What is Early Help?
Every family goes through challenging times at some point. Early help means working with you and your family so that small problems don’t become big problems. Early help is for everybody, for families with children and young people of any age. And it’s your choice whether to have it or not.
We are working across the partnership to deliver the Government’s vision for a reformed system of help, support and protection. The Families First Partnership (FFP) programme supports statutory safeguarding services to implement Family Help and multi-agency child protection reforms and increase support for family networks.
They are clear that children and families should not be left waiting for help; the system should respond flexibly and wrap support around them at the earliest point of need, and that as needs change, support and services should respond effectively:
Universal services and community based early help play a crucial role in identifying emerging problems and providing support at an early stage.
Whilst targeted early help is delivered by statutory safeguarding services and is part of the Family Help response which in Cornwall includes; youth work, family support work. Supporting Change in Partnership (SCIP), Early Support and Portage.
- Here is some more information about early help on the Isles of Scilly.
- In Cornwall the Multi-Agency Support and Safeguarding Hub (MASSH) brings together professionals from social care, health, education and police to respond to all concerns about children and young people. Early Support is included as part of their Family Help response. They have also produced this useful guide on how to find a whole range of support for your child.
Here is a useful resource from the Family Rights group that will give you some more information about early help.
Special educational needs and disability (SEND)
- NHS England explains that a child or young person has special educational needs and disabilities if they have a learning difficulty and/or a disability that means they need special health and education support, we shorten this to SEND.
- Parent Carers Cornwall is a parent carer led not for profit Community Interest Company providing advice and support to parent carers of children and young people with SEND.
- In particular they have just launched their Neurodiversity Hub it aligns to the Cornwall & the Isles of Scilly Neurodevelopmental Profiling Tool, but it can be used by everyone. The contributors to the content of the profiling sections are varied and include those with lived experience and professionals working with neurodivergent children and young people.
- Information about the the Isles of Scilly Local Offer is available here.
- Cornwall Council provide the Family Information Service (FIS) it is a free and impartial support service. It gives information on local services for children and young people. It is for children aged 0-19 years (up to 25 years with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, SEND). Children and their families can use this site to find childcare and things to do.