Example of Case Study

John was referred to our company as an emergency placement, in September 1999 when his relationship with his foster family broke down. His carers felt intimidated by him. John is accommodated and in care because he physically assaulted his mother, and caused criminal damage to their home. He was sixteen, of very large build, and a heavy smoker. His family’s cultural religion is Indian Sikh, although he insisted he was a westerner with Christian values.

We were asked to accommodate him for twenty-four hours until another suitable placement could be found. His mother wanted John to be with an Indian family. The local authority for John did not give any clear indication other than four weeks at a time how long he would be staying. This left John very confused, and unsettled. He spoke of how he hated his mother, previous carers, and social worker; he described in great detail how he would kill them, and make them suffer. He introduced himself at social functions and signed his name as “Killerlot” and would tell every one around him how to kill people and make them suffer. It was impossible for him to gain any friends.

John was very frustrated that he could not speak properly, or construct a sentence. The things he did say were not relevant to the conversation at the time. We helped him overcome this by just listening to him and offering a different new word each day to help him with his language barrier.

We would also play word-associated games at the dinner table each evening. He would bring death and killing into each conversation as a barrier to protect himself. He functioned around 12 years and had a learning difficulty. He soiled himself if he was afraid or couldn’t cope with any unfamiliar situation. He has tantrums if he did not get his own way. We minimised his tantrums by building a relationship of trust with firm boundaries. We gave John the option of places to go if he adhered to our boundaries. We found a regular pattern throughout the day that made him more secure and settled.

He regularly talked to himself in different voices, and sucked his thumb. We tried to make John aware of what he was doing by asking him to tell us whom he was talking to on the phone? Or who he was outside with.

He would follow us around and watch intently, rocking backwards and forwards. He didn’t have a good command of English and rarely understood what was asked of him. He would often answer a question inappropriately, i.e. explain in great detail how to get to a certain place, and which bus to catch to get there, avoiding an answer because he could not put into words what he wanted to say.

To break this constant circle we would change the direction of conversation, help him with what he was trying to say or explain the question in much more detail for him, and give him very simple instructions one at a time.

Analysis of work completed

John was at college in Dartford on a vocational access course. This was helping him with life skills. We rang our local college and asked if it was possible for John to continue his studies on the same course. Within a few days we attended an interview, and he was accepted onto the course.

After about six months he started missing lessons, and hiding in the park. He made up several different excuses why he hadn’t been. He said that other students were pressurising him for cigarettes, and teasing him.

After contacting the college, we were assured that they would move him to a different class. John then decided that he wanted money to stay at college. John was offered £25 per week from his mother but he still refused to go.

John found it very hard not bringing killing and maiming into conversations. This resulted in losing friends. We explained that he needed to stop talking about death, as it frightens people. We treated him as an extended member of the family, and encouraged him to go to the cinema and places where other teenagers were. We also promised to take him on holiday with us on the understanding that he doesn’t talk about violence. Miraculously the violent talk was literally halved. He enjoyed his holiday, and we witnessed him laugh for the first time, and dance.

We identified that John used killing and violence as a form of protection barrier. John thought people would not harm him if he pretended to be an assassin. He attended a speech & language course, which helped him with his social skills. We used the information we received from his course to help with his language, by word games.

We played the positive game, where every one liked him, and had something good to say about him. He began to settle in more and became more confident when asking for things. We reached a point where John was able to speak without bringing violent speech into any of his conversation. John wanted to earn money and had a fixation of this. We approached several different companies, and made trips regularly to the job Registered. John would let himself down at the interviews talking about inappropriate subjects, and answering questions wrongly, as he did not fully understand them, and was nervous. We set up an office room and did role play with him. He enjoyed this and felt it was helpful to him.

It was decided that he would stand a better chance of a job if he worked for an agency. OEC was approached as they specialise in people unable to find work. John managed to go to work for four days in six weeks, he made excuses why he couldn’t work and he let the company down on numerous occasions, in the end they asked him to leave.

The careers officer realised that John had a problem, and finally, suggested we should approach a “Key training skill’s course”. After several interviews he was accepted, John is allowed to work at his own pace and could stay until he is twenty-one. He has work experience, three times a week at “Age Concern” and has now been given the opportunity to do a NVQ in caring.

Earning money has made a big difference to John. His friends have learning difficulties too and he finds it very easy to relate to them, often socialising with them in the evenings.

