Early Help
Definition of Early Help (Taken from Devon Children and Families Partnership website)
Early Help is an integral part of everyone’s role.
It is the initial response offered by all services in contact with children, young people and families when they need extra support to thrive.
It’s not a specific service or team. It’s an approach to working that brings together people from a range of different services and teams who will work with the whole family to help improve things for everyone.
The aim is to identify and build on a family’s strengths to help them resolve their own difficulties and support them to develop skills to prevent further problems and better manage any future challenges.
Principles of Early Help at Haytor View
- Many children and families will be able to have their needs within the universal delivery model, this means parents/carers may:
- Meet with an adult in school and identify what the need is;
- Decide with school that the need can be met without engaging Right for Children Early Help Model;
- This may still see regular meetings or support being offered (this might be sourced from PINPOINT), just not within a multi disciplinary way;
- That the Right for Children Early Help Model maybe returned to later on if required;
- Where families are experiencing multiple problems, it might be more supportive to follow the Right for Children Early Help Model;
- In both the Haytor View universal delivery model and the Right for Children Early Help Model, what is key to identify is what the key issues are including: the key need and which agency is best placed to support the child or family;
Haytor View’s Early Help approach
- The school recognises that in its universal and wave provision Early Help will be provided to a wide range of families, in relation to needs which may relate to well being, SEND, particular family circumstances;
- Where a family approaches the school to ask for help, the school will discuss with the Parent what may support them, this might include a discussion regarding Devon’s Early Help;
- The school identifies that an important ingredient in Devon’s Early Help is relationships, where they feel that a parent or family may benefit from Devon’s Early Help approach, they will introduce this to them accordingly;
- Where a parent has decided that they wish to pursue an Early Help assessment, they are placed in the Early Help Forum process.
Please speak with your child’s Phase Leader if you have any questions regarding the School’s Early Help Strategy.