One third of care proceedings involve parents with a learning disability or difficulty, research suggests

Researchers at the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University are calling for on local authorities, legal services and courts to implement good practice guidance on working with parents with a learning disability during care proceedings.

The calls are published in a new report, Babies in care proceedings: What do we know about parents with learning disabilities or difficulties?, which found that in one third of the most recent care proceedings at least one parent had learning disabilities or difficulties.

What are care proceedings?

Care proceedings occur when an application is made for a care or supervision order in relation to a child. These proceedings are initiated by the local authority’s children’s services department, typically because they believe a child is suffering or at risk of suffering from significant harm.

Until now, little was known about the proportion of care proceedings cases which involved parents with learning disabilities and difficulties, and parents’ experiences of this process. Researchers from Oxford Brookes University therefore set out to fill this knowledge gap.

The researchers looked at 200 cases from four different local authority areas and conducted interviews with four mothers with learning disabilities who has experiences of care proceedings. Around 40 social scare professionals and 17 legal professionals were also involved in the study.

While just over one third (34%) of the 200 most recently concluded care proceedings involved at least one parents with a learning disability or difficulty, this prevalence varied by local authority (22% in a London borough vs 44% in a county area).

The research also showed that many of the parents already had experience of the care system, with 51% of mothers and 24% of father known to have been in care or subject to a statutory child protection or child in need plan as children, while 49% of mothers and 28% of fathers were known to have an older child already taken into care.

Lack of reasonable adjustments and frequent jargon cited as concerns among both parents and professionals

Social care and legal professionals interviewed in the study cited various areas of concern when babies became the subject of care proceedings, including:

• parental mental health
• parental substance misuse
• domestic abuse parental vulnerability to exploitation in the community.

Some professionals thought these other factors made it harder to identify or focus on parental learning disabilities or difficulties – because they posed a more obvious immediate risk to children.

The researchers also identified that the majority of parents were only identified as having a learning disability at a very late stage i.e. during the care proceeding. They note that late identification of parental learning disabilities or difficulties meant that social worker communications, key assessments and parenting support services were very unlikely to be tailored to parents’ learning needs.

All public bodies are required to make reasonable adjustments for people with learning disabilities or difficulties, but the researchers found there was ‘very limited evidence’ of reasonable adjustments in formal pre proceedings, although they were implemented more frequently within the actual care proceedings.

Many of the parents and professionals said legal jargon was used too frequently, and standardised assessment tools (such as the parent assessment manual or PAMS) left parents without a chance to prove themselves.

One of the parents involved in the study said: “They speak jargon… I had no clue what anyone was saying… it was like a constant thing where I had to ask my solicitor… what are they saying?”

Both parents and professionals involved in the study also cited concerns that support for parents frequently diminished drastically, particularly when the child was removed from the parents’ care, and that parents often experienced ‘radio silence’ following the proceeding.

Strengthening practice during care proceedings involving parents with a learning disability

The researchers are now calling on local authorities, legal services and courts to strengthen practices and improve outcomes for parents with learning disabilities and difficulties. This includes:

• Requiring children’s social workers to screen for and organise a more in-depth assessment of a parent’s learning needs as a core part of any early assessment work
• Arranging regular, mandatory post-qualification training for social and family support workers to identify, communicate effectively with and tailor support for parents with learning disabilities or difficulties.
• Improving the rollout of vulnerable witness training for all advocates working in care proceedings and developing specific training for the judiciary on directing proceedings involving parents with learning disabilities.
• Improving the visibility and impact of key national guidance including the Good Practice Guidance on Working with Parents with a Learning Disability and the Best Practice Guidelines for When the State Intervenes at Birth.

While the authors acknowledge some limits to their study, such as generalisability, they say their research ‘provides an indication of the likely high prevalence of learning disabilities or difficulties among parents involved in care proceedings regarding babies.’

“The key finding with regards prevalence – that around one third of the 200 most recently concluded care proceedings cases regarding babies involved parents with a learning disability or difficulty – lends significant weight to the need to strengthen practice within local authorities, legal services and courts,” they conclude.

Lauren Nicolle

Lauren is a qualified journalist who writes primarily across the health and social care sectors. She is passionate about exposing the injustices faced by people with a learning disability, with a particular focus on equal access to healthcare.

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