Category: Research

Attachment and caregiving in families with parental learning disabilities

Parents with learning difficulties often face significant challenges that contribute to their overall disadvantage. Research shows these parents are over-represented in child welfare systems, with international estimates suggesting that 40-60% of their children are removed from their care at some point.

While safeguarding concerns remain central, these figures raise important questions about how parenting capacity is assessed and how parents are supported. We explore this further in our latest blog from the Working Together with Parents Network.

Link: Attachment and caregiving in families with parental learning disabilities | Research in Practice 

from Research in Practice

Suicide Prevention and Self Harm bulletin

from Mersey Care Evidence and Library Service

In this issue:  
   

  • Between Protocol and Presence: Clinicians’ Work in Suicide Risk Assessment
  • Recognizing Risk, Responding with Care: The Development of a Crisis Response Program for Suicidal and Homicidal Ideation in Children with Autism
  • The impact of patient death and suicide on mental health professionals: mixed-methods study
  • Psychological safety on mental health wards: more than preventing harm
  • Plus much more
SP_8july26Download

Norfolk’s Family Help model:

Championing Families First Partnerships

The Families First Partnership programme aims to transform how support for families is delivered across England. This includes implementing Family Help and multi-agency child protection reforms and increasing support for family networks.

In a new blog, Jen Dewar, Assistant Director for Family Help, Care and Protection within Norfolk Children’s Services, shares Norfolk’s Family Help model, an approach that aims to provide more responsive, inclusive family support. She outlines key elements of Norfolk’s model and the impact this has had on practice. 

Following an Ofsted inspection in February 2026, Norfolk Children’s Services was graded as outstanding across all five categories. The report, published in May, highlights the successful implementation of the Family Help model.

Read more here: Championing Families First Partnerships in Norfolk | Research in Practice

from Research in Practice

Latest Learning Disabilities Bulletin

Dear all,

Welcome to the new Learning Disabilities Bulletin!

To ensure that you continue to receive the appropriate bulletin(s) please complete this very brief form LD + ND Mailing lists – Fill in this form

The latest Learning Disabilities Bulletin is ready for you to view at https://www.evidentlybetter.org/learning-disability/2026/05/19-may-2026-3/


In this edition:

  • Frequency of mixed neuropathologies in individuals with down syndrome with and without Alzheimer’s dementia
  • Immediate and Underlying Causes of Death and Survival Rates in Aging Adults With Down Syndrome
  • Acts of Hope for Good Lives
  • Are Migraines Being Missed in People with Learning Disabilities?
  • CBF Announces Making it Matter Project
  • Attachment and caregiving by parents with learning disabilities: lessons from research
  • Plus much more

please let us know if there are other people who you think might benefit from receiving this bulletin.

Thank you

Resources to support work around Mental Health and Wellbeing

Dear all,

Click here to explore Research in Practice resources to support Mental Health Awareness Week, including:

Supporting mental health and wellbeing | Research in Practice
Don’t forget you can also post and respond to requests on the ‘Peer Support’ channel. You can access this and the Updates channel by switching from your organisations Teams to ours – in Teams click on your organisations name/your icon and select National Childrens Bureau from the dropdown list.

New Practice Guide

Dear all,

New Practice Guide: Working with Autistic Parents [children & families]

This new Practice Guide outlines a neuroinclusive practice approach to working with families, rooted in the values of the neurodiversity paradigm and social justice approaches. It aims to build practitioners understanding of Autistic parenting within the framework of social care assessment, support and intervention.

The guide accompanies a Frontline Briefing that supports practitioners to enhance their understanding of autism, seeking to facilitate a shift towards more inclusive practices.

Despite greater visibility of autism, there are still many barriers faced by Autistic children, young people and their families. In a new blog, we examine key legislative and policy changes that are underway, highlighting implications for practice.  

Find out more: Improving support for Autistic parents and children | Research in Practice

Research in Practice

New Webinar: Attachment and caregiving in families with parental learning disabilities

This webinar, for the Working Together with Parents Network, will explore findings from doctoral research on parenting capacity and attachment in the context of parents with a learning disability.

The facilitators will draw on their research and clinical interests in working with adults with learning disabilities and will discuss the implications for practice and the need for more inclusive and context-sensitive approaches to understanding attachment and caregiving in families where parents have learning disabilities.

Find out more here: Attachment, caregiving, and parental learning disabilities | Research in Practice

Forensic Psychiatry Bulletin

Dear all,

Forensic Psychiatry Bulletin

The link below is to the latest edition of this current awareness bulletin on the Trust Library webpage. The links to abstracts have been activated in this bulletin and if you click on the title, it will take you to either the abstract or a full text version.

https://www.gmmh.nhs.uk/download/forensic-psychiatry-may-2026pdf.pdf?ver=24377&doc=docm93jijm4n18400.pdf

Some of the references contained in the bulletin may be an Open Access reference, which will be available for you download and some may be available to download via a GMMH Athens Account login. Some of the references may be an abstract only, and the full text will have to be requested directly from the library.

For faster, one click access to articles you can link our resources to your device browser using LibKey–Nomad www.libkeynomad.comand following the onscreen instructions.

The Curve Library (Prestwich site) is open 8.30am-4.00pm Monday to Friday.

Please email ALL library enquires to library@gmmh.nhs.uk

Learning Disabilities Bulletin

Dear all,

Dear all,   Welcome to the new Learning Disabilities Bulletin!   To ensure that you continue to receive the appropriate bulletin(s) please complete this very brief form LD + ND Mailing lists – Fill in this form   The latest Learning Disabilities Bulletin is ready for you to view at https://www.evidentlybetter.org/learning-disability/2026/03/12-march-2026-2/  
In this edition:   Hospitalisations and deaths due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions among adults with and without intellectual disabilities in Scotland: a cohort study Non-Substance Addictive Behaviors Among People with Intellectual Disability: A Systematic Review Low-Dose Lithium for Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial Webinar recording: Introducing the Working Together Checker Connected Care – Highlights and insights from the 2026 Growing Older with Learning Disabilities Conference Good Lives depend on good support: new report on pay in adult social care Plus much more
Please let us know if there are other people who you think might benefit from receiving this bulletin.