A National Comparative Study over One Decade of Children with Intellectual Disabilities Living Away from Their Natural Parents

Abstract

Children with intellectual disabilities are more likely than non-disabled children to liveaway from their families. Internationally, the aspiration is for them to live at home or inalternative family placements. This study uses national data on over 700 children fromthe Republic of Ireland to monitor their living arrangements over a ten-year period.In that time, the numbers of children in care had fallen significantly and especially forthose in residential settings aged ten years and over. Nonetheless, proportionatelymore children with intellectual disability of all ages moved away from their families, especially those aged ten to nineteen years. However, compared to non-disabled children,fewer were placed in foster-care, although the extent of this varied across the localhealth areas. Over the ten-year period, only small proportions of children returned totheir families or moved from residential to foster-care. These findings are combinedwith those from international studies to identify changes in service provision andsocial work. A particular challenge is the promotion of cross-sector working betweenmainstream child and family services with specialist disability services.