What is Early Help?

Every family goes through challenging times at some point. Early help means working with you and your family to try and overcome any problems you may be facing.

Early help is for everybody, for families with children and young people of any age. And it’s consent based and your choice whether to have it or not.

Support for families includes: 

• Providing information and signposting to other services in your local area. 
• Liaising with external services e.g. Housing, Children and Family Wellbeing Service
• Attendance and support at school including advice and support to promote good attendance.
• Support during appointments and in meetings.
• Help to complete paperwork and forms e.g. housing, school letters, free school meals, high school applications
• Referrals to outside agencies
• Guidance with access to training and parent workshops.
• Emotional support for parents
• Early Help Assessments/ TAF (Team Around the Family) meetings. 
• Give parents access to SEND Guidance and Support including from the school SENCO Mrs Smith
• Support for transitioning pupils.

Why would I want Early Help?

There are lots of reasons why families may require early help. It could be that you’re worried about your child’s health, including mental health and wellbeing, development or behaviour, or how they’re doing at school. It may be that you’re worried about money or housing and how that is affecting your family. Maybe your child or family is affected by domestic abuse, drugs, alcohol, or crime. Perhaps your child is a carer for their SEND sibling, or maybe you’ve had bereavement in the family that’s made life a challenge. We are here to support you with any queries you may have about support your child or family.

Where can I get Early Help?

If you feel you and your family might need support to solve some problems, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Marsden in school.

What will happen when I ask for Early Help?

We will invite you to come into school and we will talk about the problems you’re experiencing. Working together, we will look at what help and support you think you might need. This is called an early help assessment.

Early help assessment is nothing to be worried about. It’s just a conversation to work out how to help you determine what it is you feel you need support with and how this can be done.  You can talk about things that are going well and things that you’re proud of as well as things that you’re finding a challenge.

We will also discuss your child or children in your family to make sure they understand how they are feeling and anything they think they might want some help with. 

What happens next will be different for every family. If an Early Help assessment is carried out and actions are identified we will then arrange Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings. Again this is nothing to be worried about. It just ensures we have a regular meeting with all professionals involved to get the best outcome for the family. You have control over what happens next and can say what you want.

All of this is consent based, if consent is withdrawn then the process stops.

If you decide you’d like some help, the person you talked with will ask if they can share details of your conversation. You need to be happy with this and give your permission. This is to make sure the people who will be supporting you are able to do a good job for you and understand the journey you and your family have been on.

Sharing Information

There may be times when the person you talked to has to share information without consent. This includes:

 -if they think a child is at risk of harm

 -if they think an adult is at risk of harm
-if they think the information could help prevent or detect a serious crime

Children’s Social care won’t get involved unless one of these things happens, or unless the circumstances in your family change and become more serious.

If you have any questions, please speak to Mrs Marsden in school or on 01282 426 774 to arrange a time to talk.

At Lowerhouse we recognise our responsibility to protect and safeguard the welfare of the children entrusted to our care by establishing a safe environment in which children can learn and develop. We have a statutory responsibility to make sure and promote the safety of children under ‘Section 175 of the Education Act 2002’. In our School Children are made to feel safe and are encouraged to talk and be listened to. This policy is very detailed and includes Online Safety, Record Keeping, Supporting the Pupil, Curriculum, training and Safe Recruitment.

It is a Government requirement that all schools have an anti-bullying policy. Bullying is wrong and damages individual children; at Lowerhouse Junior School, we do all we can to prevent it, by developing a school ethos in which bullying is regarded as unacceptable. This policy aims to produce a consistent school response to any bullying incidents that may occur. Our Governors, Head teacher, staff, parents and children have a role to play in our anti bullying policy. Our aim, as a school, is to produce a safe environment where all can learn without anxiety, everyone can feel welcome, secure and happy and measures are in place to reduce the likelihood of bullying. What can you do? Actively encourage your child to be a positive member of the school. Tell us immediately if you think your child is being bullied.

The purpose of Operation Encompass is to safeguard and support children and young people who have been involved in or witness to a Domestic Abuse incident. Domestic Abuse impacts on children in a number of ways. Children are at increased risk of physical injury during an incident, either by accident or because they attempt to intervene. Even when not directly injured, children are greatly distressed by witnessing the physical and emotional suffering of a parent.

Operation Encompass has been created to address this situation. It is the implementation of key partnership working between the police and schools. The aim of sharing information with local schools is to allow ‘Key Adults’ the opportunity of engaging with the child and to provide access to support that allows them to remain in a safe, but secure, familiar environment.

Following the report of an incident of Domestic Abuse by 8.30 am on the next school day, the school’s Key Adult will be informed that the child or young person has been involved in a domestic incident. This knowledge, given to schools through Operation Encompass, allows the provision of immediate early intervention through silent or overt support dependent upon the needs and wishes of the child.

The purpose and procedures in Operation Encompass have been shared with all parents and governors, is detailed as part of the school’s safeguarding policy and published on our school website.

The Key Adult for Lowerhouse Junior School is Mrs Isherwood, Headteacher.

More information can be found on: https://www.operationencompass.org/

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