Lack of communication support can make it difficult for Deaf parents to access information about their children’s education.
Lack of awareness about deafness can also cause problems, with many ‘professionals’ making ill-informed decisions about the care of children of Deaf parents.
If you feel that things are going wrong, there are a number of organisations which can provide support.
- Deaf Parenting UK – Provide information/advice on Deaf parenting issues and tailor-made services to Deaf parents.
- National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS)– for parents with Deaf children. Can provide information and advice about Education.
- Royal Association for Deaf people (RAD) – Provides an advice service and runs ‘family groups’ where you will find support.
- Sign Community (also known as British Deaf Association- BDA) – The BDA has Community Advocacy services based in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.
- Sign Charity – Sign Charity’s mission is to promote Deaf Wellness and independent lives, preventing mental health and offer advocacy support.
- Disability Pregnancy & Parenting international (DPPi) – A Helpline/ information services, providing support to parents with disabilities.
- Contact a Family – Offers help to families who care for children with any disability or special needs.
Parentline Plus have useful parenting tools & tips on their website
New Parent Guide: “Is it Legal? A Parents Guide to the Law”
Do you know how the law affects parents? For example, are you allowed to smack your children? Can you take your children out of school for family holiday?
These are just some of the questions answered in Is it Legal? A Guide to the Law. This free, handy guide to legislation which affects families living in England and Wales has now been translated into Somali, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi. The guide is available to download free from the internet both in English and in these four languages.
A new legal guide book for parents, co-authored by The Children’s Legal Centre, was launched by Cherie Booth QC at the start of the first national parents week during October. The guide, entitled ‘Is it Legal? – A Parents’ Guide to the Law’, was jointly written by the University based centre and the National Family and Parenting Institute (NFPI). It provides parents with a reference guide to the relevant law and covers issues including the age at which children can work, babysitting and the legal position of fathers not married to their children’s mothers.
Launching the guide, Cherie Booth said, ‘As a barrister as well as a parent, I’m pleased that the week starts with a parents’ guide to the law. The law affects all parents in one way or another and the guide answers many questions, from everyday things like Saturday jobs through to serious issues like criminal responsibility. Information about the law should be accessible to everyone and I hope this free legal guide helps to explain what the law says, and what it doesn’t say, about being a parent’.
Carolyn Hamilton, Director of the Children’s Legal Centre, also commented on the new guide, ‘We are delighted to be supporting Parent’s Week and to have been so closely involved in the production of this legal guide for parents. The Children’s Legal Centre takes around 6,500 calls a year from people asking for legal advice, the majority of them parents. They are concerned about everything from the arrangements made for children following divorce to bullying at school to the law on employment. Clearly, many parents do not know what the law says about their rights or those of their children. This free legal guide addresses many of the questions and concerns that our advice lines are dealing with on a daily basis.’
‘Is it Legal – A Parents’ Guide to the Law’ is available free from the NFPI website at www.familyandparenting.org/publications
