Support area
- DA/DV: Witnessed and experienced within the family home and personal experience from own relationships.
- Family breakdown: Relationships within the family are fractured.
- Risk of homelessness: Feeling unable to stay within the family home due to personal safety.
- Dual nationality: Barriers with communication skills, such as written and verbal communication.
- Mild learning disability and cognitive functionality: Unable to express emotions, make own decisions and grasp potential risky situations.
- Had not lived alone before: Needed support in all aspects of managing a licence agreement, household bills, income, budgeting and other responsibilities.
Referral background
Emily was an only child who had been living with her mother since birth. Emily’s mother had always been in DA/DV relationships, which put Emily at high risk. Emily herself had been in a DA/DV relationship and became pregnant at aged 15. Emily made the decision to terminate this pregnancy.
Emily’s mum’s partner was becoming increasingly more aggressive towards her mum, which was very difficult for Emily to live with. She felt torn between not wanting to leave her mum, as she wanted to protect her the best she could, but she was also aware that she could not stay within the family home as it was not a safe place to be.
Emily would stay in her room for very long periods of time. She was not able to live the life that a normal teenager could, as she was on constant high alert as to what might happen.
After witnessing another episode of violence within the family home, Emily spoke to a trusted adult at the college she was attending and a referral was made into supported accommodation.
Support details
Emily had no income when she moved to supported accommodation. Her family were still claiming Child Benefit, but she was not given this money. She was supported to the Job Centre to begin her own Universal Credit claim and get Child Benefit payments stopped. She was supported to open her own bank account so that her money could be paid directly to her.
Emily was already in college and attended NOVA, where she was studying Maths and English. To begin with, her partner also attended, but she was late in attendance most of the time as she was waiting for him to be ready. We discussed that she would need to start getting herself to college on time and meet her partner there. When he eventually left, her attendance got better.
Emily advised that English is not spoken at home and she seemed to lack understanding when reading and deciphering her post, and also some information given to her. She needed support with this. There was no EHCP in place for her, as this was checked with her previous school and college.
She was very good at attending keywork sessions, but with the relationship came spending money on things that were not essential.
She started to fall behind with Personal Contribution payments and her phone bill, so we needed to do some budgeting and talked about ensuring her bills were paid prior to things she wanted.
She was worried that she had fallen behind, and this was resolved fairly quickly. Since then, she had been wiser with her money and financial obligations.
In April 2023, the relationship began to show cracks and she and her partner started to argue. We did some work around healthy relationships, but they continued to make up and break up and constantly argue and bicker. Healthy relationship advice was offered. Pregnancy tests were carried out and contraception sought.
Her physical health was not always very good. She suffered from low blood sugar and sometimes passed out, so support from a GP was sought for her.
She also attended a cardiologist appointment for this with support. We also registered her with a dentist and supported her to have treatment.
Moving into self-contained accommodation
In January 2024, I supported a move for Emily from shared accommodation into her own self-contained flat.
She sought items for her new property, and I helped to set up her bills with her and change her address with her GP and other services. She managed her gas, electric and other bills well once she was in a routine.
When she first moved in, there were further issues with her partner degrading her and making her believe she could not manage by herself in a property. We did work around self-confidence until she believed she could manage by herself. Her confidence in her abilities to run her home grew and she managed well.
Emily continued to prosper and allowed her female friend to visit her property, but this did not go down well with her partner.
He began to up the ante and abuse her further, and we had to issue visitor bans to him from her property to keep her safe.
She was referred to IDVA, where a female worker came to see her. However, the worker was very sporadic and, as Emily had to miss time from college to see her, Emily decided she would rather not engage with her.
Pregnancy and additional support
In February 2024, Emily found out that she was going to have a baby and was very upset, not knowing what to do. Her partner was abusive and she did not know if she could cope, so we talked for a long time about this and eventually, over time, she decided she would like to keep the baby.
However, the father of the baby became even more aggressive with her and eventually this became physical. We had to involve the police, which in turn went to social services, and a parenting assessment began. Emily was supported with this by myself and her partner was supported by his support worker. The work was difficult, but she engaged well, attending all appointments.
A MARAC was put in place for her, and she was made aware of this. She was offered again the opportunity to have an IDVA and agreed to try again. The pregnancy progressed and she was supported to attend all sessions with her social worker, doing well at these.
She was supported to buy folic acid to progress the baby’s development and to cook small plain meals, as she suffered sickness. Healthy Start vouchers were applied for with her.
She suffered with high blood pressure throughout the pregnancy and spent time in and out of hospital. I continued to support with these appointments and helped with her understanding of her medication.
The main issue for Emily was her partner, who she would not leave, but she continued to update staff that she was being harmed by him. A permanent visitor ban was put in place to keep her safe.
She was referred to an FNP, so had a midwife who would also support her for the first two years of the baby’s life, and we all supported Emily to continue with her pregnancy.
I applied to the baby bank to apply for baby items for her once she had had a gender scan and supplied her with many of the items needed for the baby to help save her some money, for which she was grateful. I also helped her to apply for her maternity grant at 29 weeks.
Birth and early parenting
Emily gave birth to a healthy baby girl on 01/09/2024. She brought the baby up mainly by herself at the beginning and struggled with this, so lots of support was offered and ideas were given to try and encourage the father of the baby to be involved.
I tried to get him to look after the baby so she and I could go and get a coffee, so that she could have a short break, but he refused. She was often upset but managed to take the baby along too, and I encouraged her to spend time away from her flat while the weather was nice to aid her mental health.
She went to stay with her mum for a while, and I continued to support at her mum’s home. Emily was supported to register the baby at the GP practice and to discuss the pros and cons of having the father of the baby on the birth certificate. She decided she would allow him to be on there.
I supported Emily to view a property within the Family Scheme through Bromford, but she was not keen on these properties and refused them. She was supported to claim Child Benefit.
Following this, I was unable to support Emily after 28/10/2024 due to a car accident, so she was allocated a new support worker.
Moving on from YMCA
When I came back to work in February 2025, things had become progressively worse for Emily, her baby and her partner. Emily was issued notice to leave YMCA under a no fault eviction and, on the day she moved, I supported her to move her belongings.
Emily initially stayed in a women’s refuge hostel and was then offered a two-bedroom house for her and the baby.
Outcomes achieved
- Completed support required in shared accommodation.
- Managed her own self-contained property. Kept it to a clean standard and set up bills in her own name.
- Learnt to budget and pay her own bills on time.
- Completed a Parenting Assessment.
- Brought a child into the world and acted as a single parent, managing all of her baby’s needs. Attended CIN meetings to ensure baby stayed with her.
- Attended the many appointments required of her.
- Worked on her mental and physical health and attended appointments for these.
- Completed the majority of her college course but left early due to pregnancy sickness.
- Learnt to accept that her partner’s abusive ways were not ok. Although she is still in the relationship, she does now realise what is and what is not ok and will ask for help when required.
- Worked with various agencies to move out of YMCA, accepting support.
- Created her own bank account so she could claim money in her own right.
- Made a claim for Universal Credit so she did not have to rely on anybody financially.
- Applied for all she was entitled to for herself and her new baby.
- Engaged very well with all agencies involved with her.
Other services involved
- NOVA Training
- IDVA service
- Family support worker
- Pre-birth assessment social worker
- Midwife
- MARAC - Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference
- DA/DV support - Cranstoun
- Family Nurse Practitioner
All of the support I had was from you Danielle. That’s all really, I really liked our conversations and your support really helped.
