Laura Burnett

1. Mellow Futures
A parenting programme for parents with learning
disabilities and/or difficulties
Lara Burnett

2. • Supports parents with a learning disability and learning
difficulty
• Written under a project called Parent Pioneers, funded
by the Department of Health over 3 years, 2012-2015
• A pilot is also running in Scotland, funded by Big Fund
in Scotland
Mellow Futures

3. • To level the playing field for families where a mum to be
or parent in the early months of parenting has a learning
difficulty or a learning disability by providing early and
accessible services
• To increase the support to families in their community
• Improve the knowledge and skills of early years services
Key aims

4. • Mencap’s definition of a learning disability is:
A learning disability is a reduced intellectual
ability and difficulty with everyday activities –
for example household tasks, socialising or
managing money – which affects someone for
their whole life.
People with a learning disability tend to take
longer to learn and may need support to
develop new skills, understand complex
information and interact with other people.

5. • In the United Kingdom, about 1.5 million people have a
learning disability
• This number is growing.
• Exact numbers of parents with learning disabilities is
difficult to estimate- numbers vary between 25,000 and
250,000 in the UK.
(Dept of Health and Dept of Education and Skills 2007)
The numbers

6. Inherited or abnormal development of genes and
chromosomes
Environmental factors before, during or after birth.
• Pre birth – genetic, chromosomes [Down’s syndrome],
Fragile X syndrome, malnutrition, drugs, alcohol
• Peri-Natal – oxygen deprivation resulting in cerebral
palsy, infections in the womb, premature birth
• Post Natal – illness, brain injury, meningitis, social
deprivation
Causes

7. Learning Disability or Mental Illness?
A learning
disability is from
birth
It affects the ways
you learn,
communicate and
understand
It cannot be treated
medically and it
cannot be cured
Mental illness can
usually start around
adolescence.
It affects the way you
think, feel and behave.
It can be treated with
therapy or drugs, which
can help some people.

8. A learning disability
means that someone
may not be able to
learn beyond their
ability regardless of the
support and
adaptations available.
A learning difficulty is
a specific problem
which may be
overcome with support
and adaptations for
learning to take place.
Examples of learning difficulties:
Autism (ASD) Aspergers Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Dyslexia
Dyspraxia Dyscalculia
Learning Disability and Learning Difficulty

9. People with learning disabilities have an increased risk of
additional challenges, such as:
• Health issues
• Poor socio-economical conditions
• Social Isolation
• Poor psychological wellbeing
Other issues

10. • Research has shown that 12.5% of care proceedings in
the UK courts involved parents with LD.
(Masson et al, 2008, McConnell et al, 2011)
• ‘One sixth of children subject to care proceedings have
at least one parent with learning disabilities; rising to
almost 25% if borderline learning difficulties are included;
children are permanently placed away from home in 75%
of these cases’
(Booth et al 2005)
The stats

11. • In many instances of concern, the risks to the children
were related to unintentional neglect due to a lack of
awareness of the child’s needs and or/availability of
appropriate support.
(Cleaver and Nicholson 2007)
• Parental learning disabilities treated as though they were
a reliable indicator of parenting capacity
– rather than focusing on actual parenting abilities and
other external influences.
• Reasonable efforts are not always made to support
parents with learning disabilities and their children as a
family.
Why needed?

12. So…
• The support people with learning disabilities receive is
crucial to their parenting success
• It needs to be early, planned, and pro-active
• Not reactive and provided under the context of a crisis

13. The project is being delivered in 2 Local Authority pilot sites:
– London Borough of Islington
– County of Northumberland
Mencap; intellectual disability expertise and project
management
Mellow Parenting; adapting parenting courses
Elfrida Society; running parents reference group
Norah Fry Research Centre; evaluating the project
Parent Pioneers

14. Mellow Bumps
- helping mums to bond with their babies
- helping mums to de-stress
Mellow Babies
- supporting mums to be a parent.
- discussing what is like being a parent and talking
about topics such as healthy eating and safety
Volunteer family mentors
- to help practice what was learnt on the course
- supporting families access local support and
services
Mellow Futures

15. Making sure that parents with learning disabilities are central
to the development of the project:
• helping to adapt course material – giving their opinion on
readability and how meaningful the content was for them
• training professionals and volunteer mentors
• helping write job descriptions for the volunteers
• testing out new and adapted sessions and research questions
• making a film about their experiences of being a parent
Parents leading practice

16. FILM
Adrian Brown
Representative of the parents reference group
Parents leading practice

17. Parents leading practice
‘A learning disability is not a loving disability’

18. Clinical Experiences
Mellow Future Facilitation
Rachel Stephen

19. Bumps Babies

20. Connections

21. Challenges

22. What we did?

23. What worked
What worked

24. What did we learn
More time
Preparation on friendship difficulties
Emotional Regulation and self soothing

26. Mellow Futures
Mentoring on the parenting programme
Raquib Ibrahim

27. • People with learning difficulties can often find it hard to
process new information and learn new skills.
• However they are able to learn new information through
repetition and routine.
• Mentors can support the parent by helping to practice
and transfer these new skills in different settings.
Why use mentors

28. Build and maintain a good relationship with the parent
1.Receive weekly feedback from the group facilitators on topics
covered and parents’ progress prior to meeting the parent.
2.Weekly meetings/home visits with the parent between groups
to assist with the intervention homework exercise (“HAVE A
GO!”) as well as provide any general support relating to the
programme.
3.Feedbacks to facilitators how the meeting went and any other
issues raised or discussed.
The role of a mentor

