Sarah - Case Study

Sarah* was referred whilst living in our Move On supported accommodation with her 18 month old son (Toby*). After having two previous children removed from her care and her current child just been placed on the Child Protection register, she was referred to the Video Interaction Guidance  (VIG) Project. 

Sarah’s main aim was to increase her confidence in parenting that had been affected by the domestic abuse she had suffered in her previous relationships. At first, she was guarded with professionals and found it very hard to trust them. After the first VIG cycle she realised that it would only be looking at the positives in her interactions with her son, this gave her confidence in being able to talk more openly to our VIG Practitioner.  

The video footage of Sarah and Toby allowed discussion around parenting styles, play and positive interactions, all of which were viewed and highlighted in the real life footage. After these discussions and by viewing herself performing positive interactions, Sarah’s behaviour significantly improved. She made more eye contact and began speaking and communicating with Toby, to help encourage his development. Their play became more natural towards the end of the cycles, and mum was now receiving initiatives and responding to them on a more regular basis and could see the benefits of this.  

By the end of the VIG cycles Sarah’s progress had been noted by all professionals who were working with her. She was more confident in her parenting skills, and was also more trusting of working with professionals. She has also moved out of the move on accommodation and is currently living in her own rented accommodation. She now does more activities with her son, such as taking him to the park and has been on holidays, which has improved their relationship.  

With regards to her Child Protection proceedings, professionals had noted that the client had made massive improvements in her parenting, and that this was partly down to the work done by the VIG project. The recommendation is that during the next Child Protection conference the Child protection level be brought down to Child in Need.

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the people we support