In this case, what would you consider the main practice issues raised if you were the social worker? With reference to these issues, outline and discuss the relevant legislation that underpins the approach that the social worker would take. This should include a discussion of possible statutory measures for intervention in the family.

Father: Clyde, aged 19.

Mother: Sharon, aged 18.

Daughter: Missy, aged 18 months

Clyde grew up in care and has never known his parents. After moving through a number of foster placements, Clyde moved to a bed and breakfast accommodation when he was 16. From his first day there, a local gang coerced him to sell drugs for them, and he quickly became addicted to heroin.

While living in the bed and breakfast accommodation, he met Sharon, who lived locally with her mother. They started a relationship, and Sharon became pregnant. Clyde around this time turned 18 and with the support of the local authority, Sharon and Clyde were able to get their own one-bedroom council flat, where their daughter Missy was born. Once Missy was born, Clyde stopped his involvement with the gang and with support from a local drug and alcohol charity was able to stop taking drugs.

Sharon and Clyde are both unemployed and neither have ever had a job. They regularly report to the local council that they struggle to both eat and keep the heating on. On a recent visit from a health visitor, Clyde tells them that the gang he was previously involved in now know where he lives and have been 'harassing' him. During that same visit, Clyde gets visible angry, and Sharon runs across the room to protect Missy who is sleeping in a cot.

Based on this interaction, the health visitor arranges a follow-up call with Sharon while Clyde is not there, and Sharon states that since the gang have been harassing Clyde over the past month, he has become angry and violent, including one time slapping Missy when she wouldn't stop crying, and punching Sharon when she shouted at him as a result. Sharon is also worried that he has started taking drugs again. The health visitor informs Sharon that she will need to report this to social services.

 

 

 

• the nature of law and legal systems and their relationship to intervention in key areas of social work and social care practice, within and across the nations and legal jurisdictions of the UK (KU1)
• how the law and its implementation and professional decision making shapes, and is shaped by, social work values, ethical principles, research and theory. (KU3)