Parenting without Prejudice

[Aura]

Many parents, who have learning disabilities, are being labelled by social services as ‘unfit to parent’. The child is removed and placed with foster guardians, and the parents are expected to get legal aid which is very upsetting and confusing. Many parents with learning difficulties will be treated a lot harsher by the system, then parents who don’t have learning problems. The child is then put under a care order, and adopted by another family within the year. Social services do not require the parent’s signature, as this is usually done through the courts.

Society says that is you have a learning difficulty then you cannot be a parent. Often their dignity is taken away by social services and the legal system, just because the parents asked for help.

I want to campaign for parents with learning difficulties to get the help they so deserve, parents with learning problems have a right to parent with the right sort of support without being made to feel guilty that they’re doing it wrong; and seen as ‘a problem’. Many parents in this situation are too frightened to ask for help, lest their child is removed. The government have no idea how many parents are in doctor’s records who are registered as having ‘learning difficulties’, we aim to change this.

I will be setting up a campaign and support group called ‘Parenting without Prejudice’, where we can help find information and guidance for parents which other organisations haven’t let on about.

If you would like to join, please e-mail me on toppuk@yahoo.co.uk for more information. The more people we have, the more change we have of influencing the government that the law needs to be changed to help parents alike.

Please check out websites such as:

http://www.changepeople.co.uk/
http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/find...re/scr7108.asp
http://www.shef.ac.uk/socst/staff/st.../childpro.html
http://www.disabledparentsnetwork.or...tml?1103730847
http://www.leighday.co.uk/doc.asp?cat=893&doc=353

Thank you very much

[Suresh Gupta]

I will like to be associated with your project.

[Aura]

Please contact me at:

toppuk@yahoo.co.uk or www.changepeople.co.uk you can also find parenting without prejudice in yahoo groups. Also check out http://www.ne-cf.org/NECF-leaflet.doc

Thank you.

[Dixiespurgirl]

Did you see the extreme home makeover edition where the two deaf parents had a blind and autistic child....they were GREAT parents and I'm glad the show took the time to showcase the love and raw power that helped them parent a child and communicate with a child that was disabled in a way very much UNLIKE their own. I was blown away and felt so touched. Now, when I feel that my kids are not listening to me, I think of all that family had to go through and I suck it up and go on!

[Aura]

I wish it was like that in old Blighty. Please check out this website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ry/4278329.stm

It tells you about Angela Cannons and how she was wrongfully convicted of a crime she didn't do. It also tell's you about the many children, who are forced into adoption just because their parent (s) have a learning difficulty!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ry/4287551.stm is about Doubts over children in care review, and also show's the Angela cannons case. There's going to be a lot of trouble in the future for British social services, and their steam-rollar approach.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3514345.stm is about the Review of children in care cases, which makes shocking reading. How can something like this be happening in the 21st century?

Giving their reasons for overturning Mrs Cannings' conviction last month, the judges said: "If the outcome of the trial depends exclusively, or almost exclusively, on a serious disagreement between distinguished and reputable experts, it will often be unwise, and therefore unsafe, to proceed.

"Unless we are sure of guilt, the dreadful possibility always remains that a mother, already brutally scarred by the unexplained deaths of her babies, may find herself in prison for life for killing them when she should not be there at all."