To arrange the support you may need as a disabled parent, the place to start is the adult social services team in your local authority. This is a different team to the ' Children and families team'.

Health and social care assessments and the parenting role

A disabled person has the right to ask for an assessment of their health and social care needs and if you have parenting responsibilities (for a child under 18) the assessment of your needs should also cover the support you need to carry out these responsibilities. If you are a parent-to-be, you can let the social services team know about your situation before your baby is born to help them plan your support.

Remember, social services are not there to assume that you are unable to cope or that you will not be a good parent. Instead, decisions about the support offered should focus on how to help you in your parenting role and not 'what you cannot do'.

It's important to remember that your assessment as a disabled person/parent is about your needs. If you receive the right support, your child's needs will be met without the need for services from the 'Children and families team'.

Assessments

It's a good idea to prepare for an assessment by making a list of the type of support you need. For example:

• help to care for your baby in your home, for example, help at bath time
• equipment, like adapted pushchairs
• changes to your home
• help with getting your child ready for, and to, nursery or school

Health and social care assessments

Direct payments - arranging your own care and services

If you are assessed as needing help from social services you may choose direct payments. Direct payments allow you to arrange and pay for your own care and services instead of receiving them directly from your local authority. This includes help from a professional carer or personal assistant.

Direct payments can also allow other family members give up some, or all, of their caring responsibilities.

Direct payments - arranging your own care and services

Employing a professional carer or personal assistant

Other people in the family and 'young carers'

If a friend, another relative (including your own child) or your spouse or partner gives you a regular and substantial amount of caring or help around the house - they have the right to an assessment.

Following an assessment, services should not be given to them - in particular children - in place of services for you as the disabled adult/parent. If a child is regularly carrying out substantial caring for you this should lead to an assessment of your support needs.

Health and social care assessments for carers

Young carers

Children's services

Most disabled parents - including parents with a learning disability or mental health problem - lead successful and fulfilling lives as parents, calling on the support they have been assessed as needing.

A social services team should not make a judgement on your ability or 'capacity' to be a parent without first assessing - and then offering via a care plan - your need for support.  In other words, it would need to be shown that where children cannot live with a parent(s), or a child's well-being needs to be reviewed, it is not because of a lack of support to you.

Children 'in need'

Children should not necessarily be identified as 'in need' because one or both parents are disabled, although this could be a factor.

Sometimes however, if there are still concerns about a child's well-being, only then will a 'child in need' assessment be done. This is managed by the 'Children and families team' in your local authority and looks at the family as a whole.

A rough guide to what a 'child in need' means (in the Children Act 1989) is a child under 17 whose health and development is likely to be made significantly worse without support and services.