Was: £12.95 NOW: £5

In Partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Uncertain Futures provides an overview of research, policy and practice relating to service responses to adults with learning difficulties living at home with older family carers. As their life expectancy increases, a growing proportion of people with learning difficulties continues to live with family members, most frequently parents, whose caring role is now being extended into their own advanced old age. The incompetence of the paid service sector in providing adequate support to people with learning difficulties and their ageing family carers places an unacceptable emotional and physical burden on carers. Their failure to help families plan for the future presents people with learning difficulties with additional worry and uncertainty when they lose their closest relative and primary carer.

This report highlights the issues raised by service users, carers and service providers and finds a broad consensus on what is wrong and what needs to be done, it argues that the future needs of this group of people are wholly predictable - only the timing is uncertain. There is an urgent need for the paid service sector to work with families to provide the necessary support and planning which will replace uncertain futures with security and peace of mind.

Professionals within the social care sector are required to undertake Continuous Professional Development (CPD) by the General Social Care Council (GSCC). Those who use this resource will be able to gain CPD points.