Table 4 Descriptions of family ‘persona’ used to elicit practitioners implicit decision-making processes

Sam and Joe have 4 children. The child you are visiting has 2 older brothers and a younger sister aged 4 months. The family lives in social housing and receives benefits. Sam works full time in a bar near home. Joe works 2 or 3 h a week for a cleaning company. Joe and Sam both left school at sixteen. Most of their extended family live nearby. They try to manage their shifts so as not to have any additional childcare and call on family and friends.

Lee has two children under the age of 4; you are visiting the younger child. Lee left school at 16 years, is currently not working and is in receipt of benefits. The family is living in a one-bedroom flat far away from Lee’s extended family. You are concerned about Lee’s mental health. When you observe the family, you feel Lee’s response to her children is very inconsistent, sometimes responsive and other times less so.

Alex and Lesley live in an estate of privately owned houses. Alex works full time as a head teacher at the local school, and Lesley is currently not working. They have two children, and you are visiting their youngest child who had low birth weight and spent a short time on SCBU. They are worried about their child’s behaviour. Her attention seems to flit from one toy to another, and she can be hard to manage if she does not get her own way. Lesley seems very distressed when describing day-to-day life.

Susie is a first-time parent who was pregnant when she left school. She is not in paid work and receives benefits. She lives with her parents in social housing. Her parents are also both long-term unemployed. She has a large community of friends and family nearby.

Ivory and Chidi have 5 children aged between 1 and 13 years, and you are visiting their second youngest child with an interpreter. Both Ivory and Chidi speak very little English and are currently not working. The estate where they live has poor transport links and few community services. You are concerned about Ivory’s mental health.

Nehal and Gurpreet both work full time: Nehal as a police officer and Gurpreet as an IT technician. You are visiting their first child. They have no extended family nearby and rely on a mix of a childminder and private nursery for childcare.