The international literature on parents with intellectual disabilities (ID) has focused on concerns about their ability to parent and strategies to enable them to develop parenting skills. Traditionally, the views and experiences of parents themselves have not been the focus of studies. With this in mind, the authors talked to a cohort of 30 parents as part of a mapping study of issues and positive practice in supporting parents with ID and their children in the UK. They report on the parents' experiences of being provided with ongoing, proactive support, to enable them to parent to the best of their ability and describe the types of practical and emotional support that helped them to develop parenting skills and overcome wider problems, such as falling into debt, that were impacting their families. Enabling adults with ID to “parent with support” appeared to safeguard their children, whose health and safety is a primary object of concern for services. If parents had access to supports, they could keep their children and enjoy an enhanced quality of family life together. The authors conclude that with appropriate help from services parents can be enabled to support each other, to develop confidence, and to engage more positively with the professionals and systems responsible for safeguarding the welfare of their children.

Accessible summary• Transition means growing up and becoming an adult. There are a lot of changes and choices for young people at transition. • We found out what information young people, their families and supporters need at transition. • Young people with learning disabilities from North Somerset People First did the project with other researchers. SummaryThis article provides an overview of the methods and findings of a project, commissioned by the Social Care Institute for Excellence, to explore the information needs of young people with learning disabilities, their families and supporters at transition. It describes how a group of young people with learning disabilities were trained in research methods and undertook four focus groups with other young people with learning disabilities in England and Wales. Parallel focus groups involving their parents and supporters were conducted at the same time, facilitated by a family carer and professional respectively. The different kinds of information required are summarized: for example, all three groups wanted information about getting a job and going to college and about the transition process generally, but there were also differences in emphasis between the groups, which are described. Key issues in providing information at transition in ways likely to be most accessible to the different stakeholders are outlined.

Disabled people are regularly denied their human rights, since policies and laws are hard to translate literally into practice. This article aims to make connections between social practice theories and Disability Studies, in order to understand the problems faced by disabled people, using different methods to look in detail at how practices are shaped and how disabled people get excluded. Disabled people are active agents in making change, both informally on an everyday basis and through formal actions. Thus we also suggest that the insights of disabled people could bring a fresh perspective to social practice theories, by troubling the taken-for-granted in our everyday lives.

Social practice theory (SPT) investigates how meanings (socially available understandings/ attitudes) work together with competences and materials/resources to develop shared (social) practices. SPTwas used as a theoretical and analytical framework in a study which investigated 'successful' professional practices when working with parents with learning difficulties where there are concerns about child neglect. The research took place in three local authorities (LAs) in England that were recommended as sites of 'successful' practice. With the parents' agreement, 38 professionals who worked with the eight participating families were asked about their ideas about parents with learning difficulties and neglect, their understanding of 'successful' practice, their experience and knowledge of working with this group of parents, how they worked with the parent and other professionals involved with the parent, as well as the resources available to them. Detailed case studies of the support provided to eight mothers were developed. It was found that the professionals shared a range of attitudes and understandings, including awareness of the many barriers faced by this disadvantaged group of parents, and that the neglect was typically linked to lack of understanding/knowledge about the child's needs which could in many cases be mitigated through provision of support. The meanings they shared promoted an empowering, relationship-based, multi-agency approach to parents which recognised their need for support while also focusing on the needs and welfare of the children. This positive approach accords with the call for longer-term/recurrent support to be available for parents with learning difficulties alongside the development of a social model of child protection that rethinks how best to safeguard vulnerable children.

This paper discusses the key role played by a specialist Parents with Learning Disabilities team in supporting parents with learning disabilities who are involved with child protection services. This team is recognized as working through three levels of relationships to enable parents to engage firstly with this service and then with services concerned with the welfare of their children. The team also promotes positive multi‐agency relationships. The service is praised, by parents, for its respectful, trusting yet honest and challenging relationships and was also respected and trusted by child protection workers, who are sure of the team's commitment to the welfare of the children and who see them as central to the support that is provided to parents with learning disabilities. Parents who have previously had children removed are engaged with children's services and being supported to parent by this service which is living out the principles of positive support for this group of parents discussed in the Good Practice Guidance on Working with Parents with Learning Disabilities (Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills) and Finding the Right Support (2006).