Britain's Broken Families

This programme contains some strong language

No! You're not going away! Sian!

Last year, the state spent an estimated £9 billion

on just 120,000 families.

It does smell in here though, doesn't it?

There's been a fight in my garden, a fight across the street.

'So let us get out there and heal the scars of a broken society.'

I can, if needed, be there at seven in the morning to make sure the children are up...

Sian. Buy into it.

..and be there at five o'clock to make sure there's food on the table.

It's really, really not looking good.

No, cos last time you did that, you didn't...!

There's unrealistic expectations to suddenly go from being

nightmare families, to the next minute being the Waltons.

Vicki McKeown is 24.

It's her first year working for the Family Intervention Project,

having left university with a degree in criminology.

As a FIP worker, it's her job to help Newcastle's most troubled families.

It's seven o'clock in the morning

and I'm going to visit the Thompson family.

At this point, Social Services are concerned that the home conditions

are not suitable for children to live in

and the boys are being neglected.

It's by going at this time, I'm not aiming to catch them out,

I'm just aiming to get a picture of what's really going on,

who does what, who's up.

It's a starting point to see where we need to go from here.

Social Services have brought in FIP to contribute towards

an assessment, and help the Thompson family.

-Morning!

-Morning.

Are you feeling better today?

-No, cos he's got the skitters.

-He's got what?

-He's got the skitters.

-Oh, no.

Robbie, come on. Robbie!

Robbie's four years old and I was quite concerned that he'd been ill

and his parents were not up, seeing to his needs.

Robbie, come on. Robbie, please. Come on. Get washed.

No-one's up that's going to school.

Where's everybody else or is this your job this morning?

No, I haven't slept properly.

I just got up early and he'd come down, being a mess.

Robbie is being cleaned up by his grandma, Doreen.

Most children would wake up in the night and go and get Mum or Dad up

to tell them that they'd been ill, where Robbie obviously hadn't.

It does smell in here though, doesn't it?

But they've got five house cats.

There's a strong smell of cat urine.

Come here, Robbie. I'm not finished. You've got some on your butt.

Robbie's brother Brandon is seven years old.

Morning, Brandon. How are you this morning?

Fine.

'One thing I'm very aware of with Brandon is I've never seen him smile,

'which is very concerning for a child of that age.'

Brandon, get some underpants for Robbie, please,

and some pyjamas.

No, no!

I think Claire might be getting up, I think this might be Claire now.

Sssh.

I'm glad to see you up.

Claire moved back into her mum Doreen's house after splitting up

with Brandon and Robbie's father.

-Are you a morning person, Claire?

-Not really.

-So I'm going to be stuck up, am I?

-No.

You going to put Robbie to bed with you?

Claire works as a part-time cleaner in the evenings.

Brandon, instead of mucking around with that, please...

Step-dad Jon moved in three years ago, shortly after meeting Claire.

You thought you were having a lie-in, Jon. You were wrong.

-Jon, you'll need a...

-Has he been sick?

No, the other end.

Is it just in the bed then?

Well, he had his underpants on so...

Ah, so it's just in the bed probably.

Yeah.

Keys.

You'll have to tidy your smelly room then, won't you, Robbie?

See you later, Brandon.

-See ya later.

-See you tonight.

'In my opinion, it's more about neglect'

and just general unawareness of what they should be doing.

They get fed, bathed, fed, watered.

They're quite open about what they are doing,

which in my opinion shows that they don't think it is wrong

because they are so open about it.

I do go to see to their needs, I love them and all that.

They get hugs and I play with them and that.

As far as I'm concerned, that's what a parent does -

see to their needs and play with them and make them laugh.

It's been the way I've been brought up,

and the way I brought me own two kids up,

and it's done no harm to them.

On the advice of Vicki and other professionals,

Claire is called to a meeting at Social Services.

How did it go?

Really bad. It's like neglect.

They say if you don't do what they're asking,

they will push it for court and that.

And what does court mean?

They will take the boys, they'll push to take the boys.

If it has to go to court, they'll push to take the boys off of us.

Do you think you're going to lose Brandon and Robbie?

I have a scary feeling I might.

Cos I've been there like twice now, so I've a scary feeling I might.

Claire has been given three months to improve the home environment for her boys.

