Providing Early Help

Early Help is the process and means by which the needs of children and their families for support are identified and addressed as soon as they emerge, so that children's development is maintained and harm prevented, as part of 'early', targeted and sometimes intensive work with the wider family – a 'Think Family' approach. This can occur at different points in the child's life, including pre-birth, and may be repeated for different reasons, as the child develops.

The consequences of not addressing needs in this way are that the issues may become more entrenched, complex and acute and can become overlaid by additional needs and problems, not just for the individual child, but for the wider family, thus requiring greater help and support from more agencies as time progresses – creating greater cost and, more importantly, more severe and intractable problems. Early Help can avoid these escalations and support/enable the child and the family to resolve their own issues and build resilience for the future! 'Think Family' is fundamental to effective Early Help.

By effective use and deployment of Early Help, the following objectives can be achieved:

• Children start school healthy and ready to learn;
• Children and young people are kept safe from abuse, neglect and exploitation;
• Children and young people are supported in their emotional wellbeing; and
• Young people are ready to work.

The identification of the need for and delivery of Early Help is the responsibility of all agencies who work with children and all agencies accept that responsibility, by signing up to, and actively engaging with, this multi-agency approach.

Where there are emerging needs the practitioner should first establish whether the child has an identified Lead Practitioner within another service, for example a Health Visitor, a Teacher or a Social Worker, by contacting the relevant Locality Early Help Manager or Single Point of Access Clerk. If so, they should liaise with that individual with regard to the child's current needs and services provided (as below).

Where there is no identified Lead Practitioner, they should obtain consent from the child and / or family, commence an Early Help Assessment and seek support from their agency to take this forward. This will involve speaking with the child, parents / carers and other involved practitioners to gather information and seek to understand what this means for the child and family, usually by means of a "Team Around the Family" (TAF) meeting. They should consider both the needs / strengths of the child and, where appropriate, the needs of the parent / carer (such as those who have mental health needs).

In the event that advice and support is required to progress the Early Help Assessment, the practitioner should contact the Early Help Advisor based in their locality. They can also assist with the coordination of practitioners from different agencies to establish the team around the family (TAF) meetings.

Further information about the Early Help Assessment can be found in the Guidance for Completing an Early Help Assessment document (see Documents Library, Assessments Tools).

If a practitioner requires advice, wishes to explore ways of engaging children and families in early help or discuss whether the threshold for a referral to Local Authority MAT or Children's Social Care met; they should call the Children's Services Professional Consultation Line. If the concerns/issues raised indicate that there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer, significant harm, the LA Team Manager will record the contact and advise the practitioner to contact the Initial Response Team to make a referral.

See the Derby City Consultation Line Leaflet for Professionals for more information on the service (see Documents Library, Leaflets).

Staff in the Local Authority Multi-Agency Teams (MATs), Integrated Disabled Children's Service (IDCS) and integrated / co-located teams will have the opportunity for informal consultation with Social Workers in their localities.

If emerging needs are identified by the completion of an Early Help Assessment and it is likely that services are needed from other agencies, then the assessment and action plan can be submitted to other services requesting their input, with the consent of the family.

If a complex package of support is needed, or if services are required from the Local Authority, or to make a non-urgent referral to Children's Social Care, completed Early Help Assessments (or other relevant assessments) with the consent of the child and / or family can be submitted to the weekly Vulnerable Children's Meeting by the practitioner who has completed the assessment. They should be sent to the Single Point of Access Clerk in the relevant locality or at the Lighthouse for a child with a significant disability.

On completion of an Early Help Assessment, other appropriate assessment or assessment by Children's Social Care Reception team, the Vulnerable Children's Meeting will make a decision about allocation to the most appropriate practitioner or service for further assessment and action. In some cases there will be no need for Early Help Teams, MAT or Children's Social Care involvement and a referral to other services will best meet the needs of the child, or a decision made that no action is needed at that time.

