Early Help

Local authorities under section 10 of the Children Act 2004 have a responsibility to promote inter-agency cooperation to improve the welfare of children.

 

 

1. Overview

1.1 Early Help provides support when need is identified at any point in a child’s life. It is not a specific service but is a collaborative approach across all agencies and partners to work with children, young people, families and their community to prevent the need for statutory intervention. Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later.

1.2 Research indicates that Early help can prevent further problems arising. Alongside Early Help it is important to consider the involvement of the wider family/network, which in turn can make a significant contribution to supporting families to get the help they need when they need it. Early Help can support families to build on strengths, promote resilience and sustain positive change in the longer term.

1.3 Working Together to Safeguard Children Chapter 3 Section 1 (Working Together to Safeguard Children) sets out national guidance on early help. (Providing support as soon as a problem emerges at any point in a child's life that improves a family’s resilience and outcomes or reduces the chance of a problem getting worse.)

1.4 Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 requires each local authority to make arrangements to promote cooperation between the authority, relevant partners and such other persons or bodies working with children in the area to improve the wellbeing of children, which includes protection from harm and neglect.

1.5 All practitioners working with children and families, including those in universal services and those providing services to adults and children, need to understand their role in identifying and merging problems, multiagency and multi-disciplinary training would be important in supporting this collective understanding.

1.6 Professionals working in universal services have a responsibility to understand signs of abuse or neglect and have opportunities to train in signs of abuse and neglect. This will enable them to identify symptoms and triggers of abuse and share this information, to work together to provide children/young people and their families with the help they need. Equally it is important for all services to understand when a family would benefit from additional support and who or what would be most appropriate to enable them to address any presenting needs.

2. Identifying children and families who would benefit from Early Help

2.1 Local agencies should have in place effective ways to identify emerging problems and potential unmet needs for individual children and families. This requires all professionals, including those in universal services and those providing services to adults with children, to understand their role in identifying emerging problems and to share information with other professionals to support early identification and assessment.

2.2 Early Help is not an individual service or team, but a system of support delivered by local authorities and their partners working together and taking collective responsibility to provide the right provision in their area. A range of universal and targeted Early Help can be provided to support children and their families as early as possible and can prevent the need for statutory interventions Early Help can be provided through ‘universal services’, such as education and health services or by the local authority or their partners to address specific concerns within a family.

2.3 Early help is a voluntary approach, requiring the family’s consent to receive support and services offered. If a family does not consent to an early help intervention/assessment, practitioners should seek to understand why this is the caseThey should ensure the family has understood the consensual nature of support, and the range of services available to meet their needs. The practitioner should consider how the needs of the child could otherwise be met, for example, through provision by universal services that the family already engages with. Practitioners should still inform individuals that their data will be recorded and shared, and the purpose of this explained to them. If a family has chosen not to engage with support in the past, this should not act as a barrier to them accessing support in the future. If at any time it is considered that the child may be a child in need, as defined in the Children Act 1989, a referral should be made to children’s social care. Practitioners should ensure that the family has understood that the support and services provided under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 are also consensual. If there are concerns that the child has suffered significant harm or is likely to do so, a referral should be made immediately to local authority children’s social care

2.4 Effective provision relies upon local organisations and agencies working together to:

  • Identify children and families who would benefit from early help;
  • Undertake an assessment where appropriate to identify the needs of the family.
  • Work effectively with families and their networks, promoting family led decision-making, to help meet the needs of the child.
  • Ensure good ongoing communication, for example, through regular meetings with the family and the practitioners who are working with them
  • Provide support as part of a plan to improve outcomes. This plan will be designed together with the child and family, and should evolve with the needs of the family.
  • Provide targeted early help services when needed to address the assessed needs of a child and their family.
  • Deliver universal and targeted services that are designed to prevent and reduce problems from escalating and can also help families move from statutory services back to targeted support.

2.5 Any child may benefit from early help, but practitioners should, in particular, be alert to the potential need for early help for a child who:

  • Is disabled and has specific additional needs;
  • Has special educational needs (whether or not they have a statutory Education, Health and Care Plan);
  • Is a young carer;
  • Is bereaved;
  • Is showing signs of being drawn in to anti-social or criminal behaviour, including being affected by gangs and county lines and organised crime groups and/or serious violence, including knife crime;
  • Is frequently missing from home
  • Is at risk of modern slavery, trafficking, sexual and/or criminal exploitation (in person or online)
  • Is at risk of being radicalised;
  • Is viewing or sharing inappropriate online content
  • Is living in a family where there maybe concerns such as drug and alcohol misuse, adult mental health issues, parental conflict or domestic abuse;
  • Is misusing drugs or alcohol themselves;
  • Is suffering from mental ill health;
  • Is missing education, or persistently absent from school, or not in receipt of fulltime education;
  • Has experienced multiple suspensions and is at risk of, or has been permanently excluded.

