To esplore the role of a social worker

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

To understand the meaning of abuse.

To understand the needs of a child, the role of the parent and the other factors which affect the quality of care.

To understand the barriers to and priorities of social work.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

To assess levels of abuse.

To describe social and economic factors which affect the quality of care.

To perform a role play exploring the barriers to communication to social work

They are a diverse bunch of professionals which include Educational Welfare Officers, Youth Offending Probation Officers and Social Workers.

Ask each student to complete the exercise first on their own.

Ask them to compare their answers with a person sitting next to them.

Ask them to agree with their partner on each statement.

Ask each pair to describe their response to a statement and explain their reasoning.

Ask the students in small groups of 4 to produce 3 lists on flip chart paper entitled:

• the needs of the child
• the role of the parent
• the factors which affect the quality of care for the child

Read the case study to the group

CONCERNS

Ask the students in groups of 4 to list with a reason for their concerns for each member of the family and ask them to identify where they feel a social worker should get involved.

BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATIONS

Ask small groups of 4 students to take on a member of the family.

Ask them to describe ways that their member of the family could mislead or avoid giving information to the visiting social worker.

Ask them to describe their reason or motive for misleading the visiting social worker.

Get each group to present their ideas.

QUESTIONS - ROLE PLAY

Ask the group to list questions that a visiting social worker might need to ask each member of the family (be diplomatic and non-judgemental).

In groups of 8, sitting in a circle, ask the students to take on the role of a member of the family and appoint two social workers to ask them questions.

Research what help could be offered to the Kemp family. Who would provide the support to which member of the family? How would the support be provided and what benefit would the individual receive from it?

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STATEMENT	1	2	3	4
A woman who is eight weeks pregnant taking heroin regularly
A child with sever asthma who is denied medical treatment in favour of homeopathy
A four year old having their favourite teddy bear burnt as a punishment
A parent of a new baby drinking six glasses of wine per day
A single parent leaving their nine, four, and two year old children alone for twenty minutes to go to the shops to buy something really essential
Parents who remove their child from school because they have heard that the teacher is gay
A child who is slapped on the bottom when she is naughty, hard enough to cause a bruise on occasions
A mother who continues to smoke in the house even though her child has severe asthma

Compare your answer with the person sitting next to you and agre between yourselves a response

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Mrs Kemp	mother age 34 works part time in a local supermarket
Mr Kemp	father age 45 unemployed
Carly	daughter age 16
Tom	son age 11
Joe	son age 14
Miya	daughter age 3

Mr and Mrs Kemp have been married and living together for 5 years. Mr Kemp was a long distance lorry driver but is unable to work at present due to a back injury. He has been at home for a year and a half.

Mrs Kemp works part time shifts at the local supermarket and is 6 months pregnant.

Carly is due to leave school soon and will be going on to attend college to continue studying. Carly would like to become a dentist.

Joe attends the local comprehensive school. He is reported to be unruly and regularly truanting. More recently, the school has had concerns of Joe seen to be smoking outside the grounds of the school with other boys who appear to be much older than him. Joe's parents have been contacted on a number of occasions by the school to discuss these issues but Mr and Mrs Kemp often refuse to attend school parents evenings. They have often responded by informing Joe's form tutor that they will address these issues with Joe, but there has been no improvement in Joe's attendance for the last 5 months.

Tom also attends the local school, he has been reported by his teachers to be a very quiet, submissive child. Although his appearance is clean, and he is polite, he has more recently become extremely withdrawn and is often late at the start of the morning. Tom comes to school by himself and does not appear to have very many friends in his class.

Miya is 3 years old, she is at home and spends most of her day with Mr Kemp, as mother works from 1.30pm - 8.30pm.

The house is generally very chaotic, Miya does not have many toys. There is a lack of boundaries, where Joe and Carly are concerned. They are generally able to come and go as they please, and often do not have to explain where they are going and what time they will be at home.

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A local neighbour has reported to social services that they can hear a young child crying constantly. The child appears to be of nursery age but is always at home. Mr Kemp has been seen to leave the house during the day for periods of up to an hour, and the neighbour feels there is a possibility that the child is being left at home alone.

THE RESPONSE TO THE REFERRAL

A social worker has been allocated to the family by the Social Services department to carry out a home visit, and complete an initial assessment.