We spoke to Mike Davies, manager of Jig-So and Reflect in Swansea about their Reflect service.
In 2021 we spoke to Mike about Jig-So, an early intervention service to support the wellbeing of vulnerable expectant parents. He also manages Reflect, a service set up in 2018, to support the families that aren't able to stay together once they have gone through Jig-So’s intervention. Parents are only referred to the service from Jig-So and so all of them will have come through social services.
Criteria
Reflect will work with parents who have had one or more children removed permanently from their care. The final assessment must be complete with the recommendation that the child cannot be safely cared for by the parent. The parents must be at high risk of subsequent children being removed from their care and they must not have any children living at home.
Team
There are currently 4 Reflect practitioners with a variety of professional backgrounds. Support workers try to help parents to shift their perspective and think about their futures. In the past year the team grew from having 2 support workers to 4 due to the high number of children being removed from their parents' care through court proceedings. Parents are offered the accompaniment of a support worker to attend their farewell contact with their child. The support worker will meet the parent prior to the meeting and go through what they’re hoping to get out of the day and offers them a space to voice their anxieties and sadness. Mike explains that a support worker is a consistent person in a parent’s life, one who is not there to judge or criticise them. Parents are supported to build their resilience and self-esteem, to create healthy boundaries in their relationships, access training programs and stable accommodation and advice on contraception.
The Reflect team works with parents in Swansea who have experienced the removal of a child through care proceedings. Parents are supported for up to a year afterwards. Mike explains that ideally, they would like to offer support for up to two years as this is the period of time with the highest risk of a subsequent pregnancy, however due to the intensive nature of the support where parents are seen one-to-one, support beyond one year is not always possible. Having a child removed from their care is a traumatic event for parents and so Reflect focuses on the key areas of life in which a parent may struggle, such as mental health and wellbeing, problematic substance use and issues with accommodation. Parents work with their Reflect practitioner in the hopes they can use this time to step back from their parental responsibilities and make the necessary changes to break the cycle of subsequent removals. As well as one-to-one support parents can attend group sessions with other parents. Mike explains that this can have a significant benefit for parents who feel stigmatised and shamed. Parents even have the option to take part in yoga sessions and walking groups.
For more information about Reflect, please contact Mike.davies5@swansea.gov.uk
Case study by Leontine Gnaly, 2023