Potential ethical frameworks to support professional social care employees who work alongside parents with a learning disability

Questions continue to be asked about the ability of many parents with a learning disability (PWLD) to support their children. Relatedly, in countries including Australia, the US and the UK, significantly more children are removed from PWLD than children whose parents have no additional needs. This article draws from qualitative interviews with a sample of professional social care employees in the north-west of England to better understand their experiences of and responsibilities in work alongside PWLD. Findings include the exploration of understanding learning disabilities and offering appropriate support, completing assessments, receiving adequate training and support from supervisors, engagements with courts of law, and the removal of children. As a possible challenge to increasingly dominant biomedical and risk-averse discourses, the article also considers the feasibility and limitations of utilising rights-based and communitarian ethical frameworks for understanding the support needs of PWLD from a social work and social care practitioner perspective.