• A demanding, challenging long term role in a variety settings and situations, requiring commitment, an ability to be flexible, organised, positive, creative and forward thinking.

• Good communication, diplomacy, team and finance management skills are essential

• A capacity to work unsocial, hours including evenings, nights, weekends and potentially long, frequent, 24, hour shifts, on call.

• May also involve long distance travel in difficult circumstances.• No previous experience required, ongoing on-the-job training

offeredRESPONSIBILITIES :• Deal quickly and efficiently with difficult situations using good

judgment and quick thinking..• A willingness to deal with a wide range of problem solving

challenges, as well as supporting others mentally and emotionally etc dependent on their needs.

• Must be immediately available as and when needed• Must manage & maintain diaries, appointments, calls and all

relevant paperwork • Be responsible for all aspects of maintenance of the

environment one is inTake ultimate responsibility for the quality of the

end product.

Job Description

Parenthood

Challenges & Solutions

Disabled Parents Network aims to educate and increase society’s acceptance of disability in parenthood.

is of a society which accepts disability and parenthood and provides the opportunities and support to enable disabled people to have and to bring up their children on an equal basis with non-disabled parents.

Our Aims…

Our Vision…

Disabled Parent Network’s definition of Parents includes: Any person with an actual or perceived physical, sensory,

emotional or learning impairment, long-term illness, HIV, drug or alcohol dependence or a person with a mental health issue.

These impairments may be obvious, hidden, long term or short term may be congenital or acquired before or after the birth of a child, e.g. road traffic accident.

prospective parents grandparents same sex couples those who raise, adopt or foster children step-parents biological parents

Maternity Matters 3 April 2007 278867 ‘We are aware of difficulties with the collection of data. Whilst there is information on age and gender, information on race tends to be patchy. Information on disability can be problematic due to the many definitions that people use. Senior Department of Health officials are looking at solutions to this current lack of reliable data’.

Is information available in accessible formats?Are staff aware of the range of formats that may be needed

and how to obtain them?Are pregnancy testing, antenatal services accessible to all?How accessible are Maternity units?

‘My husband married me because he chose to. When we told everyone about our

baby, he wasn't congratulated, he was told off. No one celebrated, they just worried’.

‘We were grown adults, but we were treated like children’

Choice

Becoming a parent

Scans

Blood and other tests

Antenatal

The Birth

6 or minus 4

A Parent

Breastfeeding /Feeding

Nappy changing

The new routines of parenthood are difficult for many to adjust to but for some knowing how to and being able to may involve creative thinking, or additional support.

Bathing

So What Are the Barriers?• Access

To information To appropriate equipment To services Physical environment

• Lack of support• Poverty• Lack of role models• Attitudes in society

Equipment

Bespoke Beanbag cushion

Pushchair control Remap image

Pull Bar for Pushchair

http://www.remap.org.uk/remap/cases2.html

Remap image ttp://www.remap.org.uk/remap/cases2.html

Child Carrier for Wheelchair

A midwife supporting a young woman with Cerebral Palsy and learning difficulty who wants to give birth naturally, but whose parents are insisting she have a section,. “You can't possibly have a baby due to

your Cerebal Palsy and involuntary movements, you will shake your baby to death”. Health visitor in June 2009.

“It's best not to breastfeed him as you may not be keeping him.”- Midwife, August 2009

A parent with complex health needs is refused the hours they request and has a limited amount of medical provision allocated by Health.

As a result of moving from one authority to another a family, whose only way to receive support was to have their child(ren) on Child Protection Register, were advised at the receiving Child Protection Meeting that their new authority fully acknowledged their responsibility to disabled parents. Their former LA Safeguarding Board apologises unreservedly to the parents and accepts all parts of the complaint lodged

“While you, (Social Services) are having your meetings, our family are

drowning”.

Quotes“ In this complex and unknown situation, we often find that complex

and multi departmental solutions offer the best support” (the complex and unknown situation was a pregnant woman who uses crutches to mobilise!) -Services manager for Adult Services, July 2009

• When asked how adult services were supporting Disabled Parents in their parenting roles, the reply was “ We have to be realistic here due to budgetary constraints”- Adult Services Manager 20 mins later: “Due to your disability we're going to turn this into a child protection case”- Child Services Manager

• “If you continue to ring us up asking for help with your parenting role, we will have to consider taking your children into care”- Social Worker, January 2009.

• “This situation has never happened to us before, we don't know how to address it”- The situation was Disabled Parenting! - Head of Health Improvement in Social Care for Social Services in a Local Authority in the North West.

• “You could put your children in their Pyjamas when they come home from school at 3pm, then you wouldn't need any support in the evenings and your PA could go after 4pm.”- Social Worker, November 2008

• When as asked how they support sight impaired parents a large maternity responded ‘We don’t have any’.

News ‘Child carers 'not getting help'

• Lawyers acting for two children who are the main carers for their father have accused a local council of failing to help them.

