Supporting Parents with a Learning Disability through Child Protection Proceedings
How and why? • Parents with learning disabilities are at a higher risk of becoming subject to child safeguarding procedures and are an overrepresented group in child protection conferences and court proceedings • It is estimated that between 15 to 22 per cent of parents involved in child protection conferences and care proceedings have a learning disability (Hunt et al. 1999; Brandon et al. 2009).
However, parents with learning disabilities are much less likely to seek help independently compared with other parents in similar situations (Cleaver & Nicholson 2008) There is evidence which indicates that parents with learning disabilities are often unsupported in their involvement with child protection agencies or courts (Swift et al 2013).
Life changing decisions are made in Family Courts • For the parents who were involved in the proceedings, it was easy for them to quickly become convinced that the system was against them
A Snapshot of our experiences Regional Officers have found that the support needed has been somewhat unpredictable in nature. We have had ‘to think on our feet’ and get involved with problem solving on an ad hoc basis. These contacts have brought into focus a variety of issues regarding the individual’s support needs.
A Snapshot of our experiences The child protection system was intimidating, formal, unfriendly and not always understood by the parent. It was filled with specialist jargon and legal terminology that made little allowance or sense to the parent with a learning disability or to those new to the field.
A Snapshot of our experiences • Parents with a learning disability often faced more intense levels of stress and anxiety in this context. • As a consequence, they were understandably less able to manage their emotions when faced with legal proceedings.
Parents with a learning disability received direct (proceedings based) support to: • Supported to attend court and understand procedures and events.
• Supported to understand the consequences of their actions or inactions whilst attending court. • Supported to understand the consequences of court decisions.
• Wrote up corrections to contested information and ensured signatures were on any unsigned notes. • Attended relevant case conference and reviews..
Parents with a learning disability received indirect support to: • Supported to attend assessments. • Supported to attend their own and their children’s health appointments. • Supported to contact Housing regarding rent arrears.
• Transport to enable travel between court, hospital and home • Support to Manage ongoing anxiety generated by the prospect of court attendance. • Support with their general wellbeing.
Various factors can combine to hinder the smooth running of legal procedures and perhaps on times this means that fair access to justice cannot be assured.
As a result of these experiences it was agreed that to improve the support we provided to parents with a learning disability we needed to work together with Cardiff Law School to produce a toolkit to support us within this role.
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