29. Mum feedback
• Mums were very engaging and seemed to really
benefit from the mid-week catch up.
• The opportunity to talk over and ask questions about
some of the course content really helped the mums
understand and apply what was discussed.
• Seeing how the “HAVE A GO!” exercise can be
applied at home really seemed to help with the learning
(e.g. Bumps relaxation or Babies week 7; can you see
the baby)
My experience

30. My own challenges
• Maintaining the boundaries of a Mellow Futures
Mentor (want to fix everything).
• Bringing the relationship to an end.
• Ensuring partner/family doesn’t take over the
“HAVE A GO!” exercise during the home visit.
My experience

31. • Being a mentor is a great opportunity for those looking to
give something back to the community.
• Seeing the progress made in the family’s life week to
week offers great satisfaction.
• Also offers a unique opportunity for those seeking to
gain experience within this sector so they can go on and
seek employment.
Summary and Conclusion

32. Evaluation of the
Mellow Futures Programme
Beth Tarleton

33. Evaluating the programme’s impact on:
• Children’s outcomes and family situation
• Appropriateness of programme
• Impact of programme on the local context
• 2 sites in England, (4 in Scotland)
• Focus today on English sites

34. • Methods used with parents overseen by Parents
Expert group
• Easy information for parents, regular face to
face interactions.

35. Babies’ outcomes/family situation
• Interviews with mothers
• Information from referrers
• Analysis of mother/baby interactions
• Mothers completion of:
– Adult well-being scale
– Neo-natal perception inventory
• Collection of information about tracked group

36. Impact/benefits /appropriateness of
programme (including benefits for volunteers)
• Information from referrers
• Interviews :
– Mum
– Volunteers
– Mellow Practitioners
– Volunteer managers
• Volunteer completion of WEMBS scale

37. Impact on local context
• Pre and post interviews with managers and
commissioners
• Evaluation of Mencap training for local
professionals
• Information/interviews from/with referrers

38. Mothers’ situations at start
• Living at home with full family support 
• Parental responsibility for baby with a family
member 
• Children previously removed, foster placement
or residential assessment at birth
• Concerns regarding the welfare of the majority
of the babies.
• Drop outs – mental health issues, crises, not
needed due to family support.

39. Mother’s views at the end of programmes
•Increased confidence
•Discussed understanding babies cues
•Practical activities remembered including use of
relaxation activities (in labour!) and torch/bell
exercises
•Lifestory work ‘upsetting’
•Some activities seen as ‘babyish’.

40. •Emotional safety in group
•Enjoyed being with other mums in similar
situations.
•Liked and trusted facilitators
•Enjoyed time with mentor – help with at home
activities and a ‘good chat’
•‘Forced’ mums engaged.
•Missed group when finished.

41. Mum’s social connections at end
•North – referral to children’s centres
– Whatsapp/facebook contact
•Urban
– On-going contact between some mums
– Advocacy/Parents project at Elfrida
•Little unsupported use of new services
•Call for on-going group in urban.

42. Referrers’ views on impact of the
programmme
• Increased confidence in mothers
• Increased understanding of baby
• Increased social interaction (urban area)
• Seen as independent/safe/nurturing
environment
Over positive view of situation?

43. Adaptation programme content and
presentation
• Relationship based programme builds trust
– Facilitators sharing own stories
– Understanding and engaging with issues
– Clear boundaries regarding sharing with other
professionals
– Mothers felt safe to share.
– Ensure facilitators not ‘teacher’

44. • Content similar to main programme
– Easier words and more pictures
– Adapted by facilitators on weekly basis in response to
mothers situations and shorter attention span 
content broken into smaller steps
– Content repeated over subsequent weeks
• Difficulties in getting through content in 1.5/2
hours.
• Support for facilitators required

45. Volunteer mentors
•All but one mothers themselves
•Give something back
•Learning re complexity of mum’s situations
•Experience for future careers/using skills once
retired
•Enjoying relationship – concern when mothers
drop out that they have failed

46. • Supporting mums at home – discussion and
‘take home activity’
– Urban site – attempts at community
engagement
• Information about mums required?
• Higher level of support required.
• Northern – huge distances to provide support.

47. Importance of children’s group workers
– Mums ‘learnt to trust’ and leave child
– Relationship with/support learning of mums
– Feedback to facilitators
– Feel valued and part of team (unlike other
programmes)

48. Impact of mum’s learning difficulty and
context on programme
•Crises become focus of session
•‘Shock’ for mentors
•Issues in relationships between mothers – part of
the learning process?
•Difficulties locating mothers for programme – local
lack of awareness

49. Issues with evaluative methodology
• Mother’s fear of ‘nosey parkers’ especially when
involved in Child Protection
• Mother’s difficulty with remembering details
• Getting hold of referrers and regular changes of
key professionals in mothers’ lives.
• Difficulties return of scales by post.

50. Learning points
•Content/facilitators/mentor/children’s group
workers – all key
•High level of clarity/communication required
between all partners
•Huge time commitment for all
•Role suitable for volunteer with more support
•More awareness raising referrals/local impact
•On-going support required for the mothers
•Mellow Futures positive part of complicated
picture.