She knows working with Vicki is her best chance of achieving this.

It was opened in January...

Newcastle's FIP was set up seven years ago.

Each worker is responsible for four families.

..Cos she was smoking and staying out...

FIP can be called in by Social Services or Housing

as a last resort before court intervention.

He witnessed the attack on his mother when he was seven,

when a knife was used on his mother.

What makes FIP unique is the amount of time they are able to spend with every troubled family.

I think there's sometimes really unrealistic expectations

on families to suddenly go from being, you know, labelled as

problem nightmare families or whatever, to the next minute being the Waltons.

I mean, he's had 15 stop and searches since January,

usually to do with disorder.

We're a long-term intensive support service

and we can be involved with families for up to two years.

I'll be honest with you, there's families that have been with us for longer than that.

In a leafy suburb on the other side of Newcastle lives Sharon Gibson.

Sharon is a 43-year-old, unemployed single mum.

She's being blamed by neighbours for teenagers running riot on the estate.

Martin!

I had a huge gang.

First it was a just a lot of shouting and we heard this loud,

like a thud, smash sort of thing.

And it was my window smashed.

It was quite funny actually. Not cos Sharon was sitting there.

Sian is 14 years old and Sharon's only child.

She hasn't been to school for over a year.

I just didn't like it so I just stopped going.

I went in primary school more than I did in high school.

Sian. Sian!

LAUGHTER

Oh, my God! I used to look like that.

Sian hangs around the house with her friends

and 16-year-old boyfriend Martin.

-Martin!

-Stop tormenting me, Ma!

They've been together for seven months, and Martin spends most nights there.

Does Martin bring a lot of the trouble here?

Oh, he does, aye.

People bring us bother. We don't we don't cause bother.

We go out and get accused of doing stuff.

Just everyone hates you, Sian.

I know. My neighbours proper despise us.

But when you look at it as an outsider, you don't go to school,

you've got the police coming around here.

It does look bad.

It's almost getting to the point that every time there's a knock

at the door, it's somebody to complain.

Hey!

Claire Stewart has a background in counselling

and has been working for the Family Intervention Project for five years.

The majority of them have been spent supporting Mum Sharon

with her mental health issues.

But now 14-year-old Sian is her priority.

The last couple of weeks, we've had Sian run away from home.

There's been complaints put into the council about bad behaviour,

and Sian still needs to go to school.

That's a big hurdle for us to get over.

And there are even more problems.

'Eggs have been thrown at this house'

and what's happened is the neighbours, I'm guessing,

think that it's Sian and Martin who have been doing it.

Hi, Sharon. Are you all right?

DOGS BARK

Sian, I need you to get these dogs!

Sian! SIAN!

Are you all right?

Having so many people shouting at you and screaming at you

and saying this has happened and that's happened,

and it's them to blame and this is to blame.

You've got Sian and her friends getting all upset and agitated,

and they're shouting things and you don't know what was being said

and whether, you know, who was telling who to eff off or whatever.

Sian had promised to go back to school but hasn't,

after receiving abusive messages and texts.

This started because Martin was a naughty boy

and went behind Sian's back with somebody

who was meant to be Sian's friend,

and the person decided to get very nasty

and send some very nasty messages to Sian.

Good girl! Good girl!

Hello?

Oh! Martin.

Sian has agreed to allow Claire into her room to talk about the messages.

Are you coming in?

-How are you?

-Fine.

-Are you sure?

What about all those texts and messages?

They've stopped now.

Cos I've been reading through them

and I'm wondering what that was like while it was happening.

Were you frightened?

Not really, cos I knew they were more like texts

and that, and they wouldn't actually do it, most of them.

But you didn't want to go to school in case it did happen?

Mmm.

Is there other reasons why you don't want to go?

-No.

-Just because of that?

So you're going to get the room sorted?

So when I come back on Tuesday, will it be beautiful?

Yeah.

Are you worried about anything?

No.

Are you texting each other?

No!

CLAIRE LAUGHS

Right, cheerio. I'll see you later.

'That was the first time that Sian's let me in her bedroom'

for a very, very long time.

So that for me was a big step forward

and she's let me see the mess and how bad it's gotten.

There's a lot of work we can do from that,

and I don't just mean about cleaning it up.

