Parents’ and carers’ experiences of accessing North Wales Services for their children with learning disabilities

February 2024

Dr Dawn Jones has once again received funding from Improvement Cymru to further their research project into reviewing national care models for children and young people with learning disabilities. Dawn received £14,000 last year to provide an evaluation, and you can read the successful report here.  

This time around, Dawn has secured an additional £10,000 to conduct original research based on the findings from the review that showed many parents and carers of children with learning disabilities felt powerless. The conclusion of the project suggested that more research needed to be done about the ways this group of people make sense of the national care models and frameworks currently implemented in Wales. Therefore, Dawn will explore the ways care provision is experienced and delivered from parents’ and carers’ perspectives. 

Dawn will conduct two online focus groups with scope for participant-led themes to develop; this ensures that the participants have ownership over the conversations. Current research in this area tends to consist of statistical data measuring the apparent ‘performance’ of models and frameworks but is lacking depth that can be gained from actually speaking to people, recording their experiences, and actively listening.  

Improvement Cymru – the improvement service for Public Health Wales, is keen to communicate Dawn’s findings to Welsh Government, which will inform the National Vision around Learning Disabilities in Wales, the Strategic action Plan for Learning Disabilities, and advise various Communities of Practice across Wales.  

We look forward to following Dawn’s progress as the research develops. If you’re interested in finding out more, please email dawn.jones@wrexham.ac.uk.