At Eastern Region, our goal is to keep children with their families as long as they’re safe and happy. A Senior Social Worker, talks us through a case at Suffolk County Council where there had been a successful reunion of child and mother, and the ongoing support for the family to ensure that everyone worked together to create positive change.

What was the challenge you worked on?

The case resulted in the successful reunification of two children to their mothers care after a substantial period of time in the care of the Local Authority.

Who took part in supporting this family?

There were various parties involved in helping this mother and children, including both parents, the Family Solutions Team, an allocated Social Worker, the children’s school, Foster Carers and an independent Reviewing Officer for the local authority.

What was the solution for this situation?

The mother has already complete a significant amount of work to change within herself with the support of her Social Worker. The main issue that arose was the confidence within herself as it had been a while since she had cared for her children independently.

This resulted in her questioning her ability to look after her children and often needing guidance in making decisions for her children. There were also concerns that her low confidence led to appropriate boundaries not being put in place for the children to support their physical and emotional wellbeing.

How did you approach this as a team?

A comprehensive referral to Family Solutions was made by the allocated social worker. This outlined the social workers best hopes from the work and provided an overview of the situation. An initial visit with the allocated social worker demonstrated collaborative working between services and attendance at all relevant meetings ensured, as a worker, I was informed and up to date with progression and plans.

The family were supported to identify three goals they wanted to work towards. These goals are family lead to ensure work is relevant to their needs and addresses their concerns. These goals were scaled by the family and myself at implementation, midway through the intervention and at the end of the work. The scaling provided an opportunity to measure the progression and at midpoint potentially identify any areas that needed further work or a different approach.

Direct work with the family was based on the goals initially identified. Some sessions were completed as a family to support and encourage the relationships within the family unit. While other sessions were completed independently with the mother to motivate and empower. These sessions were essential to the outcome of the work and enhanced the mother’s confidence in her abilities as a parent. Support networks outside the professional relationships were explored during intervention to highlight and encourage ongoing support once services withdrew.

What was the outcome of this work?

The children were successfully reunited with their mother and an application was made to discharge the children from the care of the Local Authority.

What did you learn from this experience?

This case highlighted the importance of teams working together to support a family to achieve their goals. The timing of specific interventions need to be carefully considered to ensure the family are not overwhelmed with visits and appointments to ensure the focus can be at its highest potential to achieve positive change.

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