Scottish Government

Nursery

4 years

Tracy, age 4, attends nursery school four mornings a week. She is brought and collected by Susie, who is Tracey's Mum. Attendance has been good, and any absences explained. She is always brought and collected on time. Over the last few weeks she has had a number of absences which have not been explained. She has been arriving late, and Mum has often been late to collect her. The nursery staff speak to Susie who explains that she has been feeling unwell as she is a few weeks pregnant and has been suffering from morning sickness. However the difficulties continue and in addition nursery staff are worried about Tracy who seems withdrawn and is often seen being destructive with toys. They talk again to Mum who offers the same explanation as before, and none for Tracy's behaviour.

The nursery decides to share its concern about Tracy with the Health Visitor. The Health Visitor was unaware of any worries but agrees to visit. The nursery speaks again to Mum to inform her of its action. The Health Visitor visits and establishes that Dad has developed a drink problem due to work pressures. This has caused violent rows between the parents, with Dad throwing items about the home on a few occasions. Parents want to resolve this difficulty and agree to let the Health Visitor facilitate a referral to an appropriate resource for Dad to get help with his drinking.

Over the next few months the family, the health visitor and the nursery communicate regularly to monitor progress: Dad gets help and resolves his drinking problem, Tracy's attendance at nursery returns to normal and her behaviour is no longer a concern. ¹

Is concern evidenced?

Are the family involved and views sought?

Further evidence-base for concern? Any child development issues? Child-centred focus - has Dad's drink problem been considered in terms of effects on Tracy?

Is the nursery's concern enough to warrant contacting the Health Visitor before speaking to mum or would the nursery & Health Visitor be part of the one 'team' in mum's view? Would Mum assume information is shared?

Are the family involved and views sought?

A need has been noted (help for drinking problem), services targeted on this. Referral to 'external' service made with Dad's consent. Health visitor /midwife shared information? Core data set established for Tracy and expected baby - including name of parents.

Shared plan/monitor/review process & framework in place

Primary School

5 years

Tracy appearing withdrawn and listless in class; isolated, not making progress. Teacher concerned about relationship with father; observed him swearing at child in playground (12.12) and pushing child roughly through school gate (17.02).

Health Visitor describes mother as pale and tired, harassed by care of new baby. Health Visitor has observed father storming at mother because of the state of the house (21.02).

Mother has confided at Family Centre that she is afraid of partner's temper. The staff have observed mother responding sensitively to baby's crying, holding and talking to her, showing warmth. (16.12; 08.01; 01.03). ²

Would a check back on Tracy's earlier nursery behaviour have been helpful? Transfer of health record and chronology to school nurse? Key dates for chronology ?

Is there an evidence-base for concerns, collated ( e.g. dates of incidents)?

School staff know limits to expertise & knowledge, confer with Health Visitor re context. Again, is concern enough to warrant the school contacting the Health Visitor before discussing with parent, or would the school & HV be part of the one 'team' in parents' view, so they would assume sharing? Would knowledge of Dad's drink problem have been illuminating?

Pre-existing consultative arrangements between e.g. school, Family Centre, & Health Visitor. Same point re concern & consent, as above. Parenting skill of mother with baby noted as positive. Are there implications for Tracy? Are the safety issues arising from partner's temper addressed?

Would a plan or action be taken, under IAF shared approach?

Primary School

8 years

Tracy, aged 8, is a lovely girl who has recently enrolled at Butterfly Primary School. She is intelligent but appears to be rather old for her years.

She is often late in arriving, and on two occasions, has not been collected on time and had to wait in the classroom until a friend collected her. Tracy has a number of choice swear words, which have been overheard in the playground, but she is reluctant to talk much to teachers about her home life.

The school has rarely seen her mother, as her 'friend' is usually sent to collect Tracy from school, "because of the baby". Tracy is a bit grubby and is often very hungry at school.

Tracy has been seen by another parent, out late at night, together with her younger brother, and this parent told the class teacher. She has been seen pushing her baby brother in the buggy going to the local shop.

Susie, aged 23, has just discovered she is pregnant again. She presents to her midwife and finds she is 4 months pregnant. Susie has been using heroin and cannabis for at least 5 years.

Susie already has 2 children - Tracy, who is 8, and Billy, who is 3.

