During the final learning exchange visit in Stirling, Scotland, parents discussed issues around access to play and recreation; child care provision (after school and youth clubs as well as respite); social inclusion and the attitude of society to children with disabilities.

The main learning points included:

• Parents should use their power of being parents to affect change in policy and practice to break down the barriers to social inclusion.

• Many parents have the skills and competence but not the confidence.

• Parent networks should be promoted and supported - parents need positive  role models.

• Promote children positively - what they can do and build on this.

• Parents should not judge each other and should respect each other's opinions and the decisions they make on behalf of their child.

• Alliances betwen parents and professionals of the knowledge they have of the child and the disability will promote mutual respect and bring about shared learning.

Partners met  again in Brindisi, Italy from 25th to 29th April to learn from each other's experiences of education policy and provision for disabled children and how they are working to overcome barriers to inclusion.

The trip included visits to both a primary and secondary school.  Participants also attended a national conerence on disability.  During the confrerence parents from France and Scotland presented their testimonies to over 200 people, including other parents, policy-makers and local government officials.

The main learning points included:

• Involving parents in their child's education can extend as far as involving them with the whole class.

• Parents and disabled children themses should be inlvolved in training school staff and educating the policy-makers, planners, other children and their parents.

• Experience and attitude is just as important as professional training.

• What a child can do should be the starting point in their education - social skills and building resilience are equally as important as academic achievement.

11-16th January 2002, Parents from Scotland, Italy and France met in Toulouse, France for a four day study tour as part of the European Parents as Educators project.  Main discussions during this visit were around the theme of Diagnosis. This is the starting point for the majority of parents whose children are given a label of disability.  Despite differing cultures, there was a great deal of similarity between the experiences of parents across Europe, at the time of diagnosis of their child's disability.

The main learning points for health professionals included:

• Consider the impact your words will have on parents for the rest of their life and that of their children.  Support and talk to parents and ensure they have understood what you have said.

• Provide parents with information on how they can access support,  including support groups, and information about their child's disability.

• Label conditions - not children: children deserve to be seen and valued as individuals and not just seen as the label for a condition which they have.

• All children have potential.  It is up to parents and professionals to work together to develop the child's full potential while at the same time maintaining realistic and positive expectations.
  

NB. Since this is a trans-national project, terminology used in France, Italy and the UK, will have different cultural meanings in each particular country. We will endeavour to use direct translations in all project text.