Transcript

Katy Eagle

So there’s a few ways that social workers might be involved with a family in this situation or a similar situation. The family in this case study, Florence and Ronald, are a family that I’ve worked with in my role as a social worker in a voluntary agency and we’ve supported them in a few different ways. But it’s also possible that, for example, Ronald might have an adult social care social worker involved to do with his health condition. It’s possible for mental health social workers to be involved if, maybe, Florence’s anxiety and depression were of a level that would be needed. It’s also possible that the children would have somebody from children’s services involved. In relation to how I’ve supported the family through a voluntary service, we have supported them in food bank referrals, clothing vouchers and that sort of thing. We’re also a safe space for the family to come and sit and spend some time because they don’t live in accommodation that has space for the children to play in a safe space for example. We’ve also done some direct work with the children to help them understand their situation a bit better and also to understand the children’s experiences.

Jeanette Copperman

You mentioned although the family have no recourse to public funds, there might be some support available because of Florence’s mental health needs. Could you say a little bit more about that?

Katy Eagle

So if Florence was experiencing mental health needs of level that needed some kind of treatment or intervention, she could go to her GP. Having no recourse to public funds wouldn’t affect her entitlement to do that. However, it can make access to secondary medical care a bit more difficult. However, if her mental health was of a level that needed support by a community mental health team, for example, it wouldn’t exclude it but they may be more limited in what they would be able to offer her.

Jeanette Copperman

How would you support the family? What would your priorities be?

Katy Eagle

So as a voluntary organisation we aim to support the family holistically and look at their needs kind of across the board and for the adults and the children and the children whereas other agencies might take a bit more of a specific view of whose needs come first.

We would consider that, have the family sort legal advice, have they got a reputable solicitor that they are happy with and that is doing everything that can be done legally, because ultimately resolving their asylum or their immigration case is going to be how they’re going to move forward with their lives. So we would check that they’ve got legal advice, we’d also make sure that they’ve got food, clothing for the children, are the children being supported by the schools, are they getting free school meals, things like that that they can do. We would also look into community resources that the family are able to access. Libraries are often quite useful, particularly for resources for Grace, who’s 3, children’s books, they have story sessions, rhyme sessions for parents that can be really useful and they’re usually either free or quite cheap. And we’d look at what’s around. We’d also consider their other needs. Florence and Ronald are separated from their family in their home country and the situation in that country means that they’re quite concerned about their safety, their family’s safety in their home country so we might do what we can to see if we can get them computer access to try and contact them to stay in touch, but also to think about the impact on Florence and Ronald of not having their mum and dad about. The children haven’t got grandma and grandad to call upon in the same way as lots of their friends at school have, so we’d be a safe space for them to talk about the impact of that on them.

From a legal perspective we’d also consider whether Section 17 of the Children’s Act is relevant and do Peter and Grace really need the support of the local authority to prevent them becoming destitute or homeless. It can sometimes be difficult because in the past we’ve sometimes seen local authorities willing to accommodate children but take that very literally as accommodating the children and not the family together somewhere, which would mean separating them from their parents. And really if there’s no other safeguarding concerns, we’d consider whether that would be in their best interests. But it can be that the children will be accommodated and the parents can therefore live in the house, the room, with them.