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Barnardo’s Terry Jones, Jenny Lewis and Owen Gill argue that adopting an ‘ecological’ approach brings into play powerful forces for the benefit of children.

The Department of Health guidelines on the assessment of vulnerable children introduced in 2000 requires workers to explore parenting capacity and the developmental needs of the child.¹ But it also requires workers to explore issues of social integration and access to resources.

Central to the approach is a recognition of the interplay between the different levels of the child's experience. The "ecological" perspective sees the child as embedded within a number of systems - the family both immediate and extended, the community and the wider social arrangements for the distribution of resources.

For the assessment framework this approach was represented by a triangle with parenting capacity and the child's developmental needs at two sides of the triangle and social integration and access to resources (housing, income and employment) on the third.

Although this representation indicated the equal significance of the different levels of the child's experience there is as yet little evidence that social workers, health visitors and others are adequately integrating this perspective into their assessments and work with families and children. The dominant perspective remains one of focusing on what is happening within families rather than seeing the interplay of the family's internal and external worlds.

One reason for this is that in the UK there has been far more research and theory developed around the first two sides of the triangle. The analysis of community patterns and the distribution of resources as they impact on families has received only limited exploration.

Two levels of evidence, however, suggest the importance of attention being urgently directed at the third and missing side of the triangle. First, many families themselves have a sophisticated "ecological" perspective. They will often see the connections between housing, income and informal support and what is going on inside their families in a far more fluid and insightful way than workers whose training and professional culture only allows them to work within the boundaries of the family.

Second, international research has shown child welfare outcomes are related to the social characteristics of local neighbourhoods. In the US research has shown the connections between social isolation, the characteristics of social networks in local neighbourhoods, and rates of child mistreatment. The ecological approach is therefore not a luxury that potentially distracts workers from crucial child protection concerns. In looking at community patterns of support and integration it goes to the heart of keeping children safe.

If the adoption of an ecological approach is to become a reality in the UK there is an urgent need to develop information about the interplay of community and interpersonal factors. This will involve the development of research on these links but it will also involve building up a body of case material about the links between the internal and external worlds of family life.

The following two cases from our current practice explore these links. Names have been changed.

Mary and Dean

Mary, a white lone parent, came to the family centre wanting to talk about the difficulties she was experiencing with her oldest child Dean, aged seven. Her three children had the same father, an African-Caribbean man who had not lived with the family for three years.

Mary told the worker, who was herself black, that she was finding it increasingly difficult to cope with Dean's behaviour and was thinking about asking for him to be fostered. She said he was naughty all the time and that he did not listen to her. She said that any punishment she tried did not work and that he often shouted and swore at her when she told him off.

During the initial meetings with Dean it emerged that he was very angry with his mother and blamed her for his father's lack of contact. It also emerged that Dean was struggling with the image he had of his father. On the one hand he was a man whom he idolised. On the other hand he was a black man who was considered inferior by the people that Dean knew and in particular by his mother.

It also emerged that Dean was the victim of racial harrassment. He said he had to look over his shoulder the whole time because he never knew when he was going to be attacked. He said that he had complained to a school meals assistant about racial harrassment but had been told "half-caste children are nothing but trouble".

The worker felt that Mary's general standard of parenting was good. However during early discussions it emerged strongly that Mary was unaware of the impact of her own racism and negative views about black men on Dean.

It also emerged that because of being in a multiracial family Mary had little support in this primarily white neighbourhood.

In order to address the different but interconnected levels of difficulty that Dean was experiencing the following programme of work was undertaken.

l Racial harrassment in the neighbourhood. The worker supported Mary in a move away from the immediate neighbourhood. Although the move was only four streets away Mary felt that the reaction to black and multiracial families there was much more positive and supportive. Action was taken against the perpetrators of the harrassment but both the worker and Mary felt that an immediate change of accomodation was in Dean's best interests.

l Racial harrassment at school. A meeting was arranged with the headteacher which focused on changing the handling of racist incidents at the school.

l Support group. Mary joined a group for white parents of dual heritage children. This group not only provided an opportunity for the parents to explore their complex reactions to their current or former partners; it also provided support for Mary within her own community.

l Individual work with Dean. The aim was to help Dean develop a positive view of himself as a child of dual heritage.

l Identity group. Dean eventually joined a group of other dual heritage children from the local community in regular sessions at the family centre. One aim of the group was to reduce the isolation of these children in the community.

The combination of these approaches to Dean's apparent "behaviour difficulties" was eventually successful. Not only did Dean develop a more positive perception of himself but, equally important, community supports were developed for both Dean and his mother.

John and Cathy

John and Cathy have two children, eight-year-old Charlie and Laura (four). Charlie has cerebral palsy.

Cathy talked about her depression and her difficulties in accepting Charlie's disability. She began to see a counsellor at the centre but her depression worsened. Eventually Cathy was admitted voluntarily to the local psychiatric hospital.

John felt increasingly unable to cope with looking after the children. By the time of Cathy's hospitalisation both the children were distressed. Neither John nor Cathy had supportive family living nearby.

A community development colleague suggested that John might join a group of residents campaigning for better play provision. John became involved in the group and began to see it as an important respite from the stresses and turmoil of family life.

John's new sense of purpose carried over into his family life. He realised that he could be effective within his family as well as in the group. And John's new involvement gave the family a wider and richer set of local networks. Pressures on the family are still high. But the informal supports that have been developed and the new sense of the potential for change have been maintained. Workers are confident that the family can withstand future stress.

Overview
These stories show the interplay of the internal and external worlds of the family that is central to the ecological perspective. In both cases community influences had brought benefits for individual family members.

Practitioners need to build up a body of case histories which explore links between what happens within families and what happens within local neighbourhoods. We can then move beyond interpretations which are entirely reliant on an understanding of what goes on within the family and take a wider view of opportunities for change.

Terry Jones is team leader, family support; Jenny Lewis is project leader, both at Barnardo’s Fulford family centre. Owen Gill is regional anti-poverty co-ordinator, Barnardo’s South West.

References

¹ Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families, Department of Health, 2000 http://www.doh.gov.uk/scg/cin.htm