6N1945: You are the supervisor in The Alphabet Crèche & Pre-School and The following situation has arisen: Childhood Social Legal & Health Studies Case Study, CC, Ireland

Assignment 1 – Child Protection Case Study

You are the supervisor in The Alphabet Crèche & Pre-School. The following situation has arisen, and you must use best practices in the current Chid Protection Guidelines to deal with the issues.

The following child attends your pre-school. You have become concerned about his welfare. The Case Study presented below records the child protection issues which require addressing. Your task is to review the prepared case study and identify the issues and actions that are required to respond to and manage the situation. You must also complete the Tusla Standard Report form, using only the information presented in the case study.

Child Protection – Case Study

Joey Murphy is aged 3 years and 7 months. He has been attending The Alphabet Crèche & Pre-School since he was 18months old.  Initially, he attended three days a week from 8 am until 5 pm, whilst his mother returned to employment. Since the age of 2 years and 6 months, Joey has been attending full-time. Joey’s mother drops him off at 7:45 am each morning and collects him no later than 5:15 pm.

Joey lives with his mother Jennie, his father Rob, and his older sister Alice aged 7 years. Alice also attended ‘Alphabet’ as a baby and toddler. Jennie is expecting her third child and is currently twenty weeks pregnant. Both parents work full-time – Jennie manages an office in the local town and Rob owns his own contracting business. Alice is in 1st Class in the local primary school. They live in a very pretty rural area and have just completed renovations on a cottage that has been in Rob’s family for some time. The family is well known in the local area.

Until recently, Joey was a very easy-going little boy. He was always friendly and very good at sharing and playing with others. His social interaction skills had developed at a very young age.

A member of the childcare team raised concerns about Joey’s behavior on the 8th of March when he appeared tired and in bad form. Although not unusual for many children, this was very unusual for Joey as his parents were strict on his routine and this had not been experienced with Joey before. You as Supervisor asked the key worker to keep a watchful eye over the following days and to report anything of further concern.

Throughout the three days that followed, Joey’s tiredness developed into exhaustion, he was hungry and began to exhibit temper tantrums. On day three he soiled himself. At 5 pm on Thursday 11th March, the Supervisor casually asked Jennie if she had any concerns about Joey as he was displaying unusual behavior.  Jennie appearing uneasy, answered ‘he is a little tired these days and quickly left the premises. Joey did not appear on Friday 12^th March. The supervisor could not help but notice that Jennie was also looking tired, and she was not her normal, relaxed self.

On Monday 15th March, Joey’s grandmother dropped him off. Further concerns were raised as this too was out of the ordinary. Staff noticed that Joey was unclean and was back in nappies. Again, he was hungry. When his nappy was removed later that morning to encourage Joey to go to the toilet, a bruise was found on his left hip bone.

You telephoned Joey’s mother but were unable to get through. You then called his father who answered. You explained that you would like them both to come in for a meeting when they were collecting Joey at 5 pm as there were some concerns about Joey which needed to be addressed. Joey’s father told you to ‘mind your own business. The bruising was recorded in the incident book for the parents to sign when they came in.

At 5 pm the grandmother collected Joey. There was no sign of the parents. You asked the grandmother if you could speak with her in confidence. As a supervisor, you outlined the concerns. The grandmother acknowledged that the family was under ‘severe financial pressure’ and ‘maybe Joey is picking up on that.’ You informed the grandmother of the bruise on Joey’s hip. The grandmother became upset and told you that she had her own worries about the children as 7-year-old Alice was also showing behavioral problems and was very unhappy. In the absence of the parents, you asked her to sign the incident book as verification that she had been informed of an incident and said it would still need to be signed by a parent.