Justice for parents and children
Prejudice and a lack of support means that parents with learning disabilities may have to deal with their children being taken into care. Ali F Jabeen describes how the Elfrida Society’s Parents Project helps them to be successful parents and makes some recommendations
When considering child protection cases and care proceedings, UK family law courts rely upon evidence from the child’s social worker, doctor, guardian and psychologists.
The local authority enters the courts to win and so do the parents. All agree the welfare of the child is paramount, as well as the child having her or his rights met.
The social worker writes a report following a standard process. In most cases, they will not have paid attention to the fact that the parent does not understand why a social worker is intervening in their family life.
As soon as the social worker can see there is a lack of comprehension, the question they should be asking themselves is whether the parent has a learning need that means they require additional support to understand what is happening.
If the answer to this question is ‘yes’, an immediate referral needs to be made to have an advocate for the parent to prevent any further misunderstanding. The parent can be referred to local support networks while the social worker needs to work with the family.
The case may have to go to court. Parents need to be offered every chance of success, which means they need to understand why this intervention is being made.
In an ideal world, each local authority would employ specifically trained social workers who can support parents with learning disabilities. More time could then be allocated per case on the basis of the level of need for reasonable adjustments.
A social worker would be allocated for long-term family support (not six-month stints as is currently the case). This would avoid short-term interventions that are intended solely to close the case, thereby gaining a statistical outcome for the authority.
Parents need to be supported to become successful parents until their child is 16 years old at least. In our experience, we have found most parents with learning disabilities can be successful parents if they have the right guidance, support and advice.
Reunited after 10 years
I have been the advocate in a case where a mother’s 14-year-old son was returned to her 10 years after both her sons had been taken into care, after the school teacher called in social workers.
The teacher felt the children were neglected by the parent because she had learning disabilities and believed they had left home with soiled clothing. The mother had argued that the clothing had been soiled in the school playground after she dropped them off before classes started.
The mother experienced traumatic court proceedings which led to her sons being taken away, but she did not give up. She believes she lost her sons purely because she has a learning disability.
She has taken part in the Elfrida Society parents’ peer support group for the past 10 years and acquired parenting techniques via accredited, adapted parenting programmes. She kept up supervised contact with her sons twice a year, no matter how distressing this was for her.
The support she received from her peers was priceless over the years, she says. The Elfrida Society as a whole became her community; she was not alone and could be herself. She had advocacy support in all its forms, including group activity, campaigns, political rallies, dialogue with professionals, media attention and taking part in radio shows.
When she had to complete the PAMS assessment (a guide used by social services to work with and assess parents when there are child protection concerns) this time, she knew what she had to do. She passed with flying colours.
“Professionals had assumed she could not be a parent,
as she had been in care and had a learning disability”
In another case, B, a young mother who was supported by Elfrida, was able to build a family. She had been allowed to keep her third child after her two previous children were removed.
Growing up, B had been placed in care herself with a diagnosis of learning disability and hearing impairment. There was a general assumption by professionals that B did not have the ability to be a parent, based on her history of being in care and having a disability.
The social workers assigned to work with B knew her when she was in care. Their communications with her indicated they did not respect her views, and were not interested in learning about B’s growth and learning throughout life.
B then had a fourth child. This time, thanks to the support from Elfrida, she was able to win her fight with the local authority in court and keep this child.
In summing up, the judge on the case stated the support from the Elfrida Society Parents Project peer support group and the specialist advocacy service had ‘been invaluable’ for this young mother’s success.
The judge encouraged the local authority to continue to pay for a further three months of one-to-one support from the Elfrida Society Parents Project.
Although the local authority social worker found a reason to stop funding the advocacy support, B continues to access support via the peer support group and parents’ drop-in sessions at Elfrida.
The confidence this mother has gained now gives her a sense of a brighter future. She feels she can work towards seeing her two older children (who are still in care), now that she understands what she needs to do.
She is now a successful parent with a learning disability, who knows who to go to and who to ask when she does not understand something.
While B’s experiences of social work interventions so far will make it difficult for her to ever trust a social worker again, with our support we are confident that she will gain a better understanding of why they might intervene in her family life in the future, and how to get the best out of those situations for everyone involved, particularly her children.
A call for justice
For justice to be done, we need a radical change in both the culture and practice of social work. We propose:
- Development of specialised social workers who know how to work with parents with learning disabilities
- Social workers must understand and appreciate the important role an advocate plays in achieving the best outcome for the children and parents
- Social work students who wish to specialise should be encouraged to learn about learning disabilities, in particular how to apply the Equalities and Human Rights Acts in practice.
- Promotion of the value of specialising in working with parents with learning disabilities
- Local authorities should prioritise finding a way to keep families together rather than focusing on learning disability as a hindrance to successful parenting
- Recognition of the value of early, appropriate support and the need for extra time to process information
We need to ensure no stone is left unturned in ensuring the child’s right to stay with their parents is met.
Justice
The Elfrida Society has learned over the years that advocacy support for people with mild to moderate learning disabilities becomes even more important when they become parents.
Parents with learning disabilities who have had their children taken into care may not all get the justice we have learned how to fight for.
The whole Elfrida community is instrumental in the success of a parent with learning disabilities, expressed through peer support in our weekly support groups.
My experiences as an advocate have included some light bulb moments, revealed, for example, in the look on the face of the social worker the moment he or she realises what could have been done differently, or what could have been put in place in the form of support from the start.
Not all social workers want to follow a system that is blind to the needs of families where a parent has a learning disability. Some social workers try to put the right support for parents in place but, in many cases, risk their recommendations being dismissed or rejected by managers who are looking at immediate ways to cut costs rather than long-term savings (both financial and emotional).
Many managers also hold on to outdated practice methods, which in some cases conflict with basic human rights.
We need to establish a better system and improve understanding on the part of all who work with parents with learning disabilities to achieve justice.
This will begin with professionals going out of their way, adjusting their practice and putting aside what they think they know.
Professionals need to learn from the parent, and understand that each case is different. To do this, they will need to learn the value of the advocate, who can understand the individualised support and communication that needs to take place between professionals around the family…..
Ali Jabeen is operations manager for the Elfrida Society Parents Project, which provides a specialist advocacy service https://www.elfrida.com/parents
This article is the second in a two-part series on the Elfrida Society’s Parents Project, which provides support and advocacy for parents who have learning disabilities. The articles examine the good practice it is developing and some of the challenges it faces.