2.6 The provision of early help services should form part of a continuum of help and support to respond to the different levels of need of individual children and families.

3. Effective Assessment of the Need for Early Help.

3.1 Local agencies should work together to put processes in place for the effective assessment of the needs of individual children who may benefit from Early Help.

3.2 Children and families may need support from a wide range of local agencies. Where a child and family would benefit from coordinated support from more than one agency (e.g. education, health, housing, Police) there should be an inter-agency process in place, to promote a co-ordinated response to children and families. Early Help Assessments should identify what help the child and family require to prevent needs escalating to a point where intervention would be needed via a statutory assessment under the Children Act 1989 (see Working Together to Safeguard Children for more information).

3.3 The Early Help Assessment (EHA) has been designed to help practitioners assess needs at an early stage and then work with the child and parents/carers, alongside other practitioners and agencies, to meet identified needs and to;

  • ensure that children receive the required services to meet their needs at the earliest opportunity and be a mechanism for involving additional services to address any unmet needs
  • facilitate multi-agency working and communication
  • avoid children and families having to undergo unnecessary, or having multiple assessments

3.4 Early Help Assessment should be undertaken by a lead practitioner who should provide support to the child and family, act as an advocate on their behalf and coordinate the delivery of support services. The lead practitioner role could be undertaken by any professional who know the child and family best. Decisions about who should be the lead practitioner should be taken on a case by case basis and should be informed by the child and their family.

3.5 For an Early Help Assessment to be effective:

  • The assessment should be undertaken with the agreement of the child and their parents or carers. It should involve the child, their parents / carers and members of the network (where there is consent to do so) as well as professionals who are working with them;
  • Professionals should be able to discuss concerns they may have about a child and family with a social worker in the local authority. Local authority children's social care should set out the process for how this will happen.
  • Take account of the needs of all members of the family as individuals and consider how their needs impact on one another which includes considering needs relating to education, early years development, mental health and physical health, substance misuse, financial stability, housing, family relationships, domestic abuse and crime. Practitioners should be aware of situations where there has been a breakdown in relationship between the child and their family and engaging the whole family may not be appropriate
  • Cover both presenting needs and any underlying issues with the understanding that a family’s needs can change overtime, for example, when a child moves up to secondary school
  • Be based on facts, and explore and build on strengths
  • Be clear about what the plan needs to be including what the family / network are going to do, what professionals will do to support this and in what timescale
  • Identify what help the child and family require to prevent needs escalating
  • Be able to inform any future assessments if they are needed, for example, under sections 17 and 47 of the Children Act 1989

3.6 Where need is relatively low level, individual services and universal services may be able to take swift action. For other emerging needs a range of Early Help services may be required, coordinated through an agreed process, as set out below. Where there are more complex needs, or where children and families have received a multi-agency, coordinated approach and the lead professional and other professionals involved consider that the child may be a child in need Section 17 of the Children Act 1989, or where there are child protection concerns (reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm) a referral should be made to local authority Children’s Social Care. This referral can be made by any professional using the relevant threshold document for support and guidance.

4. Provision of Effective Early Help Services

4.1 Early Help Assessments carried out for an individual child and their family should be clear about the action to be taken and services to be provided (including any relevant timescales) and aim to ensure that Early Help Assessment services are coordinated.

4.2 Local areas should have a range of effective, evidence-based services in place to address assessed needs early. In addition to high quality support in universal services, specific local Early Help offer will typically include family and parenting programmes, assistance with health issues and help for problems relating to drugs, alcohol and domestic abuse. Services may also focus on improving family functioning and building the family's own capability to solve problems; this should be done within a structured, evidence-based framework involving regular review to ensure that real progress is being made. Some of these services may be delivered to parents but should always be evaluated to demonstrate the impact they are having on the outcomes for the child. Practitioners from each agency involved should contribute to on-going assessment (including analysis) and implementation of the plan, and its review.

For details of how each Local Authority supports families using the Early Help model, click the relevant link below: