Shelly (mother) – age 22, female, White British, unemployed, pronouns are she/her

Sean (Liam’s father) – age 37, male, White British, unemployed, pronouns are he/him

This family became known to social care when Liam was 3 years old. Police had been called by a neighbour who had heard shouting and banging in the family home. They attended the property where Shelly was found with a bruise on her arm and in a state of distress. Shelly admitted that Sean, Liam’s father, had been drunk and grabbed her. Liam was present, also very distressed. Sean had left the property but was later found and arrested. (He later received a conviction for common assault. There is a restraining order in place preventing Sean from contacting Shelly.)

It became clear through social care’s assessment that there had been a significant number of incidents in which Sean had been violent towards Shelly, some of which had been witnessed by Liam. Shelly indicated she wanted to leave the relationship to protect herself and Liam and agreed to go into a women’s refuge with Liam. Shelly and Liam were in the refuge for 7 months before being rehoused in a different town 6 months ago.

Shelly is the youngest of four siblings and lived with both her parents until she left home at sixteen to live with her partner, Sean. Her father, who is now deceased, was a heavy drinker. Shelly’s parents were unemployed and her father’s drinking meant the family often went without regular meals.

Sean grew up on the same estate as Shelly. Sean was brought up in a home where domestic abuse was a common feature of his parents’ relationship. Sean witnessed a lot of the abuse, including physical abuse, which was perpetrated by his father towards his mother. Sean has several convictions for shoplifting and one conviction for robbery from when he was a teenager and had a significant amount of intervention from the Youth Offending Service. Sean has not had contact with Shelly or Liam since they moved into the refuge. Attempts by social care to contact him have so far not been successful.

There have been some concerns raised by school about Liam’s development and issues of neglect. He remains quite overweight which was thought to be because of poor diet. His teacher described him as regularly coming into school looking grubby and believed he has not had regular dental care. He needed high levels of support at dinner time, in terms of using his knife and fork, and for getting his coat on, as he struggled to use the zip to get ready to go outside.

Liam has been quite rough with his peers, for example pushing others or shouting at them to get something that he wants or needs. Some children choose not to play with him, leaving him isolated at times. He requires additional support with literacy and numeracy and cannot always be fully understood as he struggles to pronounce words correctly. He has a positive relationship with his teacher and learning support assistant and says he enjoys school. He has a small group of friends who he likes playing with.  When Shelly collects him at the end of the day, Liam always greets her with a smile and a hug. There were concerns about lack of boundaries and routines as Liam had said he goes to bed when he wants to.

Shelly now has a new partner, Chuka, who she began dating shortly after leaving the refuge. They met through social media and have been in a relationship for six months. Chuka works long hours and lives a few streets away from Shelly. He stays with Shelly a few times a week. Liam enjoys playing football with Chuka in their back garden and they sometimes go on the play station together. When he has time off work Chuka helps Liam with schoolwork, but he struggles to get Liam to focus which frustrates both Liam and Chuka. Chuka has no other family in the UK and Shelly has only limited telephone and social media contact with her own family and no contact with Sean. Shelly and Chuka have recently discovered they are expecting a baby and Shelly is currently 12 weeks pregnant. The pregnancy was unplanned. Both Shelly and Chuka are happy and excited about the new arrival.

In the previous supervision, you discussed with the participant that you may be ready to step this family down to receiving early help because Shelly has made good improvements with regards to Liam’s presentation and her parenting strategies, and Chuka is a good support for the family. The midwife and school have agreed that there has been positive progress. There are no immediate concerns for the unborn baby, both parents are accessing support and so the plan is to recommend at the next CIN meeting next week that the plan ends.

You are now taking a call from the participant who is due to visit Shelly and Liam this afternoon but has asked to speak to you beforehand.