One in three parents in care proceedings cases involving babies have learning disabilities or difficulties, researchers find
A study by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (NFJO) has found that 34% of parents who are at risk of having their babies removed from their care have learning disabilities or difficulties, which are often not identified until court.
The report warned that these parents are often missing the chance to access and “meaningfully engage” in pre-birth services that might help them to develop or prove their parenting abilities.
The prevalence of parents in cases involving babies with learning difficulties varied by local authority area - from 44% in a county area to 22% in a London borough.
However, this was consistent with Public Health England evidence on the varying rates of adults with learning disabilities within the whole population across different parts of England.
The NFJO observed: “Despite this prevalence – and despite a high proportion (81%) of babies having been referred to children’s social care during their mother’s pregnancy, most in the first and second trimester – in approximately three quarters of the reviewed children’s case files, parents’ learning disabilities or learning difficulties had not been identified until their cases reached court.”
The report revealed that parents are often already known to services. Nearly half (49%) of the mothers and 28% of the fathers were known to have older children already in care.
Further, just over half (51%) of the mothers and just under a quarter (24%) of the fathers were known to have been in care or to have been the subject of a statutory child protection or child in need plan themselves as children, the NFJO found.
Looking at the main barriers to earlier identification, authors cited the costs for local authorities in getting an assessment completed earlier, and social workers not having the right training, experience, authority, or time to screen effectively or to trigger a further in-depth assessment.
The report warned that late identification of parental learning disabilities or difficulties means that key parenting assessments and parenting support services are “very unlikely to be tailored to parents’ learning needs”. Further, care proceedings might be delayed.
In the cases analysed, the average length of proceedings was 39 weeks and, in 76% of cases, the proceedings needed to be extended beyond 26 weeks.
Lisa Harker, director of Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, said: “The number of babies being removed from their families has been rising for many years. Uncovering that such a significant proportion of the parents in these cases are likely to have learning disabilities or difficulties has a profound impact on how we should be thinking about the type of support they need. The pre proceedings period is a vital chance for parents to learn or prove their parenting ability, and if these services are not being adapted to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities or difficulties then we could be looking at a serious injustice.
“Parents more widely are already facing delayed support before their baby’s birth and court hearings commencing at very short notice, both of which impact their chance to show they can safely care for their children – this research suggests that parents with learning disabilities or difficulties are facing additional barriers.”
For the NFJO study, researchers at the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University examined 200 care proceedings cases involving babies (children under one year old) across four different local authority areas, and interviewed professionals and parents.
Lottie Winson