I'm talking whole loads of stuff about self-image and self-esteem and valuing yourself.

Something's gone really wrong inside Sian.

Sian was only 11 years old when FIP were first brought in

to help her mum with her mental health issues.

I was so ill and I was so depressed because I was facing eviction,

my benefits were all in a mess, they were just...they kept...

they'd stopping paying us and then when they put it back in,

I was weeks in arrears with everything.

And I had said that I was going to burn the house down

and me and Sian were going to be in it

and I was so sick, so they ended up taking Sian away.

Which was a bit of a bad time, wasn't it?

-Hello?

-Yeah.

Mum, is it all right if I go to Chapel House?

Not till after half four.

'Sian didn't want to leave her mother

'because she was frightened that something would happen to Sharon.'

For an 11-year-old girl, that was really scary.

Sian was placed into care for two months.

Claire helped Sharon get her back and has been supporting the family ever since.

Tell them you're going to the doctors. It'll be less than a five-minute appointment.

It won't be, Mam, it'll be ages.

How will it be ages?

Because it will!

She's going for some contraception.

The implant.

And then it means that we don't need to worry about anything

for three years, basically.

It's getting her there that's going to be the problem.

She'd rather go off with her friends.

You noticed that it's half past four, the appointment?

Three months ago, Sian became pregnant with Martin's baby,

but had a miscarriage.

If she gets pregnant again, at the moment,

it will go into court, I'm sure, to have that baby removed.

That's what the social worker expressly said.

Sharon made it quite clear that she is not able to cope

with a baby at the moment on Sian's behalf,

and she isn't,

and Sian couldn't manage a baby.

It will only be a two-minute appointment.

Sian!

Sian!

-CAMERAMAN:

-I take it you're not going to the doctors then?

This is what she will do and this is what she's like

if I say, you know, she can't have her friends in or...

no, they can't stay overnight or whatever.

She does exactly the same thing.

So it's like a battle of wills at the minute.

My priorities are to get Sian into school

and to get some contraception.

But it is ultimately Sian's choice,

as long as you've made every effort

and made it as possible as you can.

At the end of the day, she makes that choice.

Thanks, Jon.

Bye.

Three weeks from first meeting the Thompsons,

family intervention worker Vicki McKeown

is working on a plan to help keep their boys

from being taken into care.

In comparison to the other FIP families that you...

-A million times worse.

-OK, I'm getting you.

What's been spilt? What's that?

-What's that down there?

-What?

Sam!

This is Robbie's room. He rips all the paper off.

It's not just been Robbie. It's been Brandon as well.

It needs decorating straightaway, but if you haven't got the money

to decorate straightaway, you can't. He has it the same way I had it.

If we could afford to do something, we did it. If we can't,

then we couldn't. That's the way it was

and that's the way it is for my boys.

Working with families, you see that behaviours are quite often learnt

from parents and it's a generational issue that's passed on.

Robbie! On the path, please.

And that can be quite hard cos you're asking them to change

behaviour they've been doing for such a long time.

It's not going to change overnight

and it's not going to be an easy change.

I got took off my parents at six months old

by Social Services. All I did was cry all the time,

so Social Services come in, took me and my brother off my parents.

My dad ended up in prison...again

-and my

-mum... And your brother ended up in prison.

-Sshhh!

And my mum, she just disappeared after they took us off.

I'm going to very much work on the areas such as parenting,

roles within the family and trying to get the family

to achieve what they need to in order to keep those children at home.

Vicki spends the morning with the Thompsons,

laying down some new house rules.

Right. Before we go through this, I just want to say

I want people to be honest. I don't want to go away

and find that people are upset. I'd rather we get it all out

in the open now because we can only move forward

when we know where we're at. In terms of in the morning,

you said you take it in turns to get physically up

and the other one's maybe in bed. What I would like to see

is that you're both physically up because usually, and I'm not meaning

this in a disrespectful way, people would be up and going to work

so we need the boys coming to you.

If you're both getting up, there's two people there for them.

Because one thing that often happens, especially people involved

with Social Services, they'll say, "I'm not hitting the children.

"I'm feeding them. They've got a bed."

Basic needs. But in terms of... It's that emotional thing

and having someone there when you're feeling really crap

and down and stuff. It's just responding to that

and not just ignoring it. That's what we want to see.

