Taking Control - a partnership project (Surestart and the Family Information Group) looking at the issues and needs of families of pre-school disabled children in theses wards.
Aim - to develop a strategy, based on the personal experiences of families of pre-school disabled children, that will begin to identify the issues, needs and concerns of these families in relation to disability and to raise awareness of disability issues in the wider community.
Objective - through the expertise of Surestart staff, informed by the experience of the Family Information Group, carry out a qualitative research project in this area, with the voluntary co-operation of parents and families of pre-school disabled children.
Research Summary - staff will directly involve families in the research and focus primarily on three key areas in relation to services, acknowledging that there needs to be a clear understanding of what this term means to families. The three areas are: Services the family have received. Services the family are receiving. Services the family would like to receive.
From this information, it will then be quite easy to identify what services the families are not receiving and begin structuring a strategy. By engaging families in this process, it is hoped that they will feel a sense of ownership of the issues and therefore be more willing to become involved in any attempts to address the issues, in the community. It is also important that records are kept of who is involved with the family, where they are from, for how long and how frequently.
The Issues - It is important that families identify their own issues ( and staff do not influence this with their own experiences), however staff need also be aware of some of the key issues in advance, to ensure families have an opportunity to explore these e.g. diagnosis and disclosure and how news was broken, lack of appropriate information, lack of support, disjointed services, respite/time out, lack of respect for parents, negative attitudes to disability - to name a few (Beyond Words).
Services the family have received.
