Early Help

Every family goes through challenging times at some point. The early help system is a network of services, processes and interactions that aim to help children, young people and families at the earliest opportunity, in order to improve outcomes for children or prevent escalating need or risk. 

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

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.

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 which brings together Targeted Early Help and s17 support for children in need into a single, more seamless offer.

The multi-agency child protection reforms includes increased support for family networks and 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:

(FGDM - Family Group Decision Making, FNSPs  - Family Network Support Packages)

Here is some more information about targeted early help on the Isles of Scilly.

Cornwall has a Multi-Agency Support and Safeguarding Hub (MASSH) which brings together professionals from social care, health, education and police to respond to concerns about children and young people.  

They provide: 

• Safeguarding responses for children at risk 
• Help and Support (Family Help)
• Advice and guidance for professionals, families and the public

Here is a useful resource from the NSPCC about what we mean by the terms early help and early intervention.