleaver, Don Nicholson

• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Year: 2007
• ISBN:
  9781846427442
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Parental Learning Disability and Children's Needs explores how to effectively assess children in families where one or more parent has a learning disability. These children often have unmet needs because their parents are more likely to be coping with mental and physical illness, domestic violence or substance abuse.

The book examines current social care practice in this area, whether it is working, and the impact it has on families. The authors describe how, although some parents with a learning disability face a significant risk of losing their children, most continue to look after them and, while support provided by social services and other agencies, can be significant it is rarely sustained and the health and welfare of many children suffers as a result. Case studies and interviews from original research support the authors' recommendations for policy and practice to combat these problems.

This book will prove to be an invaluable source of information for all social workers and other professionals working with someone who is both a parent and has a learning disability.

Chapter 1

Introduction

In the past western society has tried to ensure that adults with learning disabilities are prevented from becoming parents. The foci of concerns have changed over time. Originally eugenic theories predominated and the aim was to ensure that offspring with similar disabilities were not born. More recently concerns have focused on the capacity of parents with learning disabilities to parent their children adequately. There has been a growing movement in the United Kingdom, however, which has questioned whether it is ethical, moral and legal to deny adults with learning disabilities the rights to live in the community, to enjoy sexual expression and to raise children.

This shift in attitudes is reflected in the government’s strategy for learning disability published in 2001 which identifies four key principles at the heart of their vision to improve the lives of people with learning disability. These are: rights, independence, choice and inclusion (Cm 5086 2001). These principles are grounded in the legislation that confers rights on all citizens, including those with learning disabilities:

•the Human Rights Act 1998

•the Disability Discrimination Act 1995

•the Race Relations Act 1976

•the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

•the Sex Discrimination Act 1975

•the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted in the UK in January 1992.

The shift in attitudes towards people with learning disabilities has led to a steady increase in the numbers of adults with learning disabilities who are parents (see, for example, Booth and Booth 1996; Dowdney and Skuse 1993; McConnell and Llewellyn 2002). Although there are no accurate data on the number of parents with learning disabilities within the population, a survey in England, in 2003–2004, of 2898 adults with learning disabilities between the ages of 16 and 91 years found 1 in 15 was a parent (Emerson et al. 2005).

Nonetheless, concerns over their parenting skills continue and evidence from international studies suggests that between 40 and 60 per cent of parents with learning disabilities have their children taken into care as a result of court proceedings (McConnell and Llewellyn 2002). Findings from a survey in England (Emerson et al. 2005) indicate a similar pattern; 48 per cent of parents with learning disabilities were not looking after their children. However, because this survey did not explore why children were not living with their parents, it should not be assumed that they had been taken into care. Discussions with one of the authors suggests a number of alternative explanations, including an agreed arrangement for relatives to care for the children, or children having grown up and left home.

Equating parental learning disability with wilful neglect and abusive parenting is not supported by research. There appears to be no clear relationship between intelligence – until it falls below a certain level, usually taken to be an IQ of 60 or less – and parenting (Booth and Booth 1996; Schilling et al. 1982; Tymchuck 1992; Tymchuck and Andron 1990).

Of interest, is the appearance that IQ, by itself, is not a predictor either of the occurrence or of the nonoccurrence of purposeful child abuse in parents with mental retardation. (Tymchuck 1992, p.168)

Where abuse occurs it is often as a result of another person associated with the mother, such as a husband or partner (Tymchuk and Andron 1990). For example, research on child sexual abuse suggests that mothers with a learning disability are more likely to be targeted by paedophiles who gain access to children through providing practical and emotional support to the family (Cleaver and Freeman 1996).

While there is no association between parental learning disabilities and parental abuse and wilful neglect there is considerable evidence to suggest the children suffer neglect by omission as a result of a lack of parental education combined with the unavailability of supportive services (McGaw and Newman 2005). A major predictor of neglect is thought to be the degree to which the mother’s resources, knowledge, skills and experiences are insufficient to meet the needs of her child (Tymchuk 1992).

The need to support parents with learning disabilities is acknowledged in the government’s policy for people with learning disabilities, including those who are parents, which aims to improve their lives, through preventing prejudice and discrimination and providing sensitive and appropriate services (Cm 5086 2001).