• Essex County Council was told by a High Court judge last week to act "before further damage is done" and given 21 days to draw up care plans http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/8261561.stm

‘Taking Control of your own care’Thanks to self-directed support, a new method the County Council is using to provide adult social care, Emma, ….. She has spent some of the social care money she receives to hire a gardener, giving her husband more time to care for her and their two children. Emma said: "Being in control of my own support have given me flexibility which I would otherwise not have been able to get.’’ http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=9825

'You're not intelligent enough to marry', bride toldSocial workers banned a young woman from her own wedding in an extraordinary row over whether she is bright enough to get married. Kerry Robertson, who has mild learning difficulties, was told her wedding was being halted just 48 hours before she was to walk up the aisle with fiance Mark McDougall

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212867/Youre-intelligent-marry-bride-told.html

A Jigsaw of Services - Published in April 2000 by the then Social Services Inspectorate was based on inspections of arrangements for providing support to disabled adults in their parenting role in eight local council areas. The experience and views of service users and their carers provided a significant focus for the inspection. The report provides a series of questions that can be used by councillors and managers to evaluate their own services and it offers a number of examples of good practice.

The right support - A Task Force on Supporting Disabled Adults in their Parenting Role was set up by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2000, with support from the DoH, the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS), (DPN) and relevant voluntary organisations. This report highlights the issues raised by the Task Force and put forward recommendations ‘Social services, the NHS and schools working with disabled parents and their children, need to radically re-think attitudes and procedures that are undermining family life’ Jenny Morris 23 September 2003

Every Child Matters (ECM) (2003) Aim is to give all children the support they need to:

• be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, achieve economic well-being. The Every Child Matters agenda has been further developed through publication of the Children's Plan in December 2007. It acknowledge the importance of the family and parental support in a child’s development. 13

They said what? - Some common myths about disabled parents and community care legislation – This booklet (covering England and Wales) is made up of a series of questions and answers which identify and explain common misconceptions about the assistance and equipment available to disabled parents to help them look after their children. Jenny Morris 25 April 2004

Reports & Guidance

Disabled parents and schools: Barriers to parental involvement in children's education – This booklet looks at the particular problems disabled parent face as they

try to support their children’s education Jenny Morris 17 June 2004

It Shouldn't be Down to Luck: Results of a DPN consultation with disabled parents on access to information and services to support parenting - by Wates This report highlights difficulties experienced by disabled parents in accessing services and makes recommendations for service providers who are seeking to make their services more inclusive

SCIE Knowledge review 11: Supporting disabled parents and parents with additional support needs Morris & Wates November 2006

• Its main focus is on social care, but integral to this are the relationships between social care and health, housing and education

• Analysis of the adults' services policy framework does not facilitate appropriate responses from those commissioning and delivering services.

• An analysis of the children's services policy and legislative framework shows that despite inter-agency relationships being a key issue within Every child matters, the importance of adults' and children's services working together to address families’ needs has, to a large extent, been lost.

SCIE Guide 19: Working together to support disabled parents Jenny Morris & Michele Wates August 2007

• How to develop inter-agency protocols to support families in which parents have additional needs related to physical and/or sensory impairments, learning disabilities, mental health, drug and alcohol-related problems or serious illnesses

Family values - Disabled parents, extra costs and the benefit system - Disability Alliance ' in discussion with DPN’ collected evidence on the extra costs incurred by disabled parents.

Supporting disabled parents: A family or a fragmented

approach? • This CSCI (2009) report seeks to examine the experiences of disabled

parents and their families and to see how far council policies, services and practice are providing appropriate support. The findings in this report are taken from a national survey of 50 councils To supplement the national picture, in-depth study workshops of services were conducted in four council areas. The report finds that many councils do not fully support disabled parents and their children.Disabled parents' involvement in their children's education’

Children do better at school when their parents are involved in lots of different ways. (2009)

Support For All: the Families and Relationships Green Paper‘Proposals aim to influence factors that can strengthen or weaken family life, such as the choices available about balancing employment with bringing up children; and how welcoming and accessible public services are to families of all kinds.30 of 32.

DPN offers a range of information, advice and

support, including...

• Support service• Advocacy• Peer Support• Local networks• Speaking & Facilitation• Training• Networking & Campaigning• Charged Services

• Fact sheets• Newsletter• Latest News• Articles &

Stories• Website• Discussion

Forum• eBulletin

What else do we do?

Support ServiceSupport via telephone and email for

disabled parents, parents-to-be, professionals and others working

alongside disabled parents.

Offers: Advice, information, Peer support, access to Advocacy Service

0300 3300 639Monday to Friday1000hrs – 1600hrs

Wednesdays 19.00hrs – 2100hrs

e-mail:information@disabledparentsnetwork.org.uk

Advocacy Service 

e-mail:advocacy@disabledparentsnetwork.org.uk

Liaising with Social Services, Education authorities (schools) and Health authorities

Supporting people with making complaints

Information on seeking equipment and adaptations

Gaining community care assessments and services

Challenging decisions and support packages

 

The advocate is there to take the side of the person they are representing and is

completely independent of statutory organisations

 

Disabled Parents Network believes that services and support should empower and provide disabled parents with the best possible resources for the task of parenting.

Improving services& support

Health and Social Care professionals (Midwives,

OT’s, Social Workers, Care Managers)

Voluntary Organisations and Disability Specific

Organisations

Local disabled parenting

groups

Individual disabled parents

Government – Advisory

Committees

Consultation papers

Research Projects

Media

Helpful child? …or “Young

Carer”?

Thank You

Disability &

Parenting

Bridging the gap between

0300 3300 639www.DisabledParentsNetwork.org.uk