Position at the outset of the work

Social work with area teams (I work as a senior practitioner in a children and family team in a London borough) offers great potential for varied and interesting work. In child protection work, however, the stress level is such that there is often resistance to working in a creative way. But there is room for it, as my work with Sarah shows.

Sarah (white British, four-and-a-half years) has been on the child protection register for a year under the category of emotional abuse. An initial investigation into possible – but not substantiated – sexual abuse by her father, Jimmy, revealed that Sarah was subjected to an extreme level of verbal/emotional abuse from her mother Kim (see genogram, Figure 1). Enquiries into the family background revealed Kim's very traumatic childhood (with a care history and issues of sexual, physical and emotional abuse), and previous involvement from another local authority in relation to care and adoption proceedings on Kim's other two children.

Kim, from a very young age, has suffered from irritable bowel syndrome to such an extreme that she leaks faeces most of the time. Like Kim, Sarah soils, which triggers Kim's abusive behaviour. Since Sarah's first registration there have been various referrals and investigations, the latest being two months ago when Kim reported hitting Sarah hard and roughly rubbing soiled knickers on her face. Sarah was subsequently placed with her paternal grandparents, where she remains.

At the outset of the work:

• • the case was allocated to a social worker;

• • Sarah had been referred to the child psychologist but there was a long waiting list;

• • she had been attending nursery full time for three months;

• • both parents had been offered counselling at the family centre (not taken up);

• • the grandparents had requested to be assessed as foster carers and receive financial support;

• • Sarah saw her parents separately at weekends at the grandparents’ home.

Three months after Sarah was placed with them it was decided that the Department would not recommend the grandparents as foster carers.

The allocated social worker at the time felt that the family dynamics were such that the grandparents were put in a position were they experienced a loyalty conflict between meeting Sarah's needs or Kim and Jimmy's needs. This caused much distress.