Parents with learning disabilities in Wales 'set up to fail', says charity

Parents with learning disabilities risk losing their children from the lack of support.

According to Learning Disability Wales the pandemic had reduced the opportunities to learn parenting skills and so many children were unnecessarily taken into care.

At the moment there is not any guidance to help vulnerable parents in Wales, the government promises to publish a guidance in the autumn.

Samantha Williams, policy and communications manager at Learning Disability Wales says that support for parents with learning disabilities was inconsiderable, the training for social workers was poor. She said parents do not only need parenting courses but also enough time to learn the new skills under supervision.

The timetable for care proceedings is 26 weeks, an unbelievably short period of time for the parents with learning disability to learn the necessary skills and demonstrate significant change in the parenting abilities to keep their children. The timetable can be extended by the court in certain circumstances, but this rarely happens.

The Covid-19 pandemic had had a large impact on people with learning disabilities. The inequalities deepened such as healthcare and social isolation.

What can social workers do?

Ms. Williams said social workers can communicate better with the parents so they understand the complex child protection process. The support should be tailored to the individual needs and it should also be taken into consideration that they need longer time to learn new capabilities.

It is extremely important to keep the families together wherever possible as research shows the negative impact on both children and parents when children are removed from the family.

The Welsh Government commissioned the University of South Wales to develop new national guidance about how social workers can better support parents with learning disabilities, the new guidance is expected to be published in autumn.