We can often get a lot of bravado from families saying,

"I don't need things to be different,"

and, "What are you telling me? The way I bring up my kids is all right."

We need to show them a comparison so it's not always about sitting down

and having the chat. You've got to be creative.

You've got to make it real for them and bring it to life a bit.

-You've got what?

-The boys are off on Friday.

Well, that could give you an opportunity to take them somewhere,

to the park or something.

Vicki's suggestion of a trip to the park

is the Thompsons' first outing together in weeks.

The champ is here.

You're snotty.

-CAMERAMAN:

-How often do you say you get out with the boys?

Not a lot. We haven't got the money or the weather's bad.

-Do you enjoy coming to the park?

-Yep.

-Do you get to come very often?

-Not much.

What did you do this weekend?

Absolutely nowt. Just had a quiet day in.

This is the first time I've ever seen Claire at the park.

It's not the first time I've ever seen her do anything with the boys.

But I think she enjoys it, even if she's not saying it,

cos she's joining in and stuff.

-Up there.

-And again.

-Shall we lift you?

-Do you want to go on my shoulders?

It's important that Claire and Jon start to see that it does

have an effect, it does make the boys happier, gives them something

to talk about and I suppose it gives them that time to be children.

Inevitably, they will mess around and stuff, but because they don't

do that at home, I think it's important they can just be children.

Martin!

This is the beginning. Where is it? Martin!

At the Gibson house, Martin, Sian's 16-year-old boyfriend,

has been accused of stealing the neighbours' football.

Just have to wait till the police come then.

Are you worried about the police coming around?

Why do you let him still hang around?

People keep asking me that.

If I don't allow him to come,

at some point, my daughter's not going to be here.

We've been through this loads of times.

We've been where she's just done off because I haven't allowed him.

So, what do I do?

I don't know which ball it was, but they got a ball out of the garden.

-Did they?

-Was I not supposed to tell you?

-They did, yeah.

-How do you know?

-Cos I was there when they got it.

Martin! Come here. You DID go next door and get a ball

because I've just been told you did.

No! You're not going away!

Sods.

Get in. I'm going for a walk.

-Where are you going?

-To find the ball.

They've smashed eggs on my sitting-room window.

There's been a fight in my garden,

a fight across the street.

Just abuse, verbal abuse.

Get it out.

We never ever leave our house empty now. Never.

And yous wonder why I've got a rift with the bloody neighbours.

It's not funny, Martin.

Where are they, Sharon?

They went up that way.

Get in.

-Do you think people look at you as trouble?

-Yes.

Why's that?

He's putting Sharon's tenancy at risk

because obviously you can't go around upsetting the community like this

and other things have been going on as well.

The police were called two nights ago for something else

associated with Martin's behaviour.

So we'll have to talk about all of this and what it means.

Sharon, Sian and Martin. First of all,

I'm going to let your mum read this.

All right, Martin. This is from the housing officer to me, OK?

They've received another complaint about your behaviour,

while you and your friends were visiting this house.

It doesn't really help at this point

to say who's right or wrong

or the accuracy of things.

The thing is, it has been said somehow.

Your behaviour, and as much as you say, "I didn't do it,"

or, "It was just a little bit.

"No, I didn't really do that. I was just playing with a ball,"

whatever's happening, Martin, you're putting this tenancy at risk.

You are doing it. You and your friends.

Nobody said to me that Sharon has kicked a ball

or stood on somebody's hedge.

It's really not looking good.

It's really, really not looking good.

Why don't you and Sian go upstairs then and give me and Sharon

a couple of minutes on our own?

I think the thing is, the community's got itself into such a state now

that they are watching you all the time.

That's the feeling that I'm getting so...

..let's get it calmed down.

Ten days later, Sharon is asked to go to the Housing Office

to discuss her tenancy.

She wasn't going to come. She just flatly refused.

When I say flatly refused, it wasn't aggressive, she was just scared.

Then yesterday, I said, "How about we go? You need to do this.

"It's part of the process." And she came around.

She just perked up and came around, so she's here.

Hello, Joanne.

-Hi, Sharon.

-You OK?

-Yeah, fine. You OK, Sharon?

-Yes, fine, thanks.

