CHANGE has been working with NHS Scotland to produce a 2012 edition of You and Your Baby 0-1. This is an illustrated easy read book that has been developed with parents with learning disabilities to give information about every aspect of looking after a baby in the first year. Scotland have been fantastic, commissioning an evaluation of the resources that has helped us to make revisions and secure UNICEF Baby Friendly approval.
Parents with learning disabilities still disproportionately have their children taken away. Many recieve little support even when they have other family members trying to help. CHANGE gets regularly from, health workers, advocates, solicitors, grandparents and parents themselves desperately trying to find the right support, whilst having to cope with a new arrival and going through child protection proceedings at the same time.
NHS Scotland has made the commitment to raise awareness among services about identifying parents with learning disabilities when they first enter maternity services and ensuring that parents have access to information about being good parents in easy read well in advance of their baby being born. This gives parents with learning disabilities a chance the to develop the skills they need to be good enough parents.
We hope to see a similar response from services in England, where many parents with learning disabilities still have their babies taken away soon after they are born.