People with learning disabilities can be good parents and provide their children with a good start in life, but may require considerable help to do so. (Cm 5086 2001, p.81, paragraph 7.40)

Of more importance than a parent’s intellectual capacity, when considering whether children are adequately cared for, are the kinds of stressors relevant to all parents. Stressors such as a large number of offspring, marital disharmony and violence, poor mental health, childhood sexual abuse, substance misuse, lack of social supports, and poverty are found to be more predictive of poor parenting than the score resulting from a standardised IQ test (Booth and Booth 1996; Dowdney and Skuse 1993). Parents with learning disabilities are particularly disadvantaged because they frequently experience a combination of these factors and are likely to be highly stressed and socially isolated (Booth and Booth 1996; Emerson et al. 2005; Feldman et al. 2002). Moreover, many of these parents have the additional challenge of caring for a disabled child: children of parents with a learning disability are at increased risk from inherited learning disabilities, psychological and physical disorders (McGaw and Newman 2005; Rende and Plomin 1993). The vulnerability of these families is acknowledged by the UK Government in their strategy for learning disability.

Parents with learning disabilities are amongst the most socially and economically disadvantaged groups. (Cm 5086 2001, p.81)

Key to ensuring children are safeguarded and their welfare is promoted when growing up in families where parents have learning disabilities is the provision of suitable support from both informal providers, such as family and friends, and formal providers, such as voluntary and statutory agencies.

The one feature that has consistently been shown to distinguish families where children remained at home from families where children were removed is the presence of another adult (or possibly several people) able to give support as required with matters beyond the parents’ own coping resources. (Booth and Booth 1996)

Most parents with learning disabilities whose children are referred to children’s social care do not have this degree of support and will require long-term, carefully co-ordinated and regularly reviewed services. The Children Act 1989 acknowledges that all parents and carers, including those with learning disabilities, need help from time to time in bringing up their children. Asking for help and advice should not be construed as a failure in parenting (HM Government 2006a).

Parenting can be challenging. Parents themselves require and deserve support. Asking for help should be seen as a sign of responsibility rather than as a parenting failure. (HM Government 2006a, p.1, paragraph 1.4)

In particular, local authorities have a duty, under the Children Act 1989, both to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need and wherever possible to promote the upbringing of children within their families, through the provision of services. The government defines safeguarding and promoting welfare in the following way:

Protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health and development; ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;...and undertaking that role so as to enable those children to have optimum life chances such that they enter adulthood successfully. (HM Government 2006b)

Services may be provided to prevent deterioration of, or maintain, or improve the child’s health and development. The decision to provide services must be based on a sound assessment of the child’s needs, the parents’ capacity to respond to these needs, including their capacity to protect the child from significant harm, and the wider family circumstances (Department of Health, Department for Education and Employment, Home Office 2000a).

Understanding the needs of parents or carers, including those with learning disabilities, and how their needs impact on parenting capacity are integral parts of a child assessment. The subsequent plan may require services to be provided by a number of different agencies in order to support parents in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of their children, particularly in protecting them from significant harm. The Children Act 2004, and the accompanying statutory guidance on making arrangements under s11 of the Act, make it clear that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is central to all local authority functions and the function of all other public bodies. Effective inter-agency working and information sharing are key to its achievement (HM Government 2006a). The guidance strengthens the responsibilities of local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need in accordance with the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (Department of Health et al. 2000a), and Safeguarding Children (Social Services Inspectorate et al. 2002; Commission for Social Care Inspection et al. 2005).

To be successful parents and provide their children with the right start in life, adults with learning disabilities may require considerable additional help. The UK Government’s New Strategy for Learning Disability (Cm 5086 2001) sets in place provisions to address the greater needs that people with learning disabilities experience, through offering each individual a personal Health Action Plan and ensuring that the causes of inequality are addressed.

Strategies for improving access to education, housing and employment which enhance and promote mental wellbeing will include people with learning disabilities and mental health problems. (Cm 5086 2001, p.66, paragraph 6.25)

In addition, with the appointment of a learning difficulties tsar (Community Care 2006) and the publication of the Adult Social Care Green Paper Independence, Well-Being and Choice (Cm 6499) the UK Government has demonstrated a commitment to providing better information in a variety of formats to allow vulnerable adults, including those with learning disabilities, to have greater choice and control over how their needs should be met.

The Director of Adult Social Care and the Director of Children’s Services will need to collaborate in order to ensure the needs of both adults and children in families are met (Cm 6499). They will need to ensure that children and adult social services teams work well together, develop a common approach and provide the required level of help.

The Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families, subsequently referred to as the Assessment Framework (Department of Health et al. 2000a), and the Integrated Children’s System which builds on the Assessment Framework (Department of Health 2002) are for use with all children in need and their families, including parents with learning disabilities.

Evidence from previous work with parents with learning disabilities suggests early identification is key to the provision of well-targeted and effective services.

Early identification of parents with learning disabilities is essential to good wo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Of Related Interest
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Referrals to Children’s Social Care
• 3. Involving Families in the Assessment Process
• 4. The Provision of Services and Outcomes for Children
• 5. Conclusions
• Appendix I Definitions, Aims and Methods
• Appendix II Tables
• References
• Subject Index
• Author Index