Supporting Parents with a learning disability- the role of adult services: Research Briefing (2026)
Introduction
The focus of this briefing is to support leaders, commissioners and frontline practitioners across adult and children’s services to understand how adult and children’s services can work together to support parents with learning disabilities and their children. The briefing will also be of interest to local authority legal teams.
It aims to support the development of effective provision by outlining key messages from the NIHR SSCR funded project ‘How do adult services engage with parents with learning disabilities’ and wider good practice in working with parents with learning disabilities and learning difficulties based on the ‘Good practice guidance’.
This page highlights the key messages. To gain a greater understanding of the topic you can download and read the full briefing, which includes references.
Defining parents with learning disabilities: Key characteristics and terminology
In the UK, a learning disability is generally defined by a significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information and learn new skills, combined with a reduced ability to cope independently, starting before adulthood. While a diagnosis often involves an IQ under 70, research indicates that IQ alone is not a reliable predictor of parenting capacity. For parents with an IQ of 60 and above, the primary predictor of successful parenting is the presence of an adequate structure of professional and informal support.
This briefing uses the term ‘learning disabilities’ to include parents with a diagnosed learning disability as well as those with a milder or borderline learning disability, who have similar support needs, often known as having a ‘learning difficulty’.
Parents with learning disabilities’ parenting capacity is influenced by a wide range of complex factors.
Parents with a learning disability and the child protection system
The number of parents with learning disabilities involved with children’s services was previously estimated at around 12.5% of cases (Masson, et al., 2008) with children being removed from 50% of these families.
A recent study published by Burch et al., (2024) suggests:
in 34% (67) of 200 recently concluded care proceedings regarding babies across four local authorities [in England], there was reliable, mostly expert, evidence that at least one parent had learning disabilities or learning difficulties.
These figures were broken down and included:
- parents with an indicator of learning disabilities (overall IQ of below 70): 27 (45%)
- parents with an indicator of borderline learning disabilities or learning difficulties: (overall IQ of between 70 and 85): 28 (47%)
- parents with specific learning difficulties: 5 (8%).
Background: About the study
This briefing draws on an NIHR SSCR-funded research project. The study was carried out in five local authorities in England and investigated how adult services engaged with parents with learning disabilities.
Relevant law and policy
The Children Act 1989 and the Care Act 2014 form the two main legal routes through which families receive support in England. They work together but focus on different areas:
- The Children Act 1989 centres on children’s welfare and safety.
- The Care Act 2014 centres on adults’ needs for care and support, including how those needs affect their ability to parent. Crucially, one of the ten specified outcomes used to determine eligibility for support is ‘carrying out any caring responsibilities the adult has for a child’
The The 2021 update of the 'Good practice guidance on working with parents with a learning difficulty (first published 2016) explores essential aspects of good practice when collaborating with parents with learning disabilities, including safeguarding procedures and commissioning processes.
Key findings from the project
Services need to move toward relationship-based practice that empowers parents rather than having professionals take over parenting tasks. Key elements include:
- Accessible Communication: Providing information in "Easy Read" or using supportive technology for reminders.
- Care Act Conversations: Shifting language from "assessment" to "conversations" to reduce the fear and stigma parents associate with being evaluated.
- Advocacy: Ensuring parents have access to independent advocacy as early as possible.
- Joint Working Protocols: Developing clear pathways between adult and children’s services to ensure support is provided before care proceedings are initiated.
Joint working between adult and children’s services
This section highlights the importance of joint working between adult and children’s services to improve outcomes for families where one or both parents have a learning disability and outlines the legislative and policy imperatives for joint working.
Implications
Local authorities are encouraged to investigate the actual number of parents with learning disabilities in their areas to inform commissioning, as many managers currently underestimate these figures. Furthermore, statutory duties to support eligible needs under the Care Act 2014 must be fulfilled regardless of budgetary constraints; courts have ruled that resource issues cannot justify more interventionist orders, such as adoption, when support could enable the family to stay together.
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Professional Standards
PQS:KSS - Assuring good social work practice and development | Influencing and governing practice excellence within the organisation and community | Direct work with individuals and families | Designing a system to support effective practice | Developing excellent practitioners | Purposeful and effective social work | The law and the family and youth justice systems | Adult mental ill health, substance misuse, domestic abuse, physical ill health and disability
CQC - Well-led
PCF - Diversity and equality
RCOT - Service users | Identify needs