Abstract
A review of the literature has found that there are very few empirical studies that describe birth parent’s subjective experiences of being involved in English public
law child proceedings. Furthermore, there are no known studies that explore parents of reunified families experiences of support while their children were in public care in England. The present study uses Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to explore transcripts from five semi-structured interviews with parents who have had their children taken into public care and subsequently been returned to the parent. Three super-ordinate themes emerged across the participants’ accounts: ‘Taken by surprise’, ‘get a handle on quick’ and ‘a network of support’. Combined these reflect the ways mothers experience support while their children are in care. The findings suggest that parents feel unsupported by social services and are left traumatised, isolated and marginalised by their experience of child removal. Parents find the emotional and relational support and resources they need to be reunited with their children from individuals and organisations outside of statutory service provision. These findings add to the knowledge of parents involved with the child protection system and are discussed within a range of psychological theories, from a counselling psychology perspective. Implications for clinical practice and further research are considered.