Ryan is 9 years old, the only boy in the family. He is the ‘middle child’, having an older sister, Briony, aged 13, and a younger sister, Tonia, aged 3.
Ryan’s parents are Tom, aged 34, and Dawn, aged 29.
Ryan lives with his family in a three bedroom house in an estate where many people are struggling to find work. In this respect, Ryan’s family are no different. His Dad, Tom, has been unemployed for 6 months, and is currently considering re-training as a care-worker. His Mum, Dawn, works 2 days per week at a local supermarket petrol station. As a consequence, most of the family income relies on benefits. Ryan attends the local school along with a lot of the children from the estate.
Regular visitors to the house include a health visitor, who is supporting the family in meeting Tonia’s needs, and Tom’s parents, Joe and Anna.
Joe, Ryan’s Grandad, is 57 and has been unemployed for many years. He drinks heavily, and has recently developed a persistent cough. Ryan is concerned that this is related to his smoking. Ryan is aware that his Grandad smokes around 2 packets of cigarettes a day, and is worried about him.
Ryan’s Gran, Anna, is 60, and retired a month ago from her part time job as a dinner lady on health grounds. She suffers from arthritis, and was finding that it was becoming increasingly difficult to be on her feet all day.
Living only 2 streets away means that Tom and Anna are frequent visitors, often helping themselves to food. This has caused some stress within the family, and Ryan is aware that this is the reason for some arguments between his parents, arguments which seem to be becoming more frequent.
Tom’s Mum, Anna, is a devout catholic, and attends the local Roman Catholic Church twice a week. She tries to take her grand-children as often as possible. Ryan’s Mum, Dawn, is unhappy about this, as she has never been religious, and does not see the value in taking the children to Church. This is also causing arguments within the family. Tom, as a boy, attended Church regularly, but does not do so now, much to the disapproval of Anna.
Tom belong to a local darts team and goes to the pub twice a week to play darts. This is something that irritates Dawn, who often raises the issue with Tom, and, often, discusses it with her own Mother, on the phone, when Ryan and his sisters are in the room.
The children are all expected to help with daily chores in the house. Ryan’s jobs are to keep his room tidy, and put out the rubbish. Briony, being older, helps with many more tasks, and Tonia is responsible only for putting away her toys. When Briony is working on her chores in the kitchen, she always retunes the radio to Radio 1. Usually the radio is always on, and tuned to Radio 2.
The television is on a lot of the time.
Ryan is a sporty lad, playing in the local football team. Recently he had a trial with a junior city club and they are interested in signing him.