This mixed method study, completed by the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University in September 2023, explored three important questions about parents with learning disabilities and learning difficulties in relation to care proceedings involving their babies.
- What proportion of care proceedings cases regarding babies (children under 12 months old) involve parents with learning disabilities or learning difficulties?
- What are the broader characteristics and circumstances of these parents?
- What are their experiences from the point of referral to children’s social care services through to the conclusion of care proceedings?
The study findings indicated the likely high prevalence of learning disabilities or difficulties among parents involved in care proceedings regarding babies. It underscores the importance of implementing both the Working Together with Parents Network (WTPN) 2021 Update of the 2016 Good Practice Guidance on Working with Parents with a Learning Disability (WTPN 2021) and the Best Practice Guidelines for When the State Intervenes at Birth (Mason et al. 2023) across public services in England.
About the Data
The data in this study relates to England. It came from:
- court bundles and social work records relating to the 50 most recently concluded care proceedings (at March to April 2023) concerning a baby aged under 1 year at issue in four different local authority areas (200 cases in total)
- interviews with four mothers with learning disabilities or difficulties who had experience of care proceedings
- interviews with 42 social care professionals and 17 legal professionals.
Key Findings
What proportion of care proceedings cases regarding babies involve parents with learning disabilities or learning difficulties?
- In one third (34%) of the 200 most recently concluded care proceedings cases examined for the study, there was reliable – mostly expert – evidence that one or more of the parents involved had learning disabilities or learning difficulties. The expert evidence was documented within a psychologist’s (psychological or cognitive) assessment undertaken during care proceedings in 75% of cases.
- This prevalence varied by local authority area (ranging, for example, from 22% in a London borough to 44% in a county area). While these differences have implications for the generalisability of the study’s prevalence findings, they do accord with other Public Health England (2016) evidence also demonstrating varying prevalence rates of adults with learning disabilities within the whole population across different parts of England.
- Mothers in the case file sample had learning disabilities or learning difficulties in just under one third (30%) of all recently concluded care proceedings regarding babies. In a smaller proportion of cases, fathers (13%) or both parents (9%) had learning disabilities or learning difficulties.
What are the broader characteristics and circumstances of these parents?
- A high proportion (81%) of the children were referred to children’s social care during their mother’s pregnancy. Most of these pre-birth referrals were made in the first and second trimester of the pregnancy. Only a small proportion (10%) were made very close to the time of the birth (i.e. within the final few months of the pregnancy).
- While approximately one quarter of the mothers and fathers in the study were under 21 years old at referral, mothers were 26 years old on average and fathers were 28 years old on average.
- Just over half (51%) of the mothers and just under a quarter (24%) of the fathers were known to have been in care or subject of a statutory child protection or child in need plan as children.
- Nearly half (49%) of the mothers and 28% of the fathers were known to have older children already taken into care.
- Combined data from case file analysis and the professional interviews suggested there were usually other areas of professional concern when the babies became subject of care proceedings, in particular: parental mental health, parental substance misuse, domestic abuse, or parental vulnerability to exploitation in the community. Some professionals thought these other factors made it harder to identify or focus on parental learning disabilities or difficulties – because they posed a more obvious immediate risk to children.
What are their experiences from the point of referral through to the conclusion of care proceedings?
Timeliness and the significance of delay(s)
- In approximately three quarters of the reviewed children’s case files, parents’ learning disabilities or learning difficulties had been identified at a very late stage – that is, within care proceedings. This included identification within the current care proceedings in approximately 45% of cases and within previous care proceedings regarding an older child in approximately 30% cases (i.e. where there were recurrent proceedings). Professionals of all types thought this was far too late and that there were missed opportunities to identify at an earlier stage.
- The main barriers to earlier identification described by professionals of all types included: the costs for local authorities in getting an assessment done earlier and social workers not having the right training, experience, authority, or time to screen effectively or to trigger a further in-depth assessment.
- Late identification of parental learning disabilities or learning difficulties meant that social worker communications, key (parenting) assessments and parenting support services were very unlikely to be tailored to parents’ learning needs. Professionals of all types considered that, in these circumstances, parents were less likely to be engaged effectively in pre-proceedings work and resources would be wasted. For example, in-depth assessments that had not been tailored would need to be repeated in care proceedings. Care proceedings might also be delayed – the case file analysis identified that an average length of proceedings for parents with learning disabilities or learning difficulties was 39 weeks and, in 76% of cases, the proceedings needed to be extended beyond 26 weeks.
- Late identification of parental learning disabilities or difficulties also meant that important decision-making processes, such as child protection case conferences, formal pre-proceedings meetings and initial care proceedings hearings were not tailored, with a strong risk then that parents did not fully understand what was happening or the implications.
- The case file analysis also identified a high proportion (65%) of cases involving parents with learning disabilities or learning difficulties that were commenced at either no (same day) notice or with less than 3 days’ notice. Shortened notice would mean that there was little time for a parent to instruct a solicitor or for a guardian to make enquiries and advise the court. Babies in care proceedings: What do we know about parents with learning disabilities or difficulties?
- Although many of the parents referred to children’s social care pre-birth had in theory between 7 and 4 months before the birth to undertake purposeful work with the support of social care services, the commencement of this support was frequently delayed until around the time of the child’s birth, at which point ‘the clock was ticking’ in terms of parents being able to prove in a timely way – that is, before proceedings started or were completed – that they could provide good enough parenting.