Where there are emerging needs the practitioner should first establish whether the child has an identified Lead Practitioner within another service, for example a Health Visitor, a Teacher or a Social Worker, by contacting the relevant Early Help Team. If so, they should liaise with that individual with regard to the child's current needs and services provided (as below).

Where there is no identified Lead Practitioner, they should obtain consent from the child and/or family to commence the Early Help Assessment and seek support from their agency to take the assessment forward. This will involve speaking with the child, parents / carers and other involved practitioners to gather information and seek to understand what this means for the child and family, usually by means of a "Team around the Family" (TAF) meeting. They should consider both the needs / strengths of the child and, where appropriate, the needs of the parent / carer (such as those who have mental health needs).

In the event that advice and support is required to progress the Early Help Assessment, the practitioner should contact their local Early Help Team for advice. They can also assist with the coordination of practitioners from different agencies to establish the Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings.

Further information about the Early Help Assessment in Derbyshire can be found in the Guidance for Completing an Early Help Assessment document (see Documents Library, Assessments Tools).

If a practitioner requires advice, wishes to explore ways of engaging children and families in early help or discuss whether the threshold for a referral to the Early Help Team or Children's Social Care met; they should call the Starting Point Consultation and Advice Service.

If the concerns/issues raised indicate that there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer, significant harm, Starting Point will advise the practitioner to make a referral the Starting Point Consultation and Advice Service will record the contact and advise the practitioner to contact Starting Point to make a referral.

If emerging needs are identified by the completion of an Early Help Assessment and it is likely that services are needed from other agencies, then the assessment and action plan can be submitted to other services requesting their input, with the consent of the family.

If a complex package of support is needed, or if services are required from the Early Help Team, or to make a non-urgent referral to Children's Social Care, completed Early Help Assessments (or other relevant assessments) with consent of the child and /or family can be submitted Starting Point to accompany the on line referral by the practitioner who has completed the assessment.

Starting Point receive all Initial Contacts where there is a request for general advice, information or a service for a child who may be a child with emerging or complex / serious needs. Information is shared with the Police and health services to ensure that families receive the right help at the right time.

In cases where there is no identified Lead Practitioner within the Early Help Team, Starting Point may provide information and advice or re-direction to other services. This action will be informed by any history of previous involvement with the child and family.

An Initial Contact will be created for all other cases where it is judged the child may have emerging or complex needs. This Initial Contact will be then passed to the Senior Practitioner within Starting Point for screening.

The Senior Practitioner will decide whether an Early Help Assessment and planning process should be commenced or continued through the Lead Practitioner.

The Senior Practitioner will, within 24 hours, decide whether the child requires:

• The Early Help Assessment and planning process to be commenced or continued through the Lead Practitioner within the Early Help teams, this will then be allocated for support at the appropriate locality 'Vulnerable Childrens Meeting' (VCM);
• Early Help Advisor supporting the referring agency to provide Early Help;
• No further action;
• A referral to Children's Social Care for an assessment by a Social Worker.

Starting Point will direct the Initial Contact / Referral to the appropriate team and advise the referrer of the outcome within 24 hours.

Further information about the Early Help Assessment in Derbyshire can be found online on the Derbyshire County Council website.

Accurate information and a clear understanding of what is happening to a child within their family and community are vital to any assessment. The usual and most effective way to achieve this is by engaging children and parents in the process of assessment, and identifying the voice of each individual child and what life is like for them. The assessment should include family strengths as well as any needs, concerns or risks, and consider what the impact might be on the child and their family if the situation was left and no action taken. Differences of opinion with the family's views must be explored, reflected on and taken into account. It is vital that the assessment is clear about what needs to change, how the child, family and practitioners will know when things are better as this will help ensure that progress, or the lack of progress, can be identified and drift avoided.

