Early Help is everyone’s business

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 is statutory guidance we use to make sure we work together to provide effective early help services.

Early Help can:

  • provide support as soon as a problem emerges
  • help prevent further problems from arising
  • be offered to the whole family with services delivered jointly

Prevention can do more to reduce abuse and neglect.

Any professional working with your family, such as

  • schools
  • health services
  • voluntary sector organisations

can offer early help services as soon as they can see that advice, support and/or intervention may be needed.

How to make a request for Early Help support 

If more support is needed for a young person or family, they can submit a Multi-Agency Request for Support (MARS) referral. Consent is required from the family to submit this form.

Multi-agency request for services (MARS) form

Warrington Safeguarding Partnerships has information on the level of needs or speak to our Early Help support team.

We recommend that an Early Help Assessment (EHA) is completed and attached to the MARS form.

A referral is also used to report safeguarding concerns if you feel someone is at immediate risk. 

When to complete an Early Help Assessment (EHA)

When universal and self-help is not enough to support a child and family’s needs, we use an EHA. It helps the family understand what is going well for them and what their needs and worries are.

As professionals it helps you to understand how you (and other agencies) help the child and family. 

EHA’s should seek to:

  • understand issues and any underlying presenting behaviours
  • look at the complexity of family issues
  • collate information held by partners across universal services to develop a holistic picture of the child’s experiences and needs
  • explore safeguarding concerns

When to hold a Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting

TAF meetings are held to bring the family and partners together to discuss strengths, needs and review actions set either in the EHA or previous TAF meetings.

The meetings should be solution focussed and the voice of the child and family should be clearly heard.

As part of the TAF there will a practitioner who will be the named a lead professional. One of their roles is to be the main point of contact for the family and other professionals.

If you complete an EHA it is your responsibility to call the first TAF meeting.  Time restrictions for some health professionals may mean this can be discussed case by case.

As a professional you may need support to complete an EHA or TAF, the Early Help Support Team can help with that.

How can we help?

The early help support team is a central team within the early help division that supports council staff and our partners with early help assessments.

Partnership Link Workers (PLW) are here to support with the early help process and paperwork such as EHA’s, review documents and closures.

The PLW do not case hold families.

The PLW’s offer support with the TAF process, this could be in the form of supporting with organising TAF meetings or attending the initial meetings to support staff. It is also their role to offer support, advice and guidance to partners and to sign post to other appropriate services.

How to contact the early help support team

The contact details are for professionals and agencies requesting information and guidance about early help

Do not use this number for safeguarding enquiries.

Call 01925 443136 or email earlyhelpsupport@warrington.gov.uk

Resources

There is some useful information from Early Help Support Team - myschoolservices.co.uk

Information on early help training is available from Early Help: an introduction | Warrington Safeguarding

Parenting programmes are available depending on the age of the children, family needs, circumstances and desired outcomes.

Lead professional

A lead practitioner should undertake the assessment, provide help to the child and family, act as an advocate on their behalf and co-ordinate the delivery of support services.

A GP, family support worker, school nurse, teacher, health visitor and/or special educational needs co-ordinator could undertake the lead practitioner role. 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.

It is important to appoint a Lead Professional early in the offer of support. It is particularly important when working using a multi-agency approach as it can help to ensure professional involvement is coordinated, that there is professional accountability, and it ensures the best outcomes for the family, children, and young people. These families being those at Universal plus and Partnership Plus level.

Lead professional FAQs

Why do families need a Lead professional?

It can be difficult for families who require support from a number of professionals to coordinate this themselves. Lack of coordination can lead to delay and drift in the support offered, uncoordinated support, repetition of assessments and a lack of child and families voice throughout.

What is a lead professional?

A Lead Professional will:

  • Act as a single point of contact
  • Take the lead to coordinate support, guide the family through the process of completing an Early Help Assessment (EHA) and arrange a Team Around the Family meeting (TAF).
  • Ensure that any actions identified in the TAF are reviewed in the correct timescales and copies of the TAF meeting and support plans are shared with the family and professionals.
  • Ensure that professionals are outcome focused, actions are reviewed in timescale and effectively delivered.
  • Help to reduce any repetition or duplication in service involvement, preventing the family having to tell their story multiple times.
  • Build a trusting relationship with the family, children and young people to support with engagement and capturing their voice.
  • Ensure that the family remain at the centre of the decisions made to support them. To ensure that the support is empowering the family and ensuring that their wishes and feelings are heard.

A Lead Professional is not responsible or accountable for support delivered by other agencies.

Who can be a lead professional in early help?
  • This person is someone that the family have a supportive relationship with and understands the needs of the family.
  • Everyone is encouraged to actively be involved in integrated working including voluntary agencies.
  • The family will form part of the decision making of the Lead Professional, their voice should be listened to, and they should be treated as partners.

This approach will ensure that effective and coordinated support is in place, and that outcomes are improved for the family, leading to them feeling confident and empowered and the needs being met and sustained.

How can the Lead Professional be supported and what are the expectations?

To enable the Lead Professional to carry out their role effectively they must have access to high quality professional supervision, line management support and access to additional training to support them.

It is essential that the Lead Professional is supported in their role by other agencies:

  • Agreeing to Chair
  • Take and disseminate minutes of meetings.
  • Ensuring that they attend meetings as required and that they provide information and follow through actions as agreed.

It is expected that in the absence of the Lead Professional (i.e., annual leave, short-term sickness or exceptional circumstances), other supporting professionals should continue to support the functions of the Lead Professional where possible. This will ensure children, young people and family members receive seamless support. A TAF should still go ahead even if the Lead Professional is absent.

All Professionals are partners in Early Help, they are all committed to multiagency working.

If there are any disputes or concerns these should be escalated to that professionals manager.

Meeting documents for lead professionals

 

Team Around The Family meeting prep form (709.6 KB)
Can a lead professional change?

Yes – Ensuring that the family are consulted, and their views listened too.

The needs of the family will change which can result in changes in professional involvement.

The Lead Professional role can be discussed at a Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting with all professionals and family in agreement, the change in Lead Professional should be recorded to ensure that everyone knows the ongoing plan and who will lead.

25 September 2024