Parents to launch support campaign

Parents with learning difficulties who have
had their children taken away from them are to launch a campaign
this month to raise awareness of the issue and to call for support
instead of intervention.

The
campaign, Fighting For Our Children, will call for more support
from social workers for new parents with learning difficulties so
that fewer children are separated from their parents in the
future.

They
are also calling for a lowering of the age at which they are
allowed access to their children who have already been
removed.

Group
organiser Rachel Taylor, who has learning difficulties and whose
two children have both been taken into care, said: “Having no
contact with the mother is depriving me and others like me. We are
missing out on their childhood. And the children have a right to
know who their mother is.”

The
National Centre for Disabled Parents said parents with learning
difficulties were disproportionately represented in the care
system. Disabled parents support worker at the centre Susan Moore
said about 30 per cent of her caseload was parents involved in
court proceedings or who were in danger of losing their
children.

“Social workers wouldn’t remove a
child on the basis that someone has a learning difficulty or is
disabled; there has to be neglect,” Moore said. “But what these
parents are saying is that if they had more support they could
overcome these difficulties.”

Phillipa Bragnan of learning
difficulties organisation Change said: “Parents with learning
difficulties have no one to tell them when to stop breast feeding,
or what to do when their child has a tantrum. Parents who don’t
have learning difficulties may go to a parents’ group or read
books. But if you are a parent with learning difficulties, you are
generally more isolated and these books aren’t
accessible.”

She
said Change was being funded by the Home Office to produce an
information pack to teach parents with learning difficulties how to
be good parents.

– For
details of the campaign call 0113 243 0202 or minicom 0113 243
2225.