News

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