The development of children's trusts and the relocation of children's social services in the Department for Education and Skills could worsen the situation of disabled parents, a taskforce has warnedwrites Amy Taylor.

The group, representing government, social services, voluntary groups and parents with disabilities, expressed concerns that children's and adult’s community care policies could become further separated under the new arrangements, making joint working on the ground even harder and increasing difficulties experienced by parents with disabilities.

Their report, based on evidence from parents, professionals and researchers collected over two year, points out that the failure of children's services to work with adult community care teams already caused some disabled parents to have their children taken into the care without their entitlement to support under community care legislation being assessed or addressed.

Chris Hanvey, UK director of operations at children's charity Barnardo's, said he shared the report’s concerns about “a worrying omission in the thinking about the co-existence of children's trusts and adult community care services”.

The report adds that social services often only respond to parents' problems if their children are placed on the “at risk” register - making them vulnerable to losing them into care.

The taskforce, established by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, is calling for changes in child protection guidelines to ensure that disabled parents' support needs are assessed before decisions are made about their capacity to care for their children.

 - The right support: Report of the Task Force on Supporting Disabled Adults in their Parenting Role from www.jrf.org.uk