The effectiveness of an assessment tool that was primarily designed for community nurses is evaluated by Sarah Wharton and colleagues

Growing numbers of people with learning disabilities are now choosing to live an ‘ordinary life’ and have children (Booth and Booth 1994). Meanwhile, the number of parents with learning disabilities known to support services is increasing (McGaw 1998). Following on from work that identified that community nurses would appreciate a formal assessment tool for use with parents with learning disabilities (English 2000), one of the authors, Sue English, described the development of a ‘Parenting Assessment Tool’ in this journal in 2002 (LDP 5, 3, 10-1 5). Sue is a community nurse from a community team learning disability (CTLD) who has ten years’ experience working with parents.