“Our lives are completely different to anyone else”: An exploration into the experiences of Pakistani parents’ accessing and engaging with services and professionals who work together to support children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families

Chaudhry, Miriam (2024). “Our lives are completely different to anyone else”: An exploration into the experiences of Pakistani parents’ accessing and engaging with services and professionals who work together to support children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families. University of Birmingham. Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.

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Abstract

School census data from 2005 to 2011 showed that students from minoritised ethnic groups such as Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds were half as likely to be identified with autism as their white British peers (Strand & Lindorff, 2018). This may be the consequence of parents not engaging with services and professionals who work to support children and their families with SEND due to their limited understanding or awareness of SEND. Research highlights that minoritised ethnic communities experience significant difficulties in accessing and engaging with services due to factors such as power imbalances, communication difficulties and lack of knowledge of the roles of professionals and services (Akbar & Woods, 2020; Lawrence et al., 2014; Nnalue & Mahmud, 2024). To date, there is limited research on minoritised ethnic communities accessing and engaging with services conducted in their own language.

This research aimed to explore the experiences of five Pakistani parents accessing and engaging with services and professionals working together to support children and their families with SEND. Participants were parents who identified as belonging to the Pakistani community, with a child with SEND and they had been through the EHCP process. Semi-structured interviews in Urdu were used to gain the views of the parents. Inductive analysis was applied to develop key themes from the parents’ views of their experiences. Reflexive thematic analysis was used as a method to analyse data and the theoretical assumptions and researcher’s prior knowledge, and experience were used to guide this.

The results indicated facilitators and barriers for parents accessing and engaging with services and professionals who work together to support children and their families with SEND. Barriers for parents included access to services including awareness and understanding of services. They also included parents not feeling valued during decision making processes and delays in accessing support. Other barriers included relationships between professionals and parents including communication difficulties and their perceptions of services and professionals. Facilitating factors included parental motivation and advocacy, open and honest communication between parents and professionals and flexibility of professionals. A key implication of this research was that that parents would prefer the negotiation model, where parents and professionals are able to negotiate and work together collaboratively. However, this may not be the case, dependent on their confidence levels, and their personal journey and attitudes towards disability.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ap.Ed.&ChildPsy.D.

Supervisor(s):