The intervention observed was a newly qualified social worker chairing a core group at a health centre. The family were involved in a child protection process due to the father being prosecuted and placed on the sexual offenders register for having indecent images of children on his computer. He was alleged to have been grooming other children however no charges had been brought. The child who was the subject of child protection procedures was 3 months old. I had been asked to support and observe the social worker due to my experience in holding a similar case and being qualified for 4 years.
2. Preparation before the core group and understanding of the process.
The social worker was able to identify that the purpose …show more content…
Observations during the Core Group.
3.1. There appeared to be a good familiarity between the social worker, the parents and professionals involved. The social worker outlined that nobody was new to the group and only I needed an introduction. I felt that in her role as chair she was able to use the contents of the previous core group minutes to structure the meeting. There was good reference to the previous agreed tasks to allow people to participate on what had been achieved and what tasks were still ongoing.
3.2. One of the tasks from the previous core group was that the mother was to engage with a family support worker on the understanding risks and protecting her child from harm. The social worker invited her to talk about this which allowed the mother to demonstrate that she was willing to participate in the process and report that she had booked the first session and that she understood its importance in relation to the plan …show more content…
There was also evidence of non-verbal communication coming from the participants of the core group which caused a feeling of tension. Participants did not seem to be forthcoming with information or wanting to contribute without prompting from the social worker which I felt she managed well by responding to their non-verbal cues. When I explored this with the social worker after the meeting we felt that it could be attributable to professionals (including her) in the group knowing what the mother needed to do or say in order satisfy their concerns; but they were reluctant to help guide her to that because of the offender / father being present. The social worker was able to demonstrate an understanding that unless the mother was more proactive in her attitude towards the issues she would be deemed as potentially failing to protect the child (Humphreys,