The reason, Sharon, that I've asked you to come along today with Claire

is just to go through some of the complaints made.

Mainly Sian's behaviour in the street and the visitors associated

with the property, the noise and just the general disturbance

in the area. You see, if Sian and her friends are causing nuisance

in the area, if they are friends, visitors to your property,

it falls back on you and your tenancy.

In all of the complaints, we will then come to you.

Inappropriate behaviour has to stop. It won't be tolerated

and we need to just keep an eye on the situation closely.

Do you understand what I'm saying, Sharon?

-Sharon, what's on your mind?

-Nothing.

-Nothing? Do you need to say something?

-No.

-No? Are you sure?

-Uh-hm.

Sharon and Sian are quite quiet and soft touches with a lot of things.

A lot of kids who've got nowhere else to go

and who aren't being controlled

have ended up coming into the home

and Sharon's had great difficulty getting these kids out.

Trouble comes and finds a home there

and that jeopardises their tenancy.

Two months into working with FIP,

the Thompsons are trying to get to grips with their new daily routines

set up by Vicki.

We've actually downsized. We've now only got three cat litter trays.

I mean, we've had five cats and now we've only got the three cats

cos one of the cats that we got rid of was doing all the wet...

the urine all over the place.

How often were you changing the cat litter trays?

Once a week. Now it's every one or two days.

VICKI: For a long time, I didn't feel that Claire understood

the reason for the change. It's quite apparent she's more on board now

so I think she understands more what needs to happen

and she understands that if things didn't change,

then she was at risk of losing her boys.

So she's now doing things to make sure that doesn't happen.

Come in. Shut up. Stand back.

I've bought some more charts.

Vicki has introduced a system of charts which ensures

all the family stick to the new routines.

If I didn't have a bath on Monday, we'd just leave that blank

and if I did on Tuesday, just a tick.

Hopefully, the charts will disappear and these routines and habits

will become the norm.

Robbie, what does it say on the chart you've got to do?

-Don't bounce.

-It doesn't say don't bounce, you've just got to walk...

..cos otherwise you might fall over.

That's it. That's it. You tidy it up.

-Jon and Mum have painted your bedroom, haven't they?

-Yeah.

Do you like it? But who's done this?

-Not me.

-Not you?

-You know on your chart, you've got no drawing on walls?

-Yeah.

So next time I come, this will still be here,

but we don't want any new drawings.

-Then do you think you can keep the walls clean?

-Yeah.

-Very good.

Decoration and cleaning the house are just short-term solutions.

Uniforms off and get ready for bed, please.

Vicki is helping to arrange for Claire, Jon and the boys

to move into a council house on the other side of town.

It's been hard. But we've just got to get on with it.

I don't like what's happening, we're having to go our separate ways,

but just got to get on with it for the kids.

Obviously, the housing is the next big thing

because as long as she's living with her mum, she will be a child.

She will always look to her mum

and expect her mum to jump in and things.

We've always said, until they move and they're in separate tenancies,

we're kind of just treading water and keeping things as they are

and the true changes will happen when they move.

KNOCK ON DOOR Hello?

Wow. I tell you what, it's much better in here, isn't it?

For crying out loud. Grand.

You've done great in here, mind, Sian.

You know, you've stuff that's to go to the riding school,

that you were taking back to riding school? Have you taken it?

-No.

-I wondered if you fancied taking it up with me in the car?

Sian used to go horse riding, I don't know, really,

two or three times a week.

So I want her to remember that she really enjoyed it.

I'm hoping to trigger some memories as well.

How are you doing, Sian?

-I've got some boots.

-I'll take it. Fabulous. Thank you.

You're not going to ride at all?

I want to come back though.

Well, come up.

It's really fluffy.

It's just its fur.

Do you remember Dempsey or not?

Yeah? Dempsey and Daisy?

Probably Sian would be about 12 when she came.

She started off right from the beginning

to eventually starting to compete a little bit.

So she got quite far with her riding.

I think she certainly always enjoyed it.

Sometimes maybe just the crowd of kids she was in with at the time,

maybe their interests just wandered a little bit

and that just steered Sian to go down the other track

and do other things.

This is who Sian used to ride.

This is the little girl that I knew was there.

It's really nice seeing her relating with the horse...

