Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

Child development and parents’ responses – children under 5 years 135Protective factors The presence of an alternative, consistent caring adult who can respond tothe cognitive and emotional needs of the child. Sufficient income support and good physical standards in the home. Regular attendance at pre-school facilities. A safe adult who listens to the child, observes their behaviour and actsappropriately to ensure the child’s safety and welfare. Regular, long-term support for the family from the primary health careteam, adult social services and children’s social care, and community-basedservices. A long-term package of services to meet the diverse and enduring, complexand multiple needs of some families. An alternative, safe and supportive residence for mothers subject to violenceand the threat of violence. Parent(s) receiving treatment for their drug, alcohol or mental healthproblem.Identified unmet developmental needs inchildren under 5 yearsThe information shown in Table 4.1 is the result of a re-analysis of data gatheredfor two research studies carried out by Hedy Cleaver, one of the authors. The firstexplored parental substance misuse and domestic violence (Cleaver et al. 2007)and the other looked at parental learning disability (Cleaver and Nicholson 2007);neither included parental mental illness. Both studies involved children who hadbeen referred to children’s social care, and social workers identified children’sdevelopmental needs at the initial assessment stage.In the majority of cases families were experiencing a multitude of difficulties suchas the co-existence of domestic violence and learning disability, poor mental health,poverty, and deprivation. It should, therefore, not be assumed that children’s needswere solely the result of a single parental disorder.Moreover, because the sample size for the age group is not large (particularly forthe group of children living with parents with learning disabilities) caution shouldbe used before making any extrapolations.