Help is out there for young mums

But when an incident occurs such as the drama which unfolded in North Bradley last week, when a 19-year-old girl abandoned her newborn baby girl in a wheelie bin in a desperate panic, it highlights the shocking reality of the fear and bewilderment faced by anyone in this girl's position.

Despite sex education in schools and, in the case of Wiltshire, dedicated websites, trusts, boards and parenting pamphlets, children as young as 11 and 12 are still becoming pregnant in this country.

But it is testament to organisations such as Wiltshire County Council's Children and Family Services department that a huge selection of help is out there to aid anyone like the 19-year-old North Bradley mother get through the crisis and deal with the aftermath.

Occurences rare

Heather Clewett, who manages the social care fieldwork teams for the service, says luckily the incidence of abandoned babies occurs very rarely, with only one discovered every two or three years.

However, the department is far from idle and, committed as it is to helping young people from newborn right through to 18-year-olds, takes on approximately 550 referrals or new cases such as the family in North Bradley every single month.

Add to this existing work with around 296 children already and another 100 on the Child Protection Registerand you have a very busy department.

The Gazette and Herald met with both Heather Clewett and Jimmy Doyle, assistant director of the Children and Familes Service, to talk through just who is involved when a situation as distressing as an abandoned baby occurs and which agencies work together to help and support all involved.

"We work with children of all ages, receiving and requesting help with all sorts of parental concerns, including baby abndonment, although thankfully this is rare,"said Clewett. "On receipt of any referral, all agencies involved will be making a judgement in terms of the level of need, the level of risk, and then the case will move forward based on that judgement."

Who's working for you?

The Local Safeguarding Children board combines senior representatives from health, education, social work, police, probation, the Connexions advice-giving service and the voluntary sector and members keep in close contact when dealing with cases.

Doyle explained: "The call for help can come from a member of the public, friends or family, health visitors or even a school teacher and lots of partners get involved to help sort it out.

"One of the things that people are often confused about with a department like our is When do we intervene?' "What we do is look at what advice and support the department can give to a family or child in crisis and it will be a much smaller number where, because one of the agencies involved with safeguarding is sufficiently concerned about a child, we have no choice but to intervene and remove that child. These are few and far between.

"One of the things we're always doing is talking to any of the other agencies and partners that may have information about that child and family and most of the time poeple are quite happy to have us do that. It's not as if judgements are being done just by us and this helps us establish what level of urgency there is. Obviously if it's a small child we're dealing with it's judged to be in some risk and we would say that is quite a high priority."

He continued: "Once we've established that a situation has been stabilised and we're satisfied there's no immediate risk to a child we would then be looking to the parent or carer to see what help is needed at that point."

If any possibility of immediate risk or danger has been eliminated, Clewett then discussed, the field teams she is responsible for do not just then up and leave the family or child but play an active part in very in-depth after care, depending on the needs of the individual.

"If the need is such that we feel there's on-going work that we can offer, then a social worker will be allocated," she said: "Our aim is to support the parents and the child. It's working with people, not telling them what to do."

This fear of appearing pushy is a stigma that has long been attached to any form of social services where children are involved and is one that Doyle is quick to tackle. "There's an image with social work that's like Don't let them across the door or they'll take your child away'," he admits.

"That is the last resort situation really; we see the job very much as how we can help families to keep their children with them."

There is obviously much work to be done with young women or children who suddenly find themselves becoming mothers and the Children and Family services department is a busy one.

The most recent conception rate figures for female under 18s , based on 2004, show that 26.9 per 1,000 young girls became pregnant in Wiltshire, although this compares favourably with the 30.7 average across the neighbouring Shires counties.

And just to delve beneath the surface of services out there is to unveil a myriad of advice and opportunities available in the county.

Support is available

The Local Safeguarding Children Board has released The Safe Parenting Handbook, which talks in general terms about issues which may be of concern to parents young and old, offering advice on everything from babysitting and bedwetting to teenage pregnancy and sexual health.

The Pathways website, www.wiltshirepathways.org, is another great resouce providing a detailed service search function and tons of information on the 2001 Pathways Project, the largest exercise of its kind ever carried out to establish how children's services and every topic relating to it could be made more effective.

There are even dedicated youth' websites now available such as slipperyfish.org.uk, which not only provides fun, leisure articles for teens and children but also gives them the chance to express themselves and off-load problems or worries.

Wiltshire County Council also has a Chippenham-based teenage pregnancy co-ordinator of its own and a detailed strategy on its website, www.wiltshireorg.co.uk, which outlines its commitment in this field. The Teenage Pregnancy Partnership in the county implements the national Teenage Pregnancy Strategy on a local level and aims to:

• Reduce teenage conceptions by half by 2010
• Encourage more young parents back into education training and employment
  
  Workers for this service also manage the No Worries scheme, where GP practices, pharmacies, colleges and some voluntary agencies are trained specifically to offer free help and advice and contraception to young people.

These services are then linked to Schools, and youth centres, as well as providing sexual health training to those working with young people and advice straight to schools.

An important part of post-pregnancy care, says Clewett, is helping young mums back into education or into a job, if that is what they want.

"We continue to work with these mums and make sure they have access to the curriculum," she explained. "We also oversee a lot of curriculum work from home with pupils using home computers, as long as there is a level of interaction with a qualified teacher or tutor.

"Teenage mums aren't immediately taken off the school role and obviously they are not excluded from school. Agencies do try and ensure that the young person having given birth is in a position to resume their full time education or go into work, depending on how old they are, if they wish to get a job."

As both Clewett and Doyle point out, every authority in the land must do all it can to care and nurture the next generation the government initiative Every Child Matters, which puts pressure on authorities to help children achieve live happy lives.

Clewett admits she is hugely proud of the work that goes on within her department and praises all staff to the hilt. "The staff are incredibly committed to working with children and young people across Wiltshire," she said. "I think they constantly rise to the challenge."