..because she loved it.

It's a big change. It's about getting out of the house

and leaving the house and leaving that little, safe world.

She's not going to school and not going out.

So this is really the first step away

from that life that she's been living lately, this last year,

which is why, if she wants to, I'll make sure she can get here

at least in the early stages, until her motivation

and her confidence comes back.

I had a text message from Sharon at seven o'clock on Friday

to say that Sian was pregnant.

It does change everything. All the plans that we had

and everything Sian was signing up to have all changed.

What needs to happen is a pregnancy test needs to be taken

with somebody who can confirm to Social Services that you're pregnant.

If the test is positive, Sian will be assigned a social worker

who will assess whether she can keep her baby.

It's not that one, it's that one.

-I did that one wrong. I put it in the wrong place.

-All right.

-Shall I put this one in the bin?

-Yes.

So because it's got two pink bits, that's a positive, yeah?

-Is this correct?

-Yes.

It's not something I really want her to go through, basically,

and to be honest, I don't think she's even physically able

to go through it.

-I don't think she is.

-Do you mean carry a baby or deliver?

Both, basically.

-So, are you, like, frightened for her?

-Uh-hm.

The only way for me to handle it is to just not even talk about it.

Yeah. How do YOU feel?

-Scared.

-You're scared? What are you scared about?

Everything.

Do you want to? Do you want to have a baby?

You do? All right then.

Yeah, it is scary, I think because you don't now what's going to happen.

It's unknown. You don't really know how you're going to react

with your own baby until you've got your own baby, do you?

So it is quite scary.

-I just hope it doesn't turn out like me.

-Really?! Why's that?

Don't know. Just cos.

I think you're nice, Martin.

Eight months after Vicki's first assessment,

the Thompsons have moved to a council house five miles away.

This is your new house, isn't it?

Grandma's house is over there.

Yeah, but Grandma's going to maybe, hopefully, move across here

-and then she'll live near you and be able to visit, won't she?

-Yeah.

So, any of these bags here, they go up to Mummy's room, OK?

I'll take this one.

Are you sure? It looks a bit heavy, Brandon.

-CAMERAMAN:

-So, what do you think of your new place then?

-I like it.

It's the right size for me and the boys, I think.

Without my mam being here, anyway.

Less stressful I think it's going to be and all.

Vicki, FIP mentioned before, "This is the way we want it kept."

But it will be because it'll be up to me and Jon to keep it tidy.

VICKI: The thing with the cats is... Fine, have cats,

but we just don't want them in the bedrooms

because we don't want them weeing in the bedrooms.

-It doesn't bite, does it?

-No, no.

I've just thrown you out.

Sometimes animals get that fusty smell,

especially when the heating's on, so you get that warm animal smell.

As long as they stay downstairs then we've not got any concerns with them.

We just don't want them weeing in the boys' bedrooms.

Hopefully, this will be a fresh start.

They'll get the stuff in the house that they need.

I'm hopeful that it will work out.

Sian's pregnancy has put even more pressure on Claire

to break the Gibsons' cycle of problems.

Does that get her out of schooling, being pregnant?

It doesn't get her out of schooling at all, no.

In fact, it's become almost more important that she's pregnant

because she's going to have to demonstrate to the people assessing her

as fit to be a parent,

so there's even more pressure on her to go to school.

Claire's helped Sian get a place in a school for pregnant teenagers.

-Sian?

-Yeah.

-Can I come in a minute?

-Yeah.

Guys, this isn't good. It's really not good.

What happened?

-What happened in here?

-I don't know.

Seriously, this is really bad.

It's not good enough.

So, if you want any chance at all to have your baby, Sian,

and bring your baby home,

you're going to have to start going to school and THIS has got to stop.

Martin, are you hearing me?

Is he hearing me?

And that means you stay here on Sunday night

and not at Martin's, yeah? And I can see you going,

"Yeah, I'll do it." I know what you're thinking.

"I'll do what the hell I like." So, Sian, buy into it.

You know, it's not on.

I thought, "You're joking. You have got to be joking.

"You know. We've been through this. You know the lengths we've been to.

"You know the risks you're running

"not looking after yourselves, cleaning up after yourselves.

"You're just showing no signs of any parenting capacity."

