Providing early help is more effective in promoting the welfare of children than reacting later. Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years.
Early help can also prevent further problems arising; for example, if it is provided as part of a support plan where a child has returned home to their family from care, or in families where there are emerging parental mental health issues or drug and alcohol misuse.
We believe that every child and young person should have the opportunity to reach their full potential and that they are best supported to grow and achieve within their own families and communities.
There will always be some children, young people and families who will need support and we are committed to ensuring we work with them to identify their own solutions, building on their own strengths and assets.
Wherever possible, the needs of children, young people and families will be met by practitioners within universal services. In Derbyshire we have a shared partnership vision that if early help is needed, we will ensure we do the following:
- work to families’ strengths
- focus on preventing issues before they occur and offer flexible responsive support when and where it is required
- build the resilience of parents, children, young people and communities to support each other
- work together to align resources so we can best support families
- where needs are emerging or low level, individual services and universal services may be able to meet these needs, take swift action and prevent those needs escalating. Agencies who identify the emerging needs of a child and their family should complete the Early Help Assessment (EHA).
If you're worried about your child's health or development, you can speak to your health visitor, doctor, school nurse or someone at your child's school or early years setting.
There are also emotional wellbeing and mental health support services available for children, young people, and parents.
Family Help with Children's Services
Launched in July 2024, the Family Help Service delivers specific, targeted, and time-limited support to children, young people and families who have emerging needs (Level 2 as defined within the Derby City and Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Threshold document) that are evidenced through the completion of an Early Help Assessment (EHA) and Team Around the Family (TAF) plan.
Acting as the lead practitioner, partner agencies (including schools, Health Visitors, midwives, etc) who are supporting children, young people and families may identify a need for a targeted intervention to address areas including routines, boundaries, parenting, conflict, risky behaviours, etc.
Partners are then able to request the intervention from the Family Help Service via Starting Point (Derbyshire’s front door) who will review the EHA / TAF plan to ensure threshold is met.
Roles within the teams and the support provided
0-5 Practitioners provide a core offer for children aged 0-5 and their families. Working closely with colleagues in Public Health, practitioners provide interventions focussed on child development, school readiness and parenting:
Baby Buddies
Working with parents/carers in groups to understand early childhood development and how they can support children’s learning by understanding brain development, attachment, ages and stages of their child’s development, play, stimulation, and early language building.
Little Learners groups
Working with children so they can be ‘school ready’ by the time they start accessing their full-time school place. The 10 keys to unlocking school readiness is shared with parents/carers to show them what is expected in the early years.
ECAT – Every Child a Talker
Group programmes to support the delivery of an evidenced based intervention to improve speech and language development.
Parenting
The Solihull Approach to Parenting is an evidenced based intervention and is available as a rolling programme. There is a blended offer of in-person groups from our network of Children’s Centres and also virtual groups through Microsoft Teams.
Youth and Family Practitioners deliver evidenced based parenting programmes for parents of children and young people aged over 6. Practitioners provide group work around the Solihull Approach to Parenting, and in Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) which offers tools and techniques to support parents and carers of children and young people who show challenging attitudes and behaviours.
The Youth and Family Practitioners deliver specific and time-limited group work to young people who have been referred to support around healthy lifestyles and relationships.
Family Help Assistants provide direct and practical support to families in the home. The team support with the modelling of routines and boundaries and work to reduce concerns around neglect. The workers also support the Youth and Family Practitioners around the NEET agenda and the delivery of group work.
Your health visitor, health professional, early years provider, school or college will be able to support you initially with early help and can refer to children's services if you think more targeted support would be helpful.
If the child already has an allocated early help team worker or social worker, please liaise directly with the allocated worker.
If your request is about an immediate child protection issue or your concern is urgent, please telephone 01629 533190.