‘She was there if I needed to talk or to try and get my point across’: specialist advocacy for parents with intellectual disability in the Australian child protection system

ABSTRACT

Parents with intellectual disability are overrepresented in child protection matters due to a combination of socioeconomic disadvantage and assumptions of parenting incapacity by child welfare workers and courts. Inability to understand the investigation process or instruct a solicitor can deny these parents equal access to justice. Specialist support can ensure parents exercise their legal capacity to participate in proceedings and have their views heard. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with parents with intellectual disability (n = 10) who accessed a specialist advocacy programme in New South Wales, Australia. Thematic analysis was used to identify the influence of advocacy on parents’ experiences. Parents felt powerlessness as they navigated a bewildering child protection and court system that had prejudged them unfit to parent. This compounded the grief and loss of child removal. The advocate played a critical role in creating a bridge between parents and professionals. This helped to build parents’ skills and confidence and improve the disability awareness of professionals. Specialist advocacy for all parents with intellectual disability in care proceedings is consistent with Australia’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Child protection
• disability
• advocacy
• out-of-home-care

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the exceptional work of the community legal centre, and extend particular thanks to programme staff for assistance with the research. We are so grateful to the parents who helped us to understand how and why the programme made a difference, even when doing so was emotional and difficult for them.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. CPA refers to the State Government Department that has legislated responsibility for child protection in NSW.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Collings

Susan Collings is a Research Fellow at the School of Education and Social Work and PhD fellow at the University of Sydney whose research centres on relationships between birth families and out-of-home children, and parenting children with intellectual disabilities.

Margaret Spencer

Margaret Spencer currently lectures at the University of Sydney in the School of Education and Social Work. Her research interests range from disability and parenting, adult guardianship and social work education.

Angela Dew

Angela Dew is a Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales School of Social Sciences and Research Lead with the Intellectual Disability Behaviour Support Program. Her current research focuses on remote Aboriginal families and carers of children with disabilities.

Leanne Dowse

Leanne Dowse is Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales School of Social Sciences and the Chair of the Intellectual Disability Behaviour Support Program. Her current research focuses on young people with disability and complex support needs.