Parents with learning disabilities unfairly treated
Children are being removed from parents with learning disabilities despite a wealth of evidence they can successfully raise children with support.
An international team of researchers from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Australia warn human rights are potentially being breached.
The researchers examined eight decades of studies into parents with learning disabilities. They found one third of parents involved in 200 recently concluded care proceedings had a learning disability or learning difficulty.
There was a disproportionate rate of child removal – 40 per cent. In one study, only 20 per cent of children remained with learning disabled parents at the end of care proceedings.
Researchers sought to answer the question, "If we know what works to support parents with learning disabilities, why aren’t we doing it?" – which became the title of the paper published in the British Journal of Social Work.
The authors note there is a much wider cohort of parents with similarly low IQ but who don’t have a formal diagnosis. The paper said: “As a learning disability diagnosis is typically what decides eligibility for access to service provision, those with learning difficulties are often left with less access to support.”
Researchers argue that child welfare interventions focus disproportionately on disability status and assumptions about learning disabilities.
Family planning discussions typically focus on prevention through contraception, an attitude which can be traced back to the eugenics movement and more recent ‘newgenics’ attitudes persisting in ableism and unconscious bias, the paper said.
Parents with learning disabilities are still seen as "inherently deficient" in the skills needed for "safe caregiving", researchers said. They claimed this is down to "systemic ableism" and neoliberal policies that stigmatise the need for support as "an individual failing".
Parents with support needs are viewed as an "unsustainable burden" on support services, the team found.
They argue IQ tests are a "poor predictor of parenting ability" and that children in such families can do just as well as their peers from similar socio-economic backgrounds.
Good practice guidance from the Scottish Commission for Learning Disabilities, the Welsh Government, and the Working Together with Parents Network already states that parents "should be able to access support to parent their children” and emphasises the need for early identification of parents and their support needs.
However, the researchers claim this is widely being ignored.
Parents in England are eligible for support under the Equality Act (2010).
Australia has created a national community of practice aimed at improving working with families. In addition, the National Disability Insurance Scheme sought to increase choice and autonomy for people with disabilities.
Funding issues led to the loss of such initiatives and attitudinal barriers still persist, the researchers say.