Case Study: Health Visitor's Role in Child Protection - Baby Lola

This case study examines the role of a health visitor in the case of Baby Lola, a 6-week-old infant with multiple fractures. The health visitor collaborates with a multi-agency team, including a general practitioner, police, and social worker, to address concerns related to child abuse, parental mental health issues (schizophrenia), and drug use. The health visitor's responsibilities include safeguarding Lola, arranging strategy meetings, and developing a care plan in accordance with the Children Act 1989. The analysis incorporates a child-centered approach, emphasizing the importance of service user involvement in decision-making, and utilizes social care tools such as health assessments to develop an effective action plan. The reflection section employs the Lay and McGuire DEAL model to review the health visitor's performance, focusing on communication, teamwork, and the application of relevant legislation and guidelines.

Professional role Health Visitor
( Baby Lola case)
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Table of contents
PART 1 EVIDENCE BASD CASE STUDY ESSAY....................................................................3
PART 2 REFLECTION...................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
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PART 1 EVIDENCE BASD CASE STUDY ESSAY
I am a health visitor who is working with concerns related to babies. I work with a multi
agency health care team in which there are many types of health professionals who are working
as well. We were working together in order to develop a care plan and solve issue of child abuse,
mental health and drug. In that we followed a child centre approach (Alexandrou,. and
Sapountzi‐Krepia, 2018).
From case study I found that there are some issues which are being faced. The first issue is
of child abuse in which Lola is being abused by their parents. It can be seen that Lola is having
multiple fractures in her both leg and arms. Another issue found is mental health. Clive is
suffering from mental health issue that is schizophrenia. The last issue identified is drugs. Donna
is taking crack cocaine and was depressed.
Case study overview and my role in it
By analysing case study, it has been found that Lola is 6 weeks old and is living with her
parents Clive and Donna. Donna is suffering from schizophrenia and is being taken care by
mental health care worker. Lola is being looked by a general practitioner who has said Donna
and clive to take her to hospital. By taking x ray it was found that she is having multiple fractures
in her both arms and legs. But the parents said that they were not having any knowledge
regarding it. Thus, an investigation is done for it. Due to such critical situation as a health visitor
I stated that they need to sign section 20 form as per Children act 1989 (Astbury, Shepherd and
Cheyne, 2017). This allowed me to put Lola in safe hands with some other family member until
investigation is completed. My role as health visitor is I arranged a strategy meeting. This is as
per section under 47 of Children act 1989. In that I was able to find out children needs by
working with health professionals. Also, I need to identify any concern met level of child
protection act and to agree on actions which we can take. Thus, we agree that as Lola was safe
with other family member to level of intervention met is as per her need. Apart from it, there
were many other members in multi agency team that are mentioned as below
Health visitor- My role is to work with various agencies in order to safeguard and protect
children. Also, to ensure they are trained to identify risk factors, concerns and sign of child abuse
or harm. Moreover, my role is to prepare implementation plan which provide framework of role.
I will also work with families, support them and act as link between health care and family
services (Doi, Jepson and Hardie, 2017).
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General practitioner – In present case the role of GP is to examine Lola health conditions and
then diagnose it. Also, his role is to prescribe medicines, do operations, treat her, etc. Also, his
role is to share info of Lola with her parents, hospital and social worker to ensure that proper
care services is given. So, accordingly health plan is developed and treatment is provided. They
provide medical care and routine health check ups to diagnose various disease. Alongside, GP
responsibility is to work with other multi agency team to find out in injuries cause due to abuse.
The police- in this case police role is to do investigation about what has caused injury to Lola.
Also, they will do research about background of Clive and donna and try to find out issue of
child abuse (Legere, and Evans, 2017). Furthermore, police will ensure that all legislation is
followed in providing care to Lola. Their role is to safeguard her rights and protect her from any
harm or injury done.
Social worker - the role of social worker in regard to this case is to work with GP, health visitor,
and other professionals to provide health care services to Lola. Moreover, they need to work with
family of Lola to find out needs of her and accordingly develop care plan. They are responsible
for preparing report of children and giving to police. Also, social worker role is to safeguard
childe rights and needs and to work closely with GP and hospital staff to provide care services to
children.
