BBC documentary exposes poor support for struggling parents, claims charity

A BBC 2 documentary following the day-to-day work of a Bristol Council child protection team revealed a lack of support for the parents featured in the programme, a family advocacy charity has warned.

The Protecting Our Children documentary shadowed newly qualified social worker Susanne dealing with the case of three year-old Toby and his parents, who were under investigation for child neglect.

The documentary follows the story of social services’ intervention with the family, in which the mother Tiffany falls pregnant again, Toby is taken into foster care, and both children are eventually given up for adoption.

Cathy Ashley, chief executive of Family Rights Group, said the programme raised serious concerns about the level of help offered to parents.  

“The programme failed to show the practical parental support mum and dad needed, and which should have been provided by children’s social services, for the parents to have stood a real chance of being allowed to look after their children,” Ashley explained.

“These parents had little or no parenting skills. Mum has been in care herself and dad clearly struggled with significant difficulties too. These parents desperately needed practical help and hands-on guidance to improve their parenting skills.”

She added that footage of the child protection conference in the documentary showed the parents looking “lost and isolated”.

“Our experience is that too often in such an atmosphere, scared and angry parents can’t hear what social workers have to say and thus are seen as failing to co-operate,” she said. “That’s why we promote having a specialist advocate to help the parents listen and be heard.”

Another problem raised by the programme was the insufficient consideration given to the consequences of splitting up Toby and his sister in different care placements, Ashley said.

She explained: “The film also failed to clearly explore the impact of splitting up the siblings. At the end of the film, it was clear that although the plan for the older child was adoption, no such placement had been found. Instead he was separated from his sister and contact with his mother had ceased.

“The film provides just a snapshot of this families’ life. But the indications are, and we know from our work, that effective early help from the outset can often avoid the tragic situation of families being broken up and children ending up in care.”

A spokeswoman for Bristol Council said the authority is committed to providing effective early intervention and support to families in need.

“For many families, early help can be crucial in reducing the need for more intensive intervention, including avoiding the need for some children to come into care,” she said.

“In this case, the family agreed to take part in filming and approved the material that has been broadcast. However, we can’t comment in any more detail about either the particular circumstances of the family, or the services and work that was undertaken with them.”