Parents of disabled adults need more support

The parenting support needs of disabled adults frequently fall
between adult community care provision and children’s
services, according to a new report.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that although many policies
and protocols expressed a clear intention to support disabled
people and their families, there was much less clarity about the
legislative routes for supporting disabled parents.

Inspectors from the Social Services Inspectorate found that in
many places, adult services did not record children were in the
family, and children’s teams failed to record routinely the
presence of a disabled parent, the report found.

Many service plans acknowledged disabled parents are hesitant to
contact social services departments, with fears of their children
being removed from home. Yet few steps were taken by authorities to
allay these anxieties.

The report urges parenting roles to routinely be covered within
community care assessments. It calls for guidelines to be developed
in conjunction with disabled parents, to show how specialist adult
disability services can work with children’s services, using
both community care and children’s legislation
constructively.

The report, ‘Supporting disabled adults in their parenting
role’, is available from 01904 430033 or orders@yps.ymn.co.uk