Organisational barriers

The needs of parents with an intellectual disability cut across service boundaries which too often leads to them being owned by no one. As parents they come under Children and Families Teams but as disabled adults they are dealt with by Learning Disability Teams. Glennie et al, for example, observe how parents in Nottinghamshire who presented 'grave concerns to the children's service because of child neglect, did not meet the threshold for adult service.' As the Social Services Inspectorate found, this results in a fragmented service response, lack of co-ordination, inadequate record keeping, difficulties in applying eligibility criteria, poor management information, a failure to take an holistic view of the family's needs, and budgetary inflexibility.

(Glennie, S., Cruden, B., & Thorn, J. (1998). Neglected children: Maintaining hope, optimism and direction . Nottingham: Nottinghamshire County Area Child Protection Committee. See also SSI reports of inspections of individual councils as listed in Appendix E of Goodinge, S., A Jigsaw of Services, Social Services Inspectorate, Department of Health, 2000.)