CARING FOR CHILDREN
المؤلف:
APRIL HAMMOND
المصدر:
Caring for People with Learning Disabilities
الجزء والصفحة:
P166-C10
2025-10-29
46
CARING FOR CHILDREN
The discussion above may be the result of the implementation of the Children Act 1989, in which a greater emphasis has been placed on the protection of children who are considered vulnerable and are consequently being placed on the ‘At Risk Register’. This legally requires that:
‘The register should list all the children resident in the area who are considered to be at continuing risk of significant harm and for whom there is a child protection plan.’
(Children Act 1989)
The local authorities have the statutory duty to investigate all children who live in, or are found in, their area who are considered to be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm (Children Act 1989). The local authorities also have the power to provide services for children at risk and their families. However, Parton (1997), in reviewing the effectiveness of the children’s services, found there to be a narrow focus on abuse and child protection, with more cases being put on the register without enough family support systems being implemented. So parents whose children were on the register might feel stigmatized but not supported by the local authorities.
Significantly, parents who have learning disabilities are more likely to have their children placed on the register than any other parent group and a service audit in the United Kingdom stated that 93 per cent of children born to parents with learning disabilities had interventions via child protection (Woodhouse et al. 2001). Another survey revealed that 40 per cent of children born to English mothers with learning disabilities were put into care, long-term fostering or were adopted following child protection proceedings (O’Hara & Martin 2003).
The most common reason for children to be placed under child protection is neglect (Butler & Roberts 2004).
Neglect, as stated by the Children Act 1989, is said to be:
‘. . . the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Parent/carer fails to provide adequate food, shelter and clothing, failing to protect from physical harm or danger, failing to ensure access to appropriate medical and treatment. It may also include neglect of a child’s basic emotional needs.’
(Children Act 1989)
Some of these ‘negligent’ behaviors, especially the emotional ones, may be difficult or too vague to classify. For many adults with learning disabilities, these ambiguous terms can be used to make judgements by professionals on their parenting abilities, even before their children are born. Booth et al. (2005) found, on surveying Child Protection Reports, that a significantly high number of newborn babies whose mothers had learning disabilities were being presented at Court Protection hearings. This prediction has been further borne out in studies that reveal that parents with learning disabilities have been discriminated against and viewed as neglectful through simple misunderstandings, such as being seen to be deliberately avoiding child care appointments when actually they were unaware of the appointments because they could not read the invitations (O’Hara & Martin 2003).
However, other studies have revealed significant figures of child abuse by parents with learning disabilities (Feldman 1986; Whitman & Accardo 1990). Many parents with learning disabilities have also been found to be living in poverty and social isolation, thus reducing their opportunities to learn parenting skills through appropriate social contacts such as attending school functions and mixing with other parents (Woodhouse et al. 2001).
The children of parents with learning disabilities can also become victims, even if their parents are providing good care. As the children grow up and become aware of their parents’ disabilities, they may develop protective roles towards their parents and, in some cases, even become their parents’ carer (Booth & Booth 1998). Many of these children have reported difficulties in their early lives and have suffered bullying from their peers (Crabtree & Warner 1999). Despite this, there is some anecdotal evidence which reports many children (both as children and adults) of parents with learning disabilities describing deep feelings of closeness and love towards their parents (Bibby & Becker 2000; Booth & Booth 1998). This view is further reinforced in a study carried out by Perkins et al. (2002) on the emotional well-being of children whose parents have learning disabilities which revealed that the children were more able to cope with the stigma of having a parent with a learning disability if the relationship between parent and child was warm and loving.
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