The Problem Family—Some Administrative Considerations
| Published date | 01 June 1954 |
| Date | 01 June 1954 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1954.tb01312.x |
| Author | Noel Timms |
The Problem Family-
Some Administrative Considerations
By
NOEL
TIMMS
The distribution
of
functions between different departments
is
sometimes
treated as a matter
of
administrative convenience.
Mr.
Timms, a
Birmingham social worker, raises the important question
of
how
the variety
of
welfare services available can best be brought to bear
on
one case-
that
of
the so-called
problem
family.
HE
Brown family is well known to officials of many departments and
T
to the voluntary social work agencies in the large industrial town in
which they live. Mr. Brown seems never to be in work for very long and
when troubles
at
home become excessive he sometimes escapes from worry
and rcsponsibility by committing a crime,
so
that he is sent to prison. His
wife, who is of low intelligence cnd poor health, has little idea of how
to
run a home or look after her five children, aged seven to one. (There is a
sixth child, removed to the care of the Local Authority because of neglect.)
Welfare workers who visit the home complain that it is poorly furnished and
frequently in
a
filthy condition
;
one report says that the family sleeps on
two double beds with coats as covering. The two children attending school
are often late
or
absent and the eldest has started to steal. This family has
received considerable help and attention. Welfare workers and social admin-
istrators who have known the family, at one time or another, include the
health visitor, school attendance o%cer, probation officer, a voluntary society
that has given clothing and food vouchers, the N.S.P.C.C., the hospital
almoner, the Children’s Department, the Labour Exchange, the N.A.B.
The Browns are chronically dependent
on
all this social help for support
over immediate crises, but they cannot use
it
to full advantage. They are
always in difficulties, always the exception to any administrative scheme,
too late
or
too early in their applications, and their circumstances generally
demand special and immediate consideration. Each member of the family
has a serims problem and the family as a whole constitutes a special problem
for society. Today the Browns would be called a
“
problem family.”
Since the first use of this term the problem family has been widely
discussed and some action has been taken. Several Local Authorities have
appointed special problem family workers, eg., Norwich and Herefordshire,
and the Joint Circular of July,
1950,
encouraged the establishment of new
administrative machinery to deal more effectively with parents who neglect
their children. The general nature and seriousness of the problem is being
realised, but
it
is difficult to give a definition of the term that will be universally
accepted, because experience shows that several different types of family
are known as “problem families.”
The
term refers to
a
double failure,
that of the problem family
as
a family and that of the social services to help
such families to learn and improve from their frequent contact with them.
The problem family fails in varying degrees to provide adequate protection
and social education for the children and affection and security for its members.
These failures are usually seen in sub-standard living conditions, financial
mismanagement, child neglect and general family disorganisation.
236
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