Type of multi agency meeting
As a team we decided to hold a meeting through which we are able to take decisions
regarding providing care services to Lola. Also, we need to work together to safeguard children
rights. Here, we recognise working together to safeguard children 2018, the children act 1989
and children act 2004 (Oldfield, and Carr, 2017). I found that there are various types of meetings
that is done in multi agency working. This enables in taking effective decisions and fulfilling
child needs. Thus, we decided to hold strategy meeting. It is because we found that it is best
suitable approach in Lola case. Also, as she was living with other family member so we needed
to support them as well. Here, we did discussion on phone calls to identify child welfare and
according develop plans for rapid action to ensure reasonable cause to suspect child is suffering
or not. So, it enabled us to do regular meeting and then develop further strategy on how to fulfil
Lola care needs.
Understanding of service user in decision making process
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The service user plays vital role in decision making process. This is because care is
delivered as per needs of service user. Therefore, in present case service user is 6 weeks old
Lola. But as she can not contribute in decision making so on behalf of her the family member
who is taking care contribute (Seal, 2017). So, it requires to take decision which do not harm
mental or physical health of her. Also, care plan is to developed by determining needs of Lola.
Apart from it, Lola GP and social worker will also contribute in decision making as they will
ensure that no such decision is taken which is against need of her.
Theory used in decision making process.
There is need to take effective decision in order to provide health care needs to Lola.
Thus, there are various theories which is applied and used in social care. This enables in taking
effective decisions. Similarly, we decided to apply child centred approach. It is because it
enabled in safeguarding Lola needs. Also, as it includes police investigation as well. Here, health
visitor will regularly monitor and update Lola health progress. Then, progress will be updated to
GP who will see her for check ups and doing assessments. Thus, on basis of that future care
plans is developed. Moreover, we decided that we can not make any assumptions regarding Clive
and Donny can cause injury to Lola because Donny was suffering from mental health issue and
Clive took drugs. Hence it showed our ethics and values which we followed in our practice. In
addition to it, we discussed issue of child abuse, mental health and drug. This allowed us to do
collaborative working (Stoll, and Hawkey, 2018). Hence, on basis of these health plan was
developed to safeguard Lola.
Action plan developed
In order to fulfil service user needs and treat Lola we developed an effective nursing care
plan. This is because it provided a framework on how to fulfil needs and what action is to be
taken into it. Hence, in that we took certain diagnosis measures to diagnose broken arms and legs
of Lola. The goal we formed was to ensure no arms and legs of her is moving properly and there
is no pain in it. The intervention used in it was regular exercise, bed rest, etc. the evaluation was
done by ensuring position of legs and arms, movement in right direction, etc.
Rationale for social care tools to develop action plan
We decided to develop a care plan with help of using certain social care tools. In that first
is that we used health assessment tool. Here, we identified that what are health needs of Lola and
accordingly mentioned them. Besides, we prioritize her needs and then developed care plan. This
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tool was used as it enabled us to do proper assessment. In addition, we used personal and
professional support network to analyse health needs of Lola. Thus, we used professional
network to develop care plan (Vishram, and et.al., 2018). We used this tool because it provided
us support in developing care plan and including all legislation and guidelines in it.
PART 2 REFLECTION
In order to review and reflect on my role in working in multi agency team I will be using a
model that is Lay and McGuire DEAL model. This model consists of describe, examine,
articulate and learn. I learned that I need to analyse my performance to work in team so that I can
make improvement in it. This will help me to grow in my career and gain more info on health
and social care. Thus, I will be reflecting my experience with help of this model which is defined
as below :
Describe
Within case study, I played the role of health visitor and I was responsible for
maintaining of health progress of Lola. Also, I did an in depth study about what are different
policies and legislation which govern the profession while working alongside other professionals
as part of a multi agency team. The main goal was to develop a care plan for 6 weeks old Lola
based on assessment, risk factors, safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of the child. So, I
learned a lot of knowledge about various legislations, guidelines, etc. that is adhered while
working in health care (White, and Le Cornu, 2017). This is been mentioned in Children Act
1989 and 2004. Thus, at initial stage I came across different frameworks, policies and
legislations which were important to me in making a valuable contribution in the Strategy
meeting such as the Children and Social Work Act 2017, Sections 17 and 47 of the Children Act
1989 and the Children and Families Act 2014. It has been analysed that law play vital role in
decision making process in multi agency team. Hence, I gained and learned a lot of knowledge
about laws and acts to be applied in decision making. Moreover, I got in depth understanding of
my role as health visitor and what laws are applied on me. Besides, how multi agency team work
as per legislation formed by government.
Examine and articulate
Here, I learned a lot about communication and decision making. I got to know that
interpersonal communication can result in bringing positive outcomes in multi agency team.
