Case Study Report: The Sohail Family

Please read the assignment case study of the Sohail family and then complete each task in order to produce your report.

The context for the case study report 

You are a Step Up to Social Work student working in Farringdon Vale Children’s Services. You have been asked by your supervisor to produce a report on the Sohail family for a strategy meeting. It is expected that your report will make no more than three recommendations for the strategy meeting to consider. Your report will be written in the third person. The structure of your report should include the following

Case Study: The Sohail Family  

The Background 

The Sohail family have been known to Farringdon Vale Children’s Services for over six years. Concerns were first raised by nursery staff when the first child Jessica was two. She was often brought to nursery dirty and hungry. She would be listless and would cling to staff. 

The Current Situation

Jessica Sohail is now nine years old. She lives at home with her mother Shula, and three other siblings: Neelum age two, Aisha who is three and Jason is five. All four children are subject to Care Orders. Their mother Shula is white, unemployed and 29. She had been in an abusive relationship with Jessica and Page 3 of 7 Jason’s father, Melvin, for seven years. Melvin’s background is Anglo Indian. Both parents have problems with alcohol and drugs. The children were often left alone at night. The Care Orders were issued as a result of the neglect and the risk of abuse and significant harm. 

The Local Authority, Farringdon Vale Children’s Services, has joint parental responsibility with Shula. There are a number of conditions that Shula is expected to carry out in relation to the children’s development and wellbeing before the Care Orders can be removed. If Shula fails to comply and the children continued to be exposed to abuse and harm the local authority can apply for full parental responsibility. This has been made clear to Shula and she was advised to seek legal advice in a letter by the team manager. 

Jessica and Jason have not had contact with their father, Melvin since 2015 when Shula and the children were placed in a woman’s refuge due to domestic violence. Melvin’s whereabouts are unknown. Neelum and Aisha share the same father, Ravi who visits from time to time. The family were rehoused and Shula began to have treatment for her depression. The children’s social worker continued to work with Shula to improve her parenting skills, whilst the children’s social worker makes regular visits as stipulated by the Care Orders to monitor the children’s development and wellbeing.

The Current Situation

In 2016 Shula met Andy on a dating website and he soon moved in with Shula and the children when they were rehoused. Shula immersed herself in her relationship with Andy. As her relationship with Andy progressed her parenting skills further deteriorated. She failed to tell her social worker that she had started a new relationship and she concealed that he had moved in until Jason told his teacher that he had a “new white daddy”. Andy is in and out of work as a labourer on building sites. 

Neighbours have reported that the children were often left outside in the garden and that they appear to be hungry. They were often sent to bed at 5pm with sweets, biscuits and crisps. Also a neighbour informed social services that she had heard the “children crying and had seen Andy slap Jason”. This allegation prompted a visit by the children’s social worker to raise her concerns with Shula of the children’s continued decline, her failure to comply with the Care Orders and the allegation. 

When the children’s social worker visited the family she noted that Andy had proudly showed his tattoo of the names of the children on his arm. She observed that Jason’s name was missing from the tattoo. She also observed that the children seemed withdrawn and Jason was particularly quiet. The children’s development remained a cause for concern as Shula repeatedly failed to meet the requirements of the Care Orders. Shula’s response was that the neighbours are busy bodies who “won’t mind their business”. As far as she was concerned the children were doing alright. She was happy and that Andy was the ‘best father’ the children ever had.

At school both Jessica and Jason are failing to meet their academic milestones and the younger children were not thriving as expected. The school requested an urgent review meeting because the children repeatedly came to school hungry, in smelly school uniforms and on one of the coldest day in January they did not have coats. 

Requirements

Using the case study notes on the Sohail family you should explain the purpose of your report. You will give the reader a brief outline of the issues that the report will address.

Task 1. Discuss the different stages of the lifecycle

Using the case study notes for the Sohail family identify and discuss the different stages of Jason’s lifecycle

Task 2. Analyse different needs at different points of the lifecycle 

Analyse Jason’s needs at this stage of his lifecycle

Task 3 Apply theories of lifecycle development

Choose one theory that is relevant to explain the dynamics of the Sohail family focusing on Jason. Outline and assess how this theory helps inform the professionals’ discussion for the Strategy meeting.