Being disabled should not prevent someone from being debarred or prevented from being a parent – but if you are learning disabled or have mental health issues, then that is not necessarily the case.
Not because you as a person are not capable of being a parent but because in a ‘risk averse’ Social Services dominated culture in Child Care – ‘they’ won’t let you parent your child.
However, being a parent, for disabled people, is and always has been a right, as much as it is for any other person.
Parenting as a role for disabled people used to be controlled through the practice of sterilization, abortion, and imposed ignorance.
It's a chicken and egg situation; as the ‘drive’ came at the end of the last Millennium for more and more people to become included in Society – to be more ‘normal’ then increasing numbers of people with disabilities began to choose to have children.
But in doing so, they often faced negative attitudes, inaccessible environments and inappropriate support or no support at all.
For people with learning disabilities and people with mental health issues on the evidence we have seen from our work, the situation is significantly worse for potential parents even than it is for other groups of disabled people.
Being a disabled parent in the twenty-first century is slowly starting to improve for some people with disabilities. An example would be one client who is profoundly deaf who has been properly supported in another part of the country to bring up children with proper support.
Unfortunately some disabled parents are still sometimes met with discriminatory attitudes both by professional organisations, and by the family and friends of the disabled parents themselves.
Having “rights” does not immediately or necessarily equate to positive treatment from society or adequate services being provided. Evidence from the Norah Fry Institute for example, demonstrated the poor treatment parents with learning disabilities receive and from our own work we know that in an environment of cost reduction, paying for high support costs for parenting by people with learning disabilities has proved a significant deterrent/barrier to people being allowed to parent.
What is worse, the parents are portrayed as potential perpetrators of bad parenting when the reality is they are not given any proper chances to develop the necessary skills to parent.
We find that generic Children’s services are ill suited to meeting the needs or potential needs to parent of people with learning disabilities and people with mental health issues and risk assessments or comprehensive assessments of the needs of people in this situation pay little attention to the impacts of learning disabilities or mental health issues on the abilities of the Clients to parent.
Instead, they are simply assumed not to be able to parent without there being a high cost implication and so alternative choices are looked at ie. Fostering and then Adoption.
It seems to me that in failing to properly carry out Disability Impact Assessments, the Authorities concerned are then guilty of breaching Articles 6 & 8 of the Human Rights Act.
Firstly by failing to listen/gather proper evidence with which to carry out a truly Comprehensive Assessment, there by denying a fair ‘trial’ under Article 6.
Then secondly and more importantly denying their rights to a family life under Article 8.
The assumption is made that people with learning disabilities cannot operate a ‘normal’ family life because "they" may require high levels of support initially to carry out that role.
This is discriminatory and prejudiced and denies people the right to have a ‘normal’ life and arguably denies the children who are taken away, the right to enjoy parents who whilst they may be different, are no better or worse parents than the rest of us.
Valuing People Now is meant to address some of these problems whether it does or not is highly questionable because without extra resources, I cannot see already stretched Children’s Services making the ‘leap’ of investing extra money in supporting parents with learning disabilities when perhaps understandably they are having to meet the challenges brought on by cases like Baby P.
I would like to be proven incorrect but currently I have no faith in there being any change.
Children’s Services do not focus on the needs of disabled parents; even at a ‘stretch’ they struggle to meet the needs of Children with disabilities let alone being able to provide for the needs of Disabled parents.
The role of disabled parents today, therefore, involves not only the usual challenges of raising children, but also the fight for adequate support services and preparing their children to face discriminatory attitudes.
The rights of disabled parents and their children are dependant upon the large-scale recognition of disabled people’s rights.
The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act has brought the social oppression of disabled people into the public eye through the outlawing of discriminatory treatment of disabled people in employment, in public places and in the provision of services.
It does not go far enough to fully integrate disabled people into society but it continues to be updated in line with disabled people’s needs in all aspects of social life.
Society must also be provided with education so that commonly held assumptions of disability can be understood and overcome.
Parenting should not be seen then as something that cannot be done just because a person is a wheelchair user, is deaf or visually impaired, is a mental health services user or has learning difficulties; women of all abilities should have a choice of whether or not to have children.
Having the right support from health and social care professionals, as well as from family and friends, should mean that children of disabled parents should neither feel stigmatized; nor be seen as ‘carers’.
They should also not be seen as automatic ‘adoption’ or ‘fostering’ cases as I am afraid they appear to be at present.
Recognising the value of difference, and breaking down discriminatory barriers will by default allow disabled people to be perceived, and perceive themselves, as valuable citizens, and ‘good enough’ parents.
People with disabilities can parent as research has shown.
Disabled parents, and their families, must be viewed holistically with the services they need being accessed through appropriate channels over which the disabled parents themselves have choice and control.
Fundamental to establishing autonomy and independence is ownership of power and control is and disabled parents need to be consulted and included in decision making as full partners.
Direct payments have, for some years now, been provided by social services to people with disabilities so that they may employ their own personal assistants for personal care.
Research into disabled parenting has helped establish and implement new legislation for disabled parents to apply for direct payments purely for their parenting needs.
This not only helps protect the rights of disabled people to be parents but also gives them the control over who will support them in their parenting role.
Prejudice is not inherent; it is a construction of Society that can be thought about and changed.
Indeed if we are going to promote Government policy in this area of inclusion, this attitude must be changed in order to protect the rights of people with disabilties to parent; their Children's rights to a proper family life and Society's need to embrace diversity.
Excellent post Chris. You mentioned the chicken and the egg situation and as i see it until people with intellectual/learning disabilities/mental health needs are permitted friendships and sexual relationships there will never be a "right to reproduce". Society may claim incusiveness and non discriminatory practices but unfortunately we still have a long way to go. The declaration of human rights was introduced to protect human beings from violations such as those perpetrated by the Nazi regime. The People from the Jewish faith appear to have suffered the most cruel indignities as did many other groups and prganisations (Gipsys,Homosexuals,etc etc ) What some people do not know is that euthenasia was being carried out on children and babies to eliminate "life unworthy of life" and personell from the euthanasia centres went on to command death camps. Even today we cannot guarantee the right to life which must proceed any other rights as far as disabilites are concerned.
Thanks Anne.
I think this government's 'committment' to equality is superficial and essentially false - if they really had any true committment they would not be adopting policies which without proper resources simply lead to greater marginalisation and isolation of the most vulnerable people in Society which is why 'Valuing People' seems like a 'sick' contradiction in terms and putting 'De' in front of it might give its truer meaning.
As for parenting, it is only in the last ten years that I have seen the NHS stop having policies to prevent people with LD from having relationships with the underpinning message/sub-text being - "in case they breed".
For new pregnancies of course, Government is encouraging people to have early scans to identify disability so they can 'abort' people with potential disabilties - this is only a little short of full on eugenics - Hitler would have been proud of new Labour.
How can somebody have the "right" to have more resources spent in order to provide particular groups with their choices?
It seems pretty emotive to accuse somebody who chooses excercise control over their own body and fertility of eugenics and, in the context of this thread, imply some sort of Nazi agenda for a womans right to choose.
what a strange thread. hitler, eugenics and new labour. dearie me.
if 2 people have the capacity to be responsibe they are perfectly entitled to have a sexual relationship and have a kid if the ywant. and they ere then perefectly entitled to set the upon the road of abortion if they so choose.
if 1 or both of the adults does not have capacity then we MUST proetct them from making life changing mistakes. the word vulnerable springs to mind.