What is Early Help?
There are times we all need a bit of help from the people around us.
Sometimes, Children, Young people and their families need Early Help. Early Help is a term that means all the practical and emotional help, support and guidance families access form services around them to help them overcome a difficult situation and make sure thing’s improve for everyone.
Early Help could be for lots of reasons such as helping everyone get along better; feel happier, healthier and safer; to have good routines in place; learn well and reach their full potential; or cope well with money worries. Children, Young People and their families can get help with anything they need.
Early Help is something that families agree too and makes sure that children, Young People and their families are included in all decisions; we call this partnership working. Sometimes a Young Person may be able to agree to Early Help, even if this is something the family do not want to join in with.
How do my family and I get Early Help?
The best place to start is by talking with someone you feel comfortable with like a Teacher, GP or Nurse or Youth Worker about your worries; they can then work with you and your family to get Early Help in place.
If you don’t feel confident talking with someone you know, you can contact your Locality Triage:
- South: LocalSolutionSouth@doncaster.gov.uk
- North: LocalSolutionNorth@doncaster.gov.uk
- East: LocalSolutionEast@doncaster.gov.uk
- Central: LocalSolutionCentral@doncaster.gov.uk
What happens during Early help?
Once a family agree to Early Help they will be allocated a Lead Practitioner. This could be someone they already know, like a Teacher or Health worker or someone new like a Family Support Worker; whoever is the right person to help you and your family. A Lead Practitioner is someone who works closely with you and your family on making things better.
Your Lead Practitioner will undertake an Early Help Assessment to explore what is working well, what needs to change and create your support plan; they will always talk to you as well as your family and any services already around you. Sometimes your Lead Practitioner will use resources like Outcome Star; 3 Houses; or Graded Care Profile so they can understand this as well as possible and make sure your voice is heard.
Your Lead Practitioner will provide help and when needed pull in other services so that they can help too. They will hold Team Around the Family meetings every month or so to make sure progress is made, everyone will be included. You will be invited to the meeting, but if you didn’t want to attend, that is okay too; instead your Lead Practitioner would find out your views and then represent you.
Once needs have been met and things have improved your Lead Practitioner will check everyone is ready for the Early Help to end. They will ask you for feedback about your experience of Early Help so we can learn and make sure we help other children, Young People and their families well in the future.