John now smokes ten to fifteen tailor made cigarettes, instead of forty a day. This happened gradually, over the year. We helped him learn to roll his own, and showed him how much cheaper this would work out for him. We showed him pictures of the damage smoking does, and its long term effects. We gave him the idea of saving for music CDs and larger items, this was achieved by opening a bank account, and encouraging him to save once a week.

He is more aware of financial saving, and budgeting. This was achieved by constantly explaining how hard it is to earn money, relating back to how he must remember what it was like when he worked so hard and brought home so little money. We made references to how many bills have to be paid each week, and asked him which bills he would give priority to.

We showed John when we went shopping, just how much things cost. We asked John to help us shop in the supermarket.

He had a budget of £20 and often had to put things back. We also gave him money for personal items and told him to find them himself and meet us at the checkout. When he had mastered that we asked him to meet us outside the shop. After six months he gradually became more aware and started to point offers out to us!

He has made progress over the last eighteen months, with his weight problem, just by cutting out snacks in between meals, and regular eating times. We have DIY nights on Thursdays where we encourage John to cook for himself, under supervision. He is now more confident in his outlook on life and able to express his own opinion. We explained to John how important it is to bath every day; especially when there are young ladies around. John would have a bath and put dirty underwear back on. We put a laundry basket in his room and one in the bathroom. I would also run him a bath every day and place clean clothes in the bathroom. We encouraged him to rinse his underpants, before putting them in his laundry basket, in making them wet he could not put them back on again. When he came downstairs we would tell him how nice he smelled. It wasn’t long before John was asking if he could have a bath, and spending a long time in there.

Reflection on use of self

Looking after a child of John’s nature required a great deal of patience, understanding, and commitment. Not only from the carer’s point of view but also from the other children in the family.

We told the family that he had been watching too many bad movies, and that people didn’t understand him, so he tried to make himself aggressive by saying awful things, and that he didn’t really mean any of them.

It was clear that he had suffered emotional turmoil, and physical violence from people around him. He had put up a strong barrier to protect himself. We knew we had much work to do and so little time to make a difference.

We gained a sense of achievement, when contact with his mum went well. John can now hold a conversation without bringing violence into the picture. But best of all is able to laugh and share a joke.

Integration of training, theory and research into practice

The courses that we have studied have helped us progress as carers, both in understanding a child’s needs, and the apparent depravation of children in care.
We began to help John with his family, as we felt there was a breakdown in communication between them, and a very good place to start. Mother and son had not spoken for many months. Mother could not understand why her son was not “normal” wanting to be head of the family, working, and having an arranged marriage.

John felt a failure and was unable to cope with his mother’s perception of him and the pressure she was putting him under. John’s culture requires him to look after the family, as his father had died. John could not cope with this, or the fact that his mother wanted to marry a complete stranger of her choice.

It soon became apparent that his main attention focused around money. He blamed her for not providing it for him on demand. John was also being pressurised by a group of youngsters to steal cars, and ask for money from his mother. When she would not give in he became violent to please his friends.

We referred back to the different courses we had been on. We found that John’s behaviour was typical of peer pressure. By using the information we had gained, we were able to identify what made him angry, and frustrated. We gained a better understanding of the way in which he functioned and was able to adapt and anticipate his moods before him.

We were able to help him cope by sharing his experiences, listening, and giving solutions to the problems before they reached crisis point. We attended the health and safety course, which made us more aware of risks in the home, appertaining to John’s character.

Own development and achievements

We believe if you can make a child feel positive about themselves, and have an abundance of energy, and enthusiasm, you can help a child, through the crisis points of their life. We found working with John and his unique attitudes to life a real challenge, with much hard work and continuous support John has overcome his anger and is able to have a conversation without talking of death, torture, and graphical ways of dying.

This was achieved by constantly correcting him, giving him the right answers, and challenging him to use alternate words, each time. We would change the subject quickly to avoid confrontation of graphic details.

We visited our local church on the family Sunday service, which gave John the opportunity of having a conversation with the local vicar. John managed his first conversation without a death reference. We all congratulated him and made a fuss of him, cooking his favourite roast dinner. He changed his name from “Killerlot” to “Love a lot.”

He has now had several contacts with his mum and family, this happened gradually. We suggested that he should take time out for a cigarette if he felt stressed, as this made him feel calmer. He found this successful. He is looking forward to the future with confidence, and moving onto independence.

