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ABSTRACT
'A family at risk: multiple perspectives on parenting and
child protection'
Wendy Booth & Tim Booth
British Journal of Learning Disabilities
32(1), 2004, 9-15
Parents with learning difficulties face a high risk of losing
their children. This fact holds in all countries with a well-developed
child protection system. International research shows rates for
the removal of children from such families varying from study
to study and country to country in a range between 30 and 80%.
In the UK, the evidence suggests that 40-60% of children are
taken into alternative care. These bare facts reveal nothing
of the process that generates them. This paper looks at how one
family came to be counted among these statistics. Using material
drawn from court files, social worker statements, expert reports
and personal interviews, it documents the conflicting accounts
from which a dominant story of parenting failure was finally
translated into one of success.
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