Parents Together: action research and advocacy support for parents with learning difficulties

This paper describes the work of Parents Together, a pioneering action research project that set out to support parents with learning difficulties in ways that were non-stigmatising, non-intrusive and responsive to their perceptions of their own needs. Based on an explicit model of parenting and social support, Parents Together used an advocacy approach to challenge discriminatory views of parents' competence and to lighten the load on families by reducing the environmental pressures that undermined them. The paper concludes by drawing out the wider lessons of the project for policy and practice. Pseudonyms have been used throughout this article.