A growing number of people with learning disabilities are becoming parents, and many of them risk having their children removed from their care.

It is difficult to establish how many parents have a learning disability because definitions are hard to apply and many people do not have this label attributed to them until they access health and social services. People with learning disabilities often find that becoming a parent exposes them to services where their disability is presumed to be an automatic barrier to parenting. This article sets out the design, delivery and results of a joint education and practice project that took place from November 2012 to November 2013 between De Montfort University and the Leicestershire Partnership Trust.

The project focused on assessing and supporting parents with learning disabilities, and finding, disseminating and publishing good practice examples locally and nationally. It inspired collaboration between a number of organisations and highlighted the importance of a multidisciplinary approach.

Over the past 30 years, as the type and number of healthcare services have changed, the role of the learning disability nurse has evolved. The numbers of learning disability nurses being trained and subsequently registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council have declined during this period, and many learning disability nurses now work in the voluntary, private and social care sectors. Yet there is little evidence about why people choose learning disability nursing as a career. This article refers to the findings of a narrative study of the experiences of learning disability nurses working in and outside the NHS over the past 30 years. It illuminates how and why they chose their career, and provides an insight into how others could be encouraged to join the profession.

This article outlines the model formulated to develop a cadet scheme in a collaborative partnership between Leicestershire NHS Trusts, De Montfort University School of Nursing and Midwifery, Leicester, and Lincolnshire and Leicestershire Education Consortia.