The Working Together with Parents Network is a free-to-join membership organisation that supports professionals working with parents with learning disabilities and learning difficulties, and their children.
It's a UK-wide network, hosted by Research in Practice, that engages with key professional stakeholders from adult and children’s social care, education, health, legal and independent advocacy sectors to work towards a common vision and effective ways of joint working.
Research in Practice is part of the National Children’s Bureau which supports a family of other specialist membership groups. Following 18 years at The School for Policy Studies at Bristol University, Research in Practice is proud to become the new home for the network.
It is free to join the Working Together with Parents Network. Members are kept up to date with policy, practice and key legal developments and offered opportunities to exchange knowledge and share practice with fellow professionals and experts across the field.
Introduction to the Working Together with Parents Network by Melika Malone-Lee and Beth Tarleton
Improving systems that support children, young people, families and their networks
We know that the lives of the people we serve do not neatly cut off at 18 or 25 – so we don’t put this box around ourselves either. No one who works with children can afford to ignore the adults in their lives – the parents, carers, wider families and of course professionals they rely on for a good childhood. Looking at support for adults can give us a richer perspective on how to support children and young people.
For over 60 years, NCB has supported networks, programmes and specialist interest groups to drive change to improve the systems and support networks that enable all children and young people to thrive. Through its hosting of the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP), NCB has ten years’ experience of developing parenting programmes. LEAP supported over 15,000 families, with this work taking place from pregnancy and continuing through the early years of a child’s life. This work has demonstrated better birth outcomes and has involved launching a standardised tool with the Royal College of Midwives for addressing social complexity in pregnancy.
Research in Practice has nearly 30 years’ experience working with, and for, professionals in the social care, health, criminal justice and higher education sectors offering evidence-informed resources, learning opportunities, programmes, and specialist expertise.
Our combined expertise, capability and resource in systems-change methodology, research and evidence generation, policy influencing, and high-quality professional development provides strong foundations to continue the vital work of the Working Together with Parents Network.
