Learning difficulties: finding the right support

Beth Tarleton, of The Norah Fry Research Centre, Bristol, UK, describes a project which helps support parents with learning difficulties to be ‘good enough’ parents.

Recent legislation and guidance indicate that parents with learning difficulties have a right to support to enable them to have a normal family life (DfES/DH 2004, Scottish Executive 2001, Human Rights Act 1998, Disability Discrimination Act 2005). The White Paper, Valuing people, which explores services and support for adults with learning difficulties, committed the government to “supporting parents with learning disabilities in order to help them, wherever possible, to ensure their children gain maximum life chance benefits” (Department of Health 2001).

The Finding the Right Support project – undertaken by the Norah Fry Research Centre, University of Bristol, and funded by the Baring Foundation – sought to investigate positive practice in supporting parents with learning difficulties (Tarleton et al 2006).

Locating positive practice

The project was guided by a consultative group of 13 parents with learning difficulties, all of whom were in contact with Circles Network in Bristol. In addition to looking at the literature and consulting with experts, a web and paper-based questionnaire was used to locate positive practice which was then followed up by 21 telephone interviews and six case study visits which included meeting with parents and professionals.

The project found that the 85 professionals who responded to our questionnaire and follow-up interviews were championing the cause of parents with learning difficulties in their local area. There were three main reasons for their involvement with parents with learning difficulties. These included receiving an increasing number of referrals; the impact of a ‘contested case’ where professionals felt parents were treated unfairly or not given a chance to show they could parent, and the professional’s personal interest were also key motivators.

Professionals supporting parents with learning difficulties were trying to overcome a range of barriers – perceived by both professionals and parents – to providing appropriate support to parents. One of the barriers they emphasised was that staff working for children’s services often had little knowledge or understanding about adults with learning difficulties. They were inexperienced in supporting them, and lacked the skills to meet their communication needs. These professionals were also believed to judge parents against very high expectations and to have fixed ideas about how children from families headed by at least one parent with learning difficulties should be protected.

Professionals supporting adults with learning difficulties (from community learning difficulties teams, specialist parenting services, voluntary organisations and some generic services) were endeavouring to overcome these barriers and enable parents with learning difficulties to show if they could be good enough parents through the provision of appropriate support. This on-going flexible support ensured that the children in the family were safeguarded and potential difficulties were picked up at an early stage.

This way of positively enabling parents with learning difficulties to bring up their children, which we call ‘parenting with support’, was based on three core, but often overlapping themes:

• empowering parents with learning difficulties
• raising awareness of parents with learning difficulties and their support needs
• developing multi-agency professional and multi-agency support for parents with learning difficulties and their families.

Empowering parents

Professionals were supporting parents with learning difficulties by providing accessible information about all aspects of parenting including the different stages of bringing up children, the services and supports available and, where necessary, the child protection and judicial process.

Parents’ support needs were assessed through competency-based assessment, and the skills they had were praised. The support they needed was provided in a clear and consistent manner with new skills being taught and reinforced in a similar way by all the professionals involved.

Parents were also supported to engage more positively with services concerned with the welfare of their children. The professionals, including advocates, were supporting parents to prepare for and speak up for themselves in meetings and helping to ensure that parents’ views were kept central to discussions. These professionals were also often supporting parents to overcome the wider issues in their lives which were inhibiting them from being able to parent to the best of their ability, such as debt and poor housing.

Raising awareness

Professionals supporting parents with learning difficulties were raising awareness of their support and communication needs among the wide range of other agencies involved with them. The professionals were networking widely, acting as a source of expertise to other services and developing promotional information about their services. In some areas professionals had developed resources to help other professionals identify whether a parent has a learning difficulty. Some professionals were also supporting parents at mainstream groups and co-facilitating more accessible groups, such as antenatal classes, with professionals from generic services.

Shared concept of parenting

Professionals and parents involved in this project agreed that co-ordinated multi-agency support was key to ensuring that parents were supported appropriately.

As many professionals are involved when a baby is born to a parent with learning difficulties, a key worker system was advised to ensure that there is one main person that the parents talk to and who conveys information. In addition, all the professionals involved with a family should be very clear about their role and honest in their communication, both with each other and the parents. All the professionals should endeavour to share the same ‘concept of parenting’ – in other words, what is acceptable and what is not – have similar attitudes and goals, and work together to develop joint protocols, policies and pathways for supporting parents with learning difficulties. These shared attitudes and goals, where possible, should be developed through joint training.

This type of positive practice, which we have called ‘parenting with support’, was found in many different locations across the UK. It appears to be a middle way forward in that it supports parents with learning difficulties to fulfil both their right to parent and their responsibilities towards their children. At the same time, it makes sure that children are safe and well cared for within their family by providing the support their parents need to be the best parents possible.

References

Department for Education and Skills/Department of Health. 2004. National service framework for children, young people and maternity services. London: Department of Health.

Department of Health. 2001. Valuing people: a new strategy for learning disability for the 21st century. London: The Stationery Office.

Scottish Executive. 2000. The same as you? Edinburgh: The Stationery Office.

Tarleton, B, Ward L and Howarth J. Forthcoming. Finding the right support? A review of issues and positive practice to support parents with learning difficulties and their children. London: Baring Foundation.

The full report, executive summary and alternative summary for people with learning difficulties is available free from the Baring Foundation. Tel: 020 7767 1348 E-mail: baring.foundation@uk.ing.com. It can also be downloaded from the Norah Fry Centre website. Visit www.dppi.org.uk/quicklinks for a link.

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