Background information

The Reid family first became known to social services in 1992. Darren, the father, presented himself unexpectedly at a local family centre asking for advice and guidance after physically assaulting his son, Paul. The assault was so severe that Christine fled with Paul and their daughter, Kay, to safe accommodation.

At the time they were living in a nearby county authority where the social services department conferenced the family and placed Paul's name on the child protection register, under the category of physical abuse. However, after a three-month period the family reunited and moved back to the London borough.

Darren was charged with actual bodily harm in relation to Paul and sentenced to two years probation. This made Darren a schedule one offender. Probation and social services subsequently offered the family packages of treatment and assessment. Darren was referred to a clinic and completed attendance at an ‘anger management group’. However, Darren was not particularly satisfied with the effectiveness of the groupwork. Although his personal assessment was paradoxical (he claimed that he did the majority of talking and had not received any advice; however, he also felt that the facilitators wanted to change his entire personality), Darren did engage well when offered individual work and achieved some change.

For the same period Christine attended a ‘childcare management group’ as she was experiencing behaviour problems in relation to Paul. Christine gained a lot of support from the group, but the facilitators were concerned about her attachment with Paul. Ironically the children's group workers were more concerned about the behaviour and development of Kay.

During the course of the group Christine shared that Darren had been sexually abused as a child and linked this to his rages. This disclosure posed an ethical dilemma for one of the group facilitators, as he was also undertaking the individual work with Darren. Unable to betray Christine's confidence, yet uncomfortable about working with secrets, he repeatedly tried to tease this disclosure out. Darren resisted.

Paul received some direct work in order to explore his perception of events and the effects of the ‘attachment problems’.