We feel happy that we have been able to help John and feel we have achieved the impossible in eighteen months.

We have realised that fostering requires different skills, which we have learned throughout seven years. The courses we have completed have made us more aware of different children’s needs, and a greater understanding of their complex personalities. We overcame a cultural barrier, which presented itself within John’s family, who were at first, unable to accept us as a white foster family, making several comments to social workers and us, about moving John to an Indian family for cultural reasons.

However, John wanted to stay with us and was very unhappy about his mother wanting to move him on. He became very angry, and aggressive towards her, often refusing to talk on the phone, or hanging up in mid sentence.

We helped this situation by making sure John kept in touch with his family by phone. We would speak to his mother, and try each time to coax John to the phone just for a few minutes, at a time. We would speak to his mum and tell her all his news, and tell her how well he was doing on his courses.

Particular attention was focused on empathising with her, and talking to her, about how difficult and challenging John’s behaviour was, as she felt she was to blame.

We spoke about his learning difficulty, how it affected the way in which he understands things. As his mum did not recognise that he had a learning difficulty, and would not relate or accept this. After each phone call we would tell John how lucky he was to have such a nice mum. Slowly John became more confident and began to ask if he could ring his mum by himself.

A very special moment for us was after a contact visit. We encouraged John to give his mum a big hug, he managed this after some hesitation, but when he did his eyes filled with tears. A truly magical moment.

John’s mother has now thanked us personally for “Bringing my son back to me”, her words. She now phones us regularly, and is comfortable with us, looking after her son.

When John left he thanked us for accepting him the way he was and for all the help and encouragement we gave him.

Remaining skills

We have learned that patience, understanding, and dedication are the key to helping children in care and that there is always room for improvement, and courses to help foster carers continue to thrive.

We have learned to be non-judgemental, where parents are concerned, but also to respect their wishes. We have learned about the cultural differences, in Indian families, and tried to help John identify with his culture, using recorded music tapes, and cooking Indian foods.

We are pleased that we have been able to help John and his mum come to terms with his learning difficulty, and help him understand and accept the way he is. We take great pride in our work and enjoy fostering. We have been able to share our experiences with new foster carers, offering advice and knowledge, at meetings.

We feel we have a natural aptitude for fostering and show this with confidence. We know our limitations, and can be very assertive to express our opinion through the correct channels to present facts. We are not afraid to speak our minds through higher channels if we feel there is a need.

An ability to work with other professionals

We have demonstrated our ability to work side by side with other professionals connected with therapy, teaching, careers officers, and several business professionals trying to find work for John.
We have found a close network of colleagues within our local community to be invaluable, with help and advice.

We are currently working with the 16+ teams within our company and social services. John is now eighteen and has moved onto independence. We have been able to identify a need within our company for more financial support for foster carers, who foster children above the age of 16 years. We hope that our comments will help other carers.

An ability to assist at training events

We have recently been on the “choosing to foster” work groups, to enable us to assist with future training events. We hope to promote our company and give a clear understanding of fostering, and what it represents.

An ability to identify own training needs

We attended a course on Dyslexia, which was being run by our local dyslexic school. We were able to see through a child’s eyes, and interpret the world around them. We are able to seek guidance and can identify our ongoing training needs. We understand the importance of training and what it represents, and contributes, to fostering. We have also been on a course for Dyspraxia, Aspergers and ADHD, Attachment separation and loss, First Aid & Challenging Behaviour to name but a few.

Life is a learning curve, each day teaches us new things. Courses make us aware, and give us a greater understanding. Patience, kindness, and love, are the keys to fostering. So share what you have been blessed with, and help others.

Guidance on completing the Case Study

The case study needs to show your ability to reflect on your role as a carer and how you integrate into your practice the knowledge, skills and values that you have developed since your approval. It should also highlight how you hope to develop further and help with the development of others.

The case study is an anonymised* written piece of work of approximately 1500 words.
[*Please use a fictitious name rather than initials].

Case Study Headings

An outline of the case chosen and the position at the beginning of the placement
(For example, tasks, desired outcomes as agreed at the placement agreement meeting,
and/or the first review)

Analysis of work completed
(How, what, why?)

Reflection of ‘use of self’
(What individual qualities and skills were used?

Integration of training, theory and research into practice

Own Development
(What did you learn and how did you develop through this piece of work?)