What is Early Help Support?

Early Help Support is providing the right support to families, at the right time, to achieve change that lasts. It can be provided at any stage in a child or young person’s life, through to the teenage years. 

Early Help Support can be delivered to parents, children or whole families, but the main focus is to improve outcomes for children and help prevent any situation from escalating, or further problems arising. 

Eckington School is part of the Eckington and Killamarsh Early Support.  

What is the agreed rationale, priorities and methods for collaborative work to meet the Early Help needs of children and families in Eckington School, and in the Eckington and Killamarsh Cluster? 

The agreed rational, priorities and methods for collaborative work to meet the Early Help needs of children and families in the Eckington and Killamarsh Cluster are as follows: 

• Early Help Support (EHS) will be prioritised in-line with:

                     – the safety and well-being of children 

                     – the Derbyshire and Derby City Threshold Document https://derbyshirescbs.proceduresonline.com/docs_library.html 

                     –  the Threshold Indicators of Possible Need Table (Within above Threshold document) 

                      – Evidence gathered from the referral and Early Help Assessment.

• It is assumed that support is already in place from school’s early help work e.g. positive play, intervention groups, nurture groups, 1-1 support where appropriate.
• Referrals will be considered by EHS for all families and children attending the contributing schools regardless of geographical area of their home address.
• The supervisor/workers will aim to undertake agency checks when triaging cases.
• All active cases will be guided by a completed early help assessment (EHA). The EHS will be responsible completing these. The “Think Family” approach will be applied to all EHAs ensuring that all family members are included (including absent parents) in the assessment.
• All EHAs will be completed in 30 days unless there is prior approval from the Supervisor due to complex or pre-existing identified needs.
• EHS staff will maintain a regularly reviewed child’s plan ensuring that it is child’ focussed: the child’s voice is regularly heard; the workers consider their “lived experience” to direct work and assessments of outcomes.
• The EHS staff will be responsible for distributing all relevant documents to all parties via the school (schools will be responsible for postage costs relating to their children).
• All cases will be reviewed at least every 6 weeks via Team Around Family meetings (TAF)
• For cases where signs of neglect are identified on the referral or in casework the EHS will complete a “Graded Care Profile” alongside the EHA (if not already completed) to identify levels of neglect.
• Where concerns exist regarding CRE and CSE then a CRE toolkit must be completed by EHS in consultation with other agencies and reviewed 6 weekly. This may necessitate a strategy meeting, which should be chaired by Social Care.
• Where concerns exist around domestic violence then the CADDA Dash risk assessment will be completed and if the risk threshold is met referrals will be made to MARAC, and if appropriate to social care.
• The supervisor will consider worker’s caseloads when triaging referrals, it may be necessary to create a waiting list based on levels of risk. Parents and relevant Headteacher will be notified if a referral has been placed on to the waiting list.
• The supervisor will aim to avoid the need for a waiting list by supervising worker’s caseloads to ensure effective swift outcomes for children.
• The supervisor will work alongside workers and the schools to escalate support to Social Care where thresholds have been met.
• All parties including all school and EHS staff maintain their responsibility to safeguard children from harm, or risk of harm, and should follow their agreed Child Protection Policies and escalation processes including LADO referrals.

 

What will Early Help Support involve and include? 

EHS work will include: (but is not limited to) 

• 1-1 direct work (e.g.: anger gremlins, anxiety gremlins, on-line safety, keep safe work and emotional well-being)
• Direct work with families around parenting, routines and boundaries and domestic violence.
• Attendance panels and possible further case work where there is persistent absence (providing that schools have followed relevant protocols in relation addressing attendance prior to panel).
• Welfare checks where child is missing and school are unable to make contact using their resources (minimum of three attempted phone calls over at least an hour).
• Direct work where there are concerns about the safeguarding of children against harm or risk of harm and is necessary beyond that supplied by statutory services e.g.: 1-1 work around emotional well-being.
• Targeted group work in-line with emerging themes (depending on capacity and priority of caseload). For example:

            –  Feel Good Factor 

            –  CSE group work 

            – On-line safety 

             –  Emotional management 

             – Parent and family support groups and events (including during holiday where possible).

 

Which Local Partnerships will our EHS work with? 

The EHS will commit to work with the Early Help Transition Team, Derby City & Derbyshire Children’s Safeguarding Partnership, staff and teams working for Children and Young Adults (Derbyshire County Council), Health agencies, Social Care, North East Derbyshire and Bolsover Locality Partnership and any equivalent organisations working with academies, multi academy trusts or other local authorities to ensure that: 

 

• Joint communication and action support children, young adults and their families.
• Local, County and National priorities and learning influence their work.
• They feed learning regarding our cluster early help priorities and work so it supports improved wider early help work in the district.

 

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