VIDEO INTERACTION GUIDANCE (VIG)
1. Educational psychologist, Hilary Kennedy, made a presentation at our recent conference on this innovative approach to attuned parenting.
2. At the end of the presentation she suggested that we, as lawyers, might wish to consider how we might be able to utilise VIG for the benefit of our clients. So I set out below my ideas on how it might be made to work in practice.
For Parents in Care Proceedings
3. We are all familiar with the dicta in Re G [2006] 1FLR 601 of Baroness Hale that there is no Article 8 right to be made a better parent at public expense. So I see VIG being used as an assessment tool, to ascertain the ability of the parent (or potential kinship carer) to attune to the needs of their child or children and recognise the cues and emotional needs of the child.
4. The assessment would be conducted by a psychologist qualified to deliver VIG and would involve the following:
(a) reading relevant statements/medical records available;
(b) a meeting with the parent or carer to take a short history, discuss the VIG process, and agree an appropriate activity for the parent to introduce to the child in the contact session;
(c) first video contact – possibly videoing no more than 20 minutes of the interaction between parent and child;
(d) selection by the VIG psychologist of three clips of ‘attuned’ interaction;
(e) a shared review of those clips with the parent, during which the psychologist would use open questioning techniques to draw out from the parent:
(i) text his or her understanding of how the child is interacting with her;
(ii) a discussion of what it was that the parent was doing to promote that ‘attuned’ interaction; and
(iii) how the parent will build upon this during the next contact session; and
(f) this process of videoing positive interaction and conducting a shared review is then repeated two more times to ascertain whether the parent can improve the quality and duration of the positive interactions.
5. Research indicates that at the end of this process the VIG psychologist will be able to predict, on the balance of probabilities, whether this parent has the potential to parent the child appropriately, with the concomitant ability to manage any difficult behaviour with which the child presents.
6. Funding: I believe that such an assessment can be funded through the normal application to the court for an expert psychological assessment. In terms of assessing two persons (i.e. the child and the parent) the hours allowed are 35 hours. This will be ample time for the VIG psychologist to complete the three sessions and three shared reviews and write up the report.
7. If the prognosis is good then the psychologist may recommend that the parent needs some further sessions. In these circumstances, the Court can ask the local authority to fund those sessions as part of an overall support package.
8. Experience of VIG from London FDAC confirms that VIG has achieved positive results with parents with personality disorders in addition to substance abuse problems.
For Local Authorities
9. Local authorities have the option of buying in sessions from VIG practitioners or arranging for selected social workers to be trained in the required techniques. All VIG practitioners need to be accredited and have regular supervision from more experienced practitioners to promote good practice.
Next Steps
10. I believe that the next step for VIG is to try and get members of the judiciary exposed to the positive results that VIG can produce for parents and children.
11. Shortly we will be sending you a list of psychologists who are qualified to undertake VIG assessments and prepare reports for court.
October 2017
Ann Chavasse
