Linda Ward

Sinking or Swimming? Supporting Parents with Learning Disabilities and their Children

According to government policy, parents with learning disabilities should be provided with the support that they need to bring up their children successfully. In practice, however, their risk of having their children removed from them is high. This article reports on findings from a study designed to identify and map positive practice in supporting parents with learning disabilities and their children. It reviews the barriers confronting adults with learning disabilities who want to have and look after their children. It also describes a range of examples of positive practice, demonstrated by professionals and supporters of different backgrounds across the UK, aimed at helping adults with learning disabilities to parent successfully so that they can keep their children with them. It concludes with a discussion of what is needed to facilitate the spread of such examples of positive practice in the future.

Transition: The Experiences of Young People with Learning Disabilities and their Families in England

Transition to adulthood can be a difficult time for all young people and their families, but young people with learning disabilities face additional stresses. Transition for young people with learning disabilities is highly topical, in relation to both policy and practice. Legislation and guidance offer various mechanisms for improving transition, including transition planning, health action planning and Connexions personal advisers. This study of 283 families with youngsters with learning disabilities found that existing legislation and guidance were largely failing youngsters with learning disabilities and their families at transition. There were substantial discrepancies between what ought to have been provided and what young people and their families experienced in practice, and significant difficulties as youngsters moved between childrens and adult health and social services. Other difficulties experienced at transition are also reviewed, along with possibilities for improvements in practice.

Disabled Children and Residential Schools: The Implications for Local Education Professionals

Jenny Morris, freelance researcher, David Abbott, research associate at the Norah Fry Research Centre at the University of Bristol, and Linda Ward, Director of the Norah Fry Research Centre at the University of Bristol, carried out research to look at whether the current system of legislation and regulation is adequately protecting and promoting the interests of disabled children placed at residential schools. This article summarises some findings from the research which investigated the decision-making processes leading to residential special school placements and explored the involvement of education and social services authorities after placements have been made. The research found that the needs of individual children are not central to these decision-making processes; and that the local authorities who make such placements do not pay sufficient attention to protecting and promoting childrens educational or care needs once they have gone away to school. Jenny Morris, David Abbott and Linda Ward indicate some of the ways in which current practice could be improved; make recommendations for future developments; and call for further research into the role of special residential schools in the context of policy on educational and social inclusion.

Planning for Change? Learning Disability Joint Investment Plans and Implementing the Valuing People White Paper

Valuing People outlined ambitious plans for improving services for people with learning disabilities in England. Strategies to realise these goals were to be taken forward through the new structure of learning disability partnership boards, based in the first instance on local joint investment plans (JIPs). This article reports findings from an analysis of the first round of learning disability JIPs, compiled as the implementation of the White Paper began, and reviews the implications for the development of robust local strategies and action plans.

Supported living through Supporting People: the experiences of people with learning disabilities

This article reports the findings of research which examined the impact that the Supporting People programme has had on housing and support for adults with learning disabilities. The issue was explored from the perspectives of local Supporting People teams, commissioners and providers of specialist learning disability social care services, and people with learning disabilities themselves.

The decision to go: Disabled children at residential schools and the role of social services departments

Abstract Sending a disabled child to a specialist residential school may mean that they live for much of the year at a school a long way from home. New research examines the role of social services departments in helping families think about this important decision. This article explores the views of social services staff on residential schools and the issues they face around how best to work with families who are thinking about a residential school for their child.