Cumbria
Barnardo’s services in Cumbria
- Allerdale Cluster Children’s Centres
- Carlisle Children’s Centres
- Eden Cluster Children’s Centres
- South Lakeland
Case study
A family were referred to the South Lakeland Family Support Service for home support. The mother wanted support and advice for managing her six year old son’s difficult behaviour.
Mum and Dad were living together at the time of the Project’s initial involvement, in a small rural hamlet, and for some years there had been a history of domestic violence in the family. Their youngest child, a boy aged three years has special needs.
Action
The Mum attended a parenting programme. During the programme, she became increasingly aware of how inconsistent they were as parents and how muddling this must be for the boys. She noticed she often felt undermined by her partner and two thirds of the way through the programme decided that she would ask him to leave the family home. This was a difficult period for them all although the children have continued to have regular contact with their father.
A volunteer began visiting the family weekly spending quality time with the eldest boy and modelling the positive parenting approaches from the programme which his mother had found helpful. The project worker supported Mum too on a regular basis building on the ideas that had been discussed and practised on the course.
Another approach was to encourage Mum to recognise the benefits of multi agency working which has resulted in two network meetings involving Social Services and both boys’ schools. Agencies are now working together and overall the family seems to be receiving a more co-ordinated service.
Outcomes
Mum talked about how beneficial she had found the parenting programme and home support. For example, initially support had helped her to have the confidence to ask her partner to leave the family home and to manage ‘life’ more independently.
Mum recognises that there is still some way to go but she is also more inclined to surprise herself with her ‘steps of success’ as she moves towards sustaining the changes that she believes will benefit her sons.
