What is early help?

Our early help teams work with participating families provide support to children, young people and their families as soon as difficulties start to emerge. We work with families and professionals to offer a range of support services, including:

 

Photo of young people in a classroom

Education, early years and childcare

SEND

Support for children with SEND

Family support

Support for families

Photo of young people talking

Warrington Youth Service

Photo of a young person getting their face painted

Children's centres and Family Hubs

Play and sensory centre

Warrington Play and Sensory Centre

Early Help could also include support with: parenting, employment, housing issues, financial difficulties, substance misuse, domestic abuse, school attendance and mental health.

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

Any professional working with your family, such as schools, health services and 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, professionals can submit a Multi-Agency Request for Support (MARS) referral. Consent is required from the family to submit this form.

You can find out more information on professionals requesting early help support, such as when to complete an early help assessment, when to hold a Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting and more, on our professional early help support webpage.

Multi-agency request for services (MARS) form

7 October 2024