Susie has turned up at the GP clinic, having recently registered with the surgery. She has a local address, but has not yet been able to give her previous address, so previous notes have not yet arrived at the surgery.

In talking with Susie, the midwife gathers that she used to be in care as a rebellious teenager, but Susie is very articulate and appears loving and open when talking about her children.

What happened about transfer of records from previous school?
Teachers seek to engage Tracy, to take account of all aspects of her life. Would a check back on Tracy's earlier family experiences have helped?
Acknowledged difficulty this presents for engagement with Tracy's 'significant others'. Do the biographical details for Tracy note any changes in the household, new partners?
Drug dependency not noted earlier (Tracy aged 5) - would IAF approach have been more likely to have surfaced this? Would midwife consider referral of Susie to Drugs service?

Any implications/risks for older children considered by midwife at this point? Would midwife have assessed risks to children & with Susie's consent contacted anyone else?

Does GP have to wait for Susie for details of her earlier address, or can checks be done independently?

Refer to the positive note by Family Centre re Susie & Billy, earlier.

Do the Drugs service enquire about his existing household, support arrangements? Presumably they do? And perhaps discover Tracy?

How optimistic are the Drugs service in cases like this? Do they assess potential risk to family/household, in case things go wrong?

Primary School

8 years

Kevin McPhee, aged 26 presents himself to his local drugs service, asking to be taken onto a methadone programme.

Kevin has also been known in the past as Kevin Ritchie and also at times as Kevin Phillips. He has a previous partner, Marie, who has one child by another man.

When Kevin lived with Marie in England, he was involved in a series of domestic abuse incidents and he ended up hitting Marie's 5-year old girl. Kevin insists that although he has a violent past, with a number of Breach of the Peace offences, this was when he was a chaotic drug user. Now, he presents as stable and willing to reduce his habit and is very co-operative.

Kevin wants to work co-operatively with the Drugs agency, so long as he doesn't have to have any dealing with any effing social workers, who only want to give him a hard time and interfere with everything. ³

Can Kevin rule out social work like this? Under the IAF, presumably Drugs service have a risk assessment framework agreed with the social work department that allows his preference to be overruled if the children's circumstances warrant this?

Any shared assessment overall & Action Plan especially between adult & children's services?

Primary School

10 years

Referral to the Reporter by Educational Psychologist:

There are three male children aged 15 months, 2, and 6 and one female child aged 10 (Tracey)

The older male child, Billy is disabled and requires a high level of care and supervision including toileting issues. He has to use a wheelchair to get about. Mum, Susie is a single parent who seems to have alcohol/drug dependency issues.

Susie

Susie

There has been support offered from time to time by a local voluntary agency that provides practical support to families with disabled children, but usually Suzie indicates to them that she doesn't require support. However, Billy has told his classroom assistant that sometimes he can't get to the toilet during the night as he is unable to do this himself (his wheelchair is broken).

Susie has an on/off relationship with a local man who has been convicted of drug and violent related crime. There are no recorded incidents of violence between the mother and this person but one of the boys has said to his class teacher that he is frightened of this man.

What are the inter-disciplinary arrangements re appropriate responses?

NB. The Educational Psychologist has Billy as the principal focus. Any implications for Tracy appear indirectly.

Evidence-base for this issue would include duration of dependency and so on.

Potential support network noted.

Would these be Kevin's Breach of the Peace offences? Would a check back on earlier records have altered the view of any perceived risks? Have changes in household composition been noted?

Primary School

10 years

House is often frequented by various young people.

There is a history of missed medical/health appointments particularly with Billy not attending regular physiotherapy appointments. Various excuses have been given by the mother.

The children are sometimes late for school. The educational psychologist for Billy has a fairly good relationship with his mother. She attended the family home for an appointment and found it to be in a chaotic state with one of the doors having been badly damaged and hanging off the hinges. She has alerted the local Social work Department to concerns that the children's mother is not coping despite her claims that she is. ⁴

Are there child protection concerns identified?

Implications are that Educational Psychologist has collated information from a number of sources for this referral, so presumably these circumstances are such that single agency records can be collated together - with or without mother's consent?

Would this alert have been discussed with Susie beforehand?

[Has it got a worse for Tracy in the past 3 years…?]