All practitioners should expect to work in partnership with children and parents and this includes agreement about sharing information. Some families may not recognise difficulties, may be reluctant to engage, may avoid contact or even be hostile. It is important that practitioners use their skills to engage with all families through a variety of means and are persistent in these attempts. Practitioners should appropriately share information with each other in such situations in order to maximise their chances of engagement and/or to agree a lead role for someone who may have been able to establish contact.

See Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Information Sharing Guidance for Practitioners (Documents Library, Guidance Documents).

It is essential that the child is seen and listened to and their wishes and feelings considered, whatever their method of communication, when undertaking the Early Help Assessment. Engaging with and listening to what children and young people have to say about what is happening to them in their lives, should be the cornerstone of effective intervention and support. There may be circumstances where the information from the child or young person will inform the nature of further action and will take place prior to the matter being raised with the parent or carer.

In all situations the overriding consideration as to whether to share information should be the safety and welfare of the child.

Obtaining parental, or where appropriate the child's consent to information being shared, should be a first consideration when practitioners first have contact with a child and/or their family. Written consent to share information should be sought wherever possible. A lack of consent should never compromise the safety or welfare of a child. However, consideration should be given to seeking the views of the parent/child as to why consent may be being withheld in line with their human rights.

A practitioner should record their decision and the reasons for it, whether or not they decide to share information. If the decision is to share, a practitioner should record what information was shared and with whom. They should also record any consultations and views sought which were undertaken as part of the process.

For further information please see:

• Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Information Sharing Agreement and Guidance for Practitioners (see Documents Library, Guidance Documents); and
• Information sharing - Advice for Practitioners Providing Safeguarding Services to Children, Young People, Parents and Carers (Department for Education, 2018).

Where a Multi-Agency response is required, the team around the family (TAF) brings together the child and / or family and practitioners from across different services that work together to co-ordinate and deliver an integrated package of support to meet the needs identified during the Early Help Assessment process. Working with the child and / or family, they will agree an action plan to describe the outcomes agreed and support to be provided or actions taken, by whom and within what timescale.

The assessment and TAF action plan are regularly reviewed by the TAF to monitor the progress towards the agreed outcomes. The review identifies any unmet or additional needs for the child or young person and should ensure a smooth transition between universal, targeted and specialist services. Reviews should usually take place at 6 weekly intervals but may be more or less frequent depending on needs.

Where a child has been in receipt of specialist services, and that service is coming to an end but transition to the early help process is needed it is the responsibility of the specialist service to convene an appropriate meeting to ensure a smooth transition.

Practitioners should follow their own agency procedures with regards to recording, but the plan and assessment should be shared documents.

The TAF Meeting Document for use by practitioners can be found in the Documents Library, Assessments Tools.

he Lead Practitioner is the person responsible for co-ordinating the actions identified in the assessment process, including any review TAF meetings. They are a single point of contact for children and young people with emerging needs who are supported by more than one practitioner within a team around the family.

The Lead Practitioner can be any practitioner working within the team around the family and should be the most appropriate person to act in the role at that time. The Lead Practitioner should be ideally someone with an established relationship with the family. In cases where The Lighthouse (disabled children's services) or the Youth Offending Service are involved, it is likely that that the practitioner from these services will be the Lead Practitioner.

If the child becomes subject of a statutory service such as Children's Social Care, the Lead Practitioner responsibility will transfer to the relevant specialist service.

Disagreements about the most appropriate person to be the Lead Practitioner should be addressed using the Derby and Derbyshire Multi Agency Dispute Resolution and Escalation Policy (see Documents Library, Guidance Documents).

The Multi-Agency Teams (MATS) in Derby and Early Help Teams in Derbyshire will work at an early stage to help parents and carers meet the emerging needs of children and young people. They are also able to work with children and their family's following a period of specialist intervention when continued support is required.

The Multi-Agency Teams / Early Help Teams are all locality based and consist of a range of linked services. They may include:

• Children's Practitioners;
• Education Welfare Officers;
• Youth Workers;
• Youth Offending Service / Crime Prevention officers;
• Children's Centre staff; and
• Careers Guidance.