Also, I found that tone and language of communication must be simple and soft. This will enable
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in sharing data and info is more clear and precise manner. I found that I created a barrier which
in communication due to which other person in team was not able to interact with me.
So, as health visitor I was given role of team worker. I did work on behalf of my team
and cooperate with them. So, I analysed that my strength was to act as team worker in multi
agency team. I did carry out health assessment in which I identified needs of Lola. Moreover, I
helped team member to finish work on time (Alexandrou,. and Sapountzi‐Krepia, 2018).
I found that my group development can be connected with Tuckman group formation
theory. In this there are 5 stages of team formation. Thus, in forming stage we all met and
decided to analyse case of Lola. Then, we assigned and discuss roles with each other that who
will perform what tasks. Hence, we took final decision of roles to be performed. And I told all
other members strictly about it. In storming stage there occurred some conflict in team as some
member wanted to change their roles. So, we did a meeting and changed roles of that member.
However, in norming stage we decided to work together. I explained that indecisiveness can be a
barrier in our team working. But after some time we got comfortable in understanding diversity
of each other and developed an effective care plan. In performing stage, we performed all our
roles and responsibilities in effective way. We also communicated with each other properly and
worked towards out goals.
Learn
By working in team I learned a lot of things which helped me to understand my role,
actions, etc. so, it will enable me in my ongoing learning. In this i played role of team worker but
I realised that I played role of coordinator. In that I ensured that all tasks are done in effective
way (Astbury, Shepherd and Cheyne, 2017).
I found that Lola was having serious injuries and fracture in both arms and legs so I got to
know about ethics and values which need to be followed by multi agency team and professional
working in it. Also, I learned that they must not make assumption and do a proper assessment of
it. Therefore, I also study about what are laws and acts which is followed in Lola case. This will
enable in working with her parents and family member. I realise that as health visitor I need to
prepare report on Lola progress so that accordingly health care plan is developed. Thus, it
requires to sign a section 20 form in which child care is given to some other until investigation is
done.
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So, I can summarize that, my learning from this unit has been immense, not only have I learned
about the importance of multi agency working, I have also developed new knowledge about
legislation, tools and processes used in Health and Social Care and a better understanding of the
meaning of evidence based practice and critical reflection. Besides that, I also learned about what
theories or models are followed to develop care plan, how decision is taken in team working.
Other than this, I got to know about various practice which is followed during multi agency
working. I am also able to relate teaching to practice, such as understanding how different
models and theory link to practice (Doi, Jepson and Hardie, 2017). For example, I can now
make sense of teaching about Frost’s 2005 model of the three C’s Collaboration, Coordination,
Cooperation. This will help in describing multi agency team work.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Alexandrou, F.. and Sapountzi‐Krepia, D., 2018. Health visitors' perceptions on their role to
assess and manage postpartum depression cases in the community. Health & social care in
the community, 26(6), pp.995-1000.
Astbury, R., Shepherd, A. and Cheyne, H., 2017. Working in partnership: the application of
shared decision‐making to health visitor practice. Journal of clinical nursing, 26(1-2),
pp.215-224.
Doi, L., Jepson, R. and Hardie, S., 2017. Realist evaluation of an enhanced health visiting
programme. PloS one, 12(7), p.e0180569.
Legere, L.E. and Evans, M., 2017. Approaches to health-care provider education and
professional development in perinatal depression: a systematic review. BMC pregnancy
and childbirth, 17(1), pp.1-13.
Oldfield, V. and Carr, H., 2017. Postnatal depression: student health visitors' perceptions of their
role in supporting fathers. Journal of Health Visiting, 5(3), pp.143-149.
Seal, J., 2017. Multiple professional identities: A personal exploration of the transition from
nurse to lecturer. Journal of Health Visiting, 5(2), pp.94-99.
Stoll, L.. and Hawkey, K., 2018. Professional learning communities: Source materials for school
leaders and other leaders of professional learning.
Vishram, B., and et.al., 2018. Vaccination in pregnancy: attitudes of nurses, midwives and health
visitors in England. Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 14(1), pp.179-188.
White, D.S. and Le Cornu, A., 2017. Using ‘Visitors and Residents’ to visualise digital
practices. First Monday.
Whittaker, K.A. and Maben, J., 2017. Making a difference for children and families: an
appreciative inquiry of health visitor values and why they start and stay in post. Health &
social care in the community, 25(2), pp.338-348.
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