Supernanny State Or A Bold And Innovative Initiative?

Submitted by tonyplant on March 5, 2006 - 13:06.

The Sunday Times is trumpeting Antisocial families to get 'supernannies'. The story is a blend of some topics that have been interesting me recently because it encompasses poor social relations, difficulty relating to various bodies, antisocial behaviour, physical health, bedtimes, cooking skills and understanding nutrition, parental coaching on anger management etc. Or, allostasis.

[Social workers] will arrive early each morning to ensure the household is out of bed and youngsters sent to school. Their tasks will include ensuring children are properly fed and dressed, and encouraging layabout parents to find a job.

So, the author's never seen the trailers for those Neighbours From Hell programmes where it is typically the professional or monied classes who make each other's lives miserable over Leylandii, rights of access, parking etc.. Nor can the author have seen those desperate parents on TV who report that they have repeatedly asked their Social Services Dept. for help with their 'out-of-control' children only to be told that there is nothing available for them. My memory has faded, but I thought that there were several working couples who took part in that pioneering parent coaching course that was televised on BBC 2's Blame The Parents.

I can not believe that this initiative has any hope of succeeding if it is to be enforced in the adversarial way that is implied in this extraordinary amalgam of spite and uninformative writing.

Case workers will be ordered to do whatever it takes, within the law, to gain access to the family home every morning. They will stay until any young children are put to bed in the evening and until they are confident any older children are off the streets.

A Home Office source said: “These workers will be with the family morning, noon and night. If they have to shout through the letter box and bang on doors to get through the door, that is what they will do.”

Just how is shouting and banging going to alleviate the burden of antisocial behaviour from the wretched neighbours? Is disruptive noise not disruptive when it is coming from a group of social workers, and (presumably) police officers? Would it be beyond the wit of the people in the house in such a scenario to play music so loudly that they don't hear the banging? More fun for the neighbours.

It would be so easy either to lampoon this initiative or to ascribe the tone of the piece to jealousy that the writer does not qualify for a state-subsidised provision of Jo Frost and Nanny McPhee. What the Sunday Times could have done was to tell me more about the Dundee project that prompted this wider initiative. It could have told me if this family support is only available to families with layabout parents (just how is this determined?), or those parents at their wits end who ask for support from Social Services.

The Sunday Times could have provided some of the medical and psychological as well as social justification of this programme. I've quoted Salvador Minuchin frequently in recent posts. His works reported that "behavioral events among family members can be measured in the bloodstream of other family members". I suggested that this could also be adapted to "behavioural events among family members can be measured in the diagnoses of other family members". Beyond that, it seems as if "behavioural events of assorted family members can be measured in the social disruption to other family members and their wider communities".

After a quick search on Google (a resource that must be available to the writers on the Sunday Times) it seems as if the Dundee project was successful. One of the biggest problems that it faced was the public perception of the project and the resentment that it generated. I didn't find a fully-costed summary of the outcome. I would expect that journalists could have access to this information.

I would like an exploration of the claim that:

Ministers say the scheme, which will cost about £15,000 per family, will pay for itself because councils will not have to take the children into care.

I believe that the scheme will be cheaper than taking children into care. I don't understand how full-time supervision of families for up to 15 months will only cost £15,000. How can a senior, trained social worker, with a full-time assignment to a family and any necessary security personnel (do social workers work unaccompanied in all neighbourhoods?)only cost £15,000? Particularly when you take into account the loaded costs of admin, pension, NI in addition to the notional salary. And when you cost in appropriate support from other bodies? After all, the envisaged trust-winning scenario must have implied costs.

They will be expected to win the confidence of their family by helping them to solve a simple problem, such as a gripe about their housing.

It is still probably a cost-saving proposal (I recently read an interview which mentioned that the cost of a place at a supported boarding school for children with extreme behavioural problems was £150,000 per annum). But I don't like the idea that I'm being given figures that are patently preposterous. The £15,000 would only be plausible if the average family only needed assistance for a short period of time. If this is so, I would like information about the experience on which this is based.

I don't like the way in which the Sunday Times presented this information. I would like somebody to give me a balanced account of the background research and experience on which this is based. And an assessment of the contribution that a successful initiative would make not only to the families who are supported, but to the happiness and well-being of their communities.

Oh! Could I have just read something by a layabout journalist? Someone who found it easier to snark than to do some background research?

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project

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