The teams are able to offer parenting programmes, targeted youth support groups, family support and targeted child development programmes. The teams have close links with their locality areas, the services within them and communities who live there.

It is essential to keep under review the changing picture of whether the circumstances and outcomes for the child are improving or not. The views of children / young people and parents / carers about whether the help is making a difference are important in this, as are the views of practitioners and other objective measures. Where insufficient progress is made, or the situation deteriorates, consideration must be given in a timely way to the potential long term impact on the child, taking particular account of the age of the child, and whether a referral should be made to Social Care. In all cases drift and delay must be avoided.

If at any point within the early help assessment process serious/complex needs or child protection concerns are identified a referral to Children's Social Care should be made. See Making a Referral to Social Care Procedure.

Occasionally practitioners in all agencies will come across families who prove to be reluctant, resistant, and sometimes angry or hostile to their repeated efforts to engage with them. In extreme cases there can be intimidation, abuse, threats of violence and actual violence.

In other cases they may appear to engage with practitioners, but only superficially and with no real commitment on their part. The adults may also be focused on their own needs which can divert practitioners from a focus on the child.

If this arises, practitioners must seek advice from their manager or designated safeguarding person to explicitly identify in a timely manner whether this parental behaviour is having a detrimental impact on the development of the child and together consider if other action might be necessary.

The behaviour may prevent or restrict opportunities to assess and observe the child in their own home. It may also restrict other sources of information from other practitioners or family members. It is important to explicitly work out and record what areas of assessment are difficult to achieve and why. The presence of violence or intimidation needs to be included in any assessment of risk to the child living in such an environment.

Insufficient cooperation and engagement of a parent / carer that impacts on the welfare of the child should be explicitly analysed to identify whether a referral should be made to Children's Social Care (see also Making a Referral to Social Care Procedure).

Practitioners should seek to agree the level of concern about a child. However it may be that individuals may legitimately have a different perspective as to the seriousness of concerns. Differences in professional opinion about a child's needs and concerns must be resolved using the Derby and Derbyshire Multi Agency Dispute Resolution and Escalation Policy (see Documents Library, Guidance Documents). Any practitioner has a responsibility to refer to Social Care if they consider the threshold is met and a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.

It is good practice to involve parents/carers, children and young people in multi-agency meetings, however there are occasions when it is may not be appropriate to involve them.

Professional meetings provide an opportunity for practitioners involved with a family to come together not only to share information, but also to help determine the direction of a case and the plan for a child/young person. They may be held to resolve uncertainty and are helpful where there are particularly complex family concerns, with extensive professionals/networks. Professional meetings can lead to staff being able to challenge families (especially where there is disguised compliance, hostility and resistance) and one another openly and effectively.

Where professional meetings take place, they should be focused on outcomes for the child and family and form part of a continuous process of assessment, planning, implementation and review across all levels of need, including early help.

Any practitioner can request a professional meeting however they should only be held after careful consideration is given to the need to exclude the family from the meeting. In most cases the family should be informed by the practitioner arranging the meeting that it is to take place. However, where this would be against the best interests of the child/young person, the family need not be informed in which case all invited agencies should be aware of this decision; see Derby and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Information Sharing Agreement and Guidance for Practitioners (via Documents Library, Guidance Documents). Where decisions and recommendations have been made without family members being present they should be communicated to the family as soon as possible afterwards unless to do so would put the child at additional risk.

The reasons for the professional meeting and the decision to inform the family or not, should be documented within agency records and other agencies informed. Similar to other multi-agency meetings, professional meetings should be chaired by an appropriate person, have minutes taken along with clear actions/recommendations and review timescales.

Where there are differences in opinion about the need for a professional meeting, the outcome of a meeting or other issues, practitioners should refer to the Derby and Derbyshire Multi Agency Dispute Resolution and Escalation Policy (see Documents Library, Guidance Documents).