Early Help
Early Help means taking action to support a child, young person or their family early in the life of a problem, as soon as it emerges. It can be required at any stage in a child’s life from pre-birth to adulthood, and applies to any problem or need that the family cannot deal with or meet on their own. It also applies to all children and young people, with any form of need.
Early Help requires that agencies should work together as soon as a problem emerges or a need is identified to ensure the child gets the right response, and the right services, from the right people at the right time. Our aim is to meet need early and avoid a problem escalating or the need increasing.
Early Help is provided to prevent or reduce the need for specialist interventions unless they are absolutely the correct response to meet the need and resolve the problem.
Early Help can be provided in the most complex of circumstances as well as the simplest. Early help means responding promptly if a child is at immediate risk of harm (or has other significant or complex needs) as much as it means responding to a need which only requires advice or guidance.
Any child may benefit from early help, but all Highfield staff are particularly alert to the potential need for early help for a child who:
- is disabled and has specific additional needs
- has special educational needs (whether or not they have a statutory Education, Health and Care Plan)
Our Early Help Offer includes:
- Highfield Children's Centre and the Family Support Practitioners team (FNM, CAF, CIN, CP)
- Nurture Interventions
- Breakfast Club
- Additional induction sessions for children who need them, when starting in nursery
- Health visitors
- Signs of Safety toolkit
- In house safeguarding protocols
- Bespoke speech and language interventions
- Developmental Movement Play sessions
- Forest School sessions
- Mrs Coleman is the Mental Health First Aider. We also have 9 Mental Health First Aid Champions
For further support:
Early Help — Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership (suffolksp.org.uk)