ABSTRACT
This chapter helps educators appreciate the life journeys that families engage in with their child with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (CLDD), the day-to-day pressures they live with and why they may be far shorter of resources energy, time, resilience, finance and sometimes patience than families of typically developing children. It will explore the experiences and insights of families with a child with CLDD through case studies and examples of how families and schools can work collaboratively to engage these children in learning. Some families from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities can also be 'hard to reach', and may be wrongly perceived as passive in relation to their child's education. Partnership with families is about building a bridge between a child's home and school to allow for formal and informal correspondence and co-operation. Partnerships can be challenging, and families of children with CLDD may be among the most vulnerable to work with.
