Mencap welcomes CSCI's focus on parents with a learning disability

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Mark Goldring, chief executive of learning disability charity, Mencap, welcomes CSCI's focus on parents with a learning disability in the Supporting Disabled Parents: a family or fragmented approach report published today. 

He says:  "The attitude of health and social services towards parents with a learning disability needs to change. All too often support services start with the premise that people with a learning disability won't make good parents and that their children should be taken away. 

"This is backed up by research that shows that 40 per cent of parents with a learning disability do not live with their children¹.

"We recognise that not all parents with a learning disability can look after their own children and that the welfare of the child is paramount.   However, we believe that if parents with a learning disability are provided with proper support then more would be able to keep their children."

-ends-

Notes to editor

Contact:  Lucy Hannagan, Mencap press office, lucy.hannagan@mencap.org.uk, 020 7696 6017

¹

Emerson et al, 2005

• Mencap works with people with a learning disability and their families and carers.
• 1.5 million people in the UK have a learning disability.
• A learning disability is caused by the way the brain develops before, during or shortly after birth. It is always lifelong.
• Learning disability affects someone's intellectual and social development all their life. People with a learning disability find it harder than others to learn, understand and communicate.
• People with a learning disability don't get an equal chance in life. Mencap fights to change laws and services and to provide better access to education, employment and leisure facilities, supporting thousands of people with a learning disability to live their lives the way they want.
• It is not a mental illness and should not be confused with mental health issues. It is not dyslexia or aspergers syndrome.
• It used to be called mental handicap but we don't use this term anymore because most people with a learning disability find it offensive.
• For information about learning disability issues please call the Learning Disability Helpline (England) on 0808 808 1111 or visit www.askmencap.info
• For online press information, go to www.mencap.org.uk/press