Background

A family that has been known to Children Social Care (CSC) at length, with recurring issues around poor home conditions, neglect of the children and parenting skills.    A single mother, with seven children, who now had three secondary school age children currently living at home, the four older children, are now adults and have moved on to their own homes. There were three fathers to the children.  One father became involved (father to youngest three children living with mother).  Mother had not been attending medical appointments and an older child had hearing problems that led to the need for long term hearing aids.

What triggered the GCP2?

The eldest child referred the family with concerns around multiple male partners in the home and mother using cannabis.

A family support worker (FSW) from CSC carried out an initial home visit to start the GCP2 and took a clutter checklist.  Home conditions were unclean, with significant garden waste/clutter, children were sorting their own breakfast and evening meals themselves.  School attendance was poor, a child with hearing difficulties was skipping school, avoiding lessons.

The FSW suspected that Mother had undiagnosed learning difficulties and used pictures to enhance mother’s engagement and understand.  There was lengthy involvement due to this and additional time taken to explain and check that mother understood changes that were needed.  The FSW and social worker supported mum to engage with the Housing association, Adult Social Care, School and Family Group Conferencing.  Mother stated that the accusation of her using cannabis was malicious.  With regular home visits, the FSW agreed that there was no evidence of cannabis use at the home.

Three GCP2’s were completed with the family, an initial GCP2 and then two further after 3-monthly reviews.  The initial GCP2 was 4/5 in all areas, meaning the children’s needs were not met most of the time or never met.

What was the outcome?

With support, mother did engage with the GP, and was diagnosed with Multiple sclerosis.  This led to the FSW referring to Adult social care, after mother’s initial resistance to engaging, adjustments were made in the home to assist her with mobility.  To address the home conditions, the FSW carried out a joint visit with the Housing association, who conducted some basic repairs, but also gave an eviction warning and timescale for mother to address the garden waste and the infestations.  Mum made arrangements to have the garden cleared soon after the first GCP2 was completed.

As well as support for mother, there were improvements for the children, increased contact visits with their father, improved attendance and engagement at school, the children were involved in the GCP2 and helping with home conditions and engaged with rotas to help clean the house. More contact with father was initiated and both parents had parenting assessments. Children voiced understimulation and boredom, which the FSW spoke with father and the children about.

Some progress was made with mother and father. The eldest daughter is considering a guardianship order to become main carer for the 3 youngest children. On the final GCP2 there were still areas around nutrition in the home, attending medical appointments and home conditions that were concerning.  The children’s appearance, nutrition, school attendance had all improved, since staying more with their older sister.  A meeting at school helped address the class setting for the hearing impaired child.

Further work around the family group conference and family network have identified that the children do wish to stay with their older sister and with mum needing high levels of support this option is strongly supported by the professional network.  The eldest daughter was becoming involved in supporting mother with finances and next steps were starting to arrange for guardianship. Parents were also undergoing parenting assessments.

The challenges

Initially there were challenges of non-engagement with mother, denial and scapegoating the eldest child who had been in and out of prison.

More time was needed to explore the issues that emerged.

Getting to know the family helped.