As part of our work to end violence against women and girls with learning disabilities, SCLD has been collaborating with Dr Gavin Hutchison from the University of Bristol, to embed his groundbreaking new framework into our upcoming accessibility audit toolkit.

The toolkit is a practical set of resources designed to support organisations to make their services accessible to women with learning disabilities who have experienced gender-based violence, and is due to be launched in June 2025. To find out more, read Gavin’s blog here:

It is a privilege to work and learn alongside people with learning disabilities. Each relationship between a person in a supportive role and a person with a learning disability is unique. These relationships represent a partnership, an opportunity for shared learning and development. 

Too often people in supportive roles, across professional disciplines, neglect to grasp the learning and development opportunities in front of them. Misconceptions about the abilities and strengths of people with learning disabilities impacts upon the reciprocity of these relationships, with people in supportive roles often believing that people with a learning disability are the overwhelming beneficiary of their relationships with them. This in turn guides how people in supportive roles interact with, engage with, and value the person they are supporting. In short, the belief that there is nothing to gain from the relationship, leads to interventions that focus on control and safety to the detriment of interpersonal aspects of human connectiveness. 

In my experience people with learning disabilities openly discuss what is fair and unfair in their everyday lives. These conversations are complex, impactful, insightful, and meaningful and can sometimes facilitate positive change in their lives (when they can find others to listen and hear them). I have had conversations with people with learning disabilities where they have discussed not being able to do what they want when they want, lack of community resources to meet new people, lack of support to develop and maintain intimate relationships, not liking support staff because they aren’t nice to them, not being able to invite friends over to their home, often resulting in loneliness and isolation. Colleagues have at times, rationalised what people with learning disabilities describe as unfair with conversations of time management, resource allocation, and the adage, ‘well I want a Ferrari, you can’t always have what you want’. I started to think about what fairness and unfairness means and to who, and whose definitions are privileged over others and why. When reading about fairness I was surprised to see that little is known about how people with learning disabilities experience fairness and unfairness. 

I decided to use my position as a PhD candidate to find out more. I explored the experiences of fairness and unfairness amongst adults with learning disabilities who have engaged with services responding to domestic violence and abuse (DVA). The research indicated that we need to change how we work alongside people with learning disabilities who have experienced DVA. This was formalised in the development of the practice framework Fairness informed Practice (FIP). 

FIP puts the experience of fairness at the centre of professional practice with people with learning disabilities who have experience DVA. For care and support to be deemed ‘fair’ professionals should be able to demonstrate that they want to engage in relationships with the people they support. It is important for relationships to go beyond a focus on safety and assessment criteria to a particular focus on the interpersonal aspects of human connectiveness. This includes a commitment to anti-discriminatory practice and consideration towards the impact of experiences of trauma throughout the life course. This involves treating people with learning disabilities who have experienced DVA with the same dignity, respect, and common humanity as those without learning disabilities whilst ensuring that the aid and support required to make choices, undertake day to day tasks, and pursue goals and ambitions is provided without discrimination. To achieve this, those supporting people with learning disabilities who have experienced DVA must develop a reflexive awareness of how their own personal experiences and core values, and those of the wider culture and organisations we work within, can reinforce unfairness experienced through the life course and how this can be challenged. This can be achieved only when relationships are seen as reciprocal, where we understand that our relationships with others provide a lens through which we can reinterpret our personal beliefs, our roles, and how this interacts with wider cultural and organisational norms and values. 

My research indicates that more needs to be done to support those employed in a paid and/or voluntary capacity to support people with learning disabilities who have experienced DVA. SCLD’S accessibility audit toolkit represents a significant step in the right direction. This will support service providers to understand barriers to accessing support and justice for women with learning disabilities, to identify where change is needed, and to take action towards realising the human rights of victim/ survivors with learning disabilities.  

If you are interested you can read my full PhD thesis here. 

The easy read summary can be found here FIP easy read v 2.2

More Information:
For further information, please contact Michelle Mair by email at Michelle.m@scld.co.uk or by phone on 0141 248 3733