Early intervention (EI) provision is critical for families who have children with developmental disabilities (DD), but existing evidence suggests accessing EI is not always straightforward. The purpose of this study was to provide a comprehensive description of access to various EI supports (e.g., professionals, services, interventions) for families of young children with suspected or diagnosed DD across the United Kingdom and to investigate perceived ease of access to support, unmet need for support, and barriers and facilitators of access to support. Overall, 673 parental caregivers of children aged 0 to 6 years with suspected or diagnosed DD (e.g., developmental delay, intellectual disability, autism) completed our survey anonymously. Across education, health, and social care, services accessed the most were pediatrics ( N = 569, 84.5%), speech and language ( N = 567, 84.2%), and general medical practice ( N = 530, 78.8%). However, only 18.9% ( N = 127) accessed packaged interventions. More than three-quarters ( N = 508, 75.5%) reported an unmet need for early support, indicating a mismatch between the availability and capacity of services and demand for support. Parents also reported common barriers (e.g., obstructive services and unhelpful professionals) and facilitators (e.g., supportive and competent professionals, enabling parent factors) of access. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.

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Background: Parents of children with intellectual disabilities are likely to experience poorer mental well-being and face challenges accessing support. Early Positive Approaches to Support (E-PAtS) is a group-based programme, co-produced with parents and professionals, based on existing research evidence and a developmental systems approach to support parental mental well-being. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of community service provider organisations delivering E-PAtS to parents/family caregivers of young children with intellectual disability, to inform a potential definitive randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of E-PAtS.Methods: This study was a feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial, with embedded process evaluation. Up to two parents/family caregivers of a child (18 months to <6 years old) with intellectual disability were recruited at research sites and allocated to intervention (E-PAtS and usual practise) or control (usual practise) on a 1:1 basis at cluster (family) level. Data were collected at baseline and 3 and 12 months' post-randomisation. The following feasibility outcomes were assessed: participant recruitment rates and effectiveness of recruitment pathways; retention rates; intervention adherence and fidelity; service provider recruitment rates and willingness to participate in a future trial; barriers and facilitating factors for recruitment, engagement, and intervention delivery; and feasibility of collecting outcome measures.Results: Seventy-four families were randomised to intervention or control (n = 37). Retention rates were 72% at 12 months post-randomisation, and completion of the proposed primary outcome measure (WEMWBS) was 51%. Recruitment of service provider organisations and facilitators was feasible and intervention implementation acceptable. Adherence to the intervention was 76% and the intervention was well-received by participants; exploratory analyses suggest that adherence and attendance may be associated with improved well-being. Health economic outcome measures were collected successfully and evidence indicates that linkage with routine data would be feasible in a future trial.Conclusions: The E-PAtS Feasibility RCT has demonstrated that the research design and methods of intervention implementation are generally feasible. Consideration of the limitations of this feasibility trial and any barriers to conducting a future definitive trial, do however, need to be considered by researchers.Clinical Trial Registration:https://www.isrctn.com, identifier: ISRCTN70419473.