I think there's other people

who aren't taking responsibility for this.

Martin's parents need to take a better share of the responsibility.

-Hi, Tracy. You all right?

-Come in.

-Can I come in? Thank you.

FIP have no powers to force Martin's parents to help.

All Claire can do is speak to his mum, Tracy.

Your mum said you can't stay up at Sharon's through the week.

-Actually, she said you can't stay up there any time.

-No.

-Sian can stay here, weekends.

-But you can visit Sharon and Sian?

-Yes.

Tracy appears to be really on board about Martin and Sian's relationship

and what that means in terms of them not going to school,

they get together and they're a little gang and they don't need anybody else.

So she's really getting involved in dealing with that

and making sure her own son's going to school.

I wouldn't change him for the world.

He's my only son, isn't he?

I love him.

He can be a little bastard. Oh, he definitely can.

But then also he can be a loving son that you want, innit?

Ten weeks into her pregnancy, Sian's made a decision about her future.

In two weeks' time, I'll go back to school.

And what's made you do that?

Well, it's going to make us look more responsible and everything.

Cos I need an education and everything as well so...

Are you still all a bit in denial about it?

Not really. It's sunk in, to be honest.

She's trying to do all of the things that we've asked her to do

to prove that she can parent

and she's going to need parental support.

But, yeah, Sian's engaging a lot better.

It's been four years since Claire first became involved

with the Gibsons.

With things calming down in and around the house...

Hi, Sharon.

..Claire can consider reducing her hours.

So I'm going to come down and see you

and we'll start putting together a closure plan

where I start to step back.

I would look at a period of about three months

of me stepping back, just in case...

You know, just in case there's something I need to come back for.

So, over those three months, you'll see me less and less.

Are you happy with that? Are you ready for that?

Well, yes.

Yes, that's good. Yes.

Will you be sad not to have to come up here any more?

In a little way, I will be, yeah, because, you know,

I've become a part of their life, so in a way, they've become

part of my life as well.

I've thought about them a lot.

So in a way, I'll be sad. In a way, I'll be glad as well.

It is like having a friend. It's like suddenly having

a best friend and then not having one at all so...

yeah, it's going to be very strange, very hard.

I think I'll cry.

Ten months on from starting work with the Thompson family,

Vicki McKeown is making another unannounced early morning visit.

Can I just comment on how tidy this is compared to the previous garden?

The family are all up and about.

Brandon is wide awake.

Well, this is mine and Robbie's room and...

it's just messy at the moment

cos we've just moved in.

Robbie's bed...

we don't know why it's always messy.

Well, there is one reason, cos he's only five.

And I'm at the top, as you can see,

and it's, like, all comfy up here.

Did you like living in the old house?

Nah. It was all scruffy.

Everything was boring, except...

the telly sometimes and my consoles.

As you can see, things are drastically different in the morning

to where we started.

They wouldn't have had breakfast at home and no-one would have been up.

Go get your jumper on. Jumpers on. Eat your bananas

and jumpers on.

Well, it's definitely less chaotic.

There's no shouting in the morning any more.

-Say bye to your

-mum. Bye.

I'm very proud of this family.

It's amazed me how far they've come and stuff

and I get a lot of pleasure seeing how happy Brandon and Robbie are now.

Have a good day at school.

-Bye.

-Bye.

How do you think things have improved?

There's a lot less stress cos we get more help

and the boys seem to be happy and all.

But now, if help was to sort of slowly stop, do you feel confident

-in doing everything else yourself?

-Yeah. I was on the phone for something,

getting the dentist and doctors sorted out.

-Okey dokey.

-Right.

-See you later.

-See you later.

-Bye.

It's amazing to see where they've come.

That just shows to everybody that give these families a chance

and they can change. It's about giving them the chances

and helping them to get those chances because

some of these families are quite happy... Well, not happy, but are stuck in a rut.

I think things this morning, just how Claire and Jon were taking pride

in how smart the boys look for school, that was a huge thing.

Both boys seem happy and are more involved.

The boys seem to come to us more, always want to see us

and talk to us.

You, out. We do things at the weekend now.

We don't just sit around watching the telly all day. Just be a family.

So it makes us feel nice inside, warm inside.

So, is that it for the day?

No, it's only eight o'clock in the morning!

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