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Early Help Work in Action

Early help work takes place across different agencies, below are a few examples of putting early help into action.

Health Visitor

A health visitor was carrying out a scheduled visit to a family with a six week old baby. The family who have moved to the UK in the last six months have an eight year old child who is not attending school. The health visitor helped them to navigate the school admissions process to secure a school place for the child.

Partnership Working

After an escalation in anti-social behaviour and young people offending in key areas of Leeds, partnership work between Police, schools, Youth Justice Service and CATCH identified a group of vulnerable Romanian teenagers responsible. Language and cultural barriers were identified as obstacles to their school attendance and positive engagement. As such the multi-agency team set up the ThinkFIRST course which engages with young people, their families and schools through a diverse programme of high support and high challenge. Local communities, schools and young people report a significant improvement in behaviour and levels of happiness since the work began.

Housing Contractor

A housing contractor visited a property and found a young single parent in a distressed state. He took her to the Housing Office to seek help. The tenant disclosed she was a victim of domestic abuse, and her ex-partner was a regular visitor to the area where she lived and had a front door key. She felt frightened and feared for her sons and her own safety.

Housing changed her locks the same day. Discussion was held at the daily domestic violence meeting (MARAC), the Police were informed and an offer of support from Leeds Women’s Aid was made. The outcome was that the tenant felt safe with the interventions and worked with housing for a planned move to minimise disruption for her son.

Restorative Early Support Team

A young person aged 17 was referred to a Restorative Early Support Team (REST) because things at home had come to a crisis and mum wanted him to leave. A REST family support worker got involved and built up a good relationship with mum and supported the young person to move into supported housing for teenagers, take up an education offer and start to address his substance misuse. The young person also agreed to a Family Group Conference and engaged well in the process which helped with improving his relationship with his family.

The outcome is that the young person is now moving into independent living and continues to have a good relationship with his family. Mum has requested further support from the REST with her other children which is significant as she had previously turned down the support when offered.

Mental health support worker

A third sector mental health support worker is working with a parent of a 12 year old child. The child has recently started getting angry and frustrated at home and refusing to do their homework resulting in detentions at school; however the child is saying that they find the homework too difficult, especially reading. Last week the child was excluded for the first time.

The support worker helped the parent to meet with the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) which resulted in school exploring the possibility of additional learning needs and carried out a literacy skills assessment. The support worker also helped with getting the child into after-school homework club which also alleviated the pressure at home. Six weeks later the parent says things have improved and their child is much happier.

Early Help Forms

  • Early Help Assessment This form will help you to capture your assessment of the current needs of a child/young person and their family. It should be completed in partnership with the child/young person and their parents/carers. The assessment is used to agree next steps in order to access appropriate early help support and co-ordinate services. This is primarily intended to be used for a multi-agency assessment, however could also be used for a single agency assessment. This should be kept on the child/young person’s file by the lead professional and also uploaded to MOSAIC if you have access.
  • Early Help: My Plan This form will help you to develop an early help plan in conjunction with the child/young person. This should be kept on the child/young person’s file by the lead professional and also uploaded to MOSAIC if you have access.
     
  • Early Help Request Form This form is used to request early help support through an Early Help hub or cluster, for a child/young person, or to refer a child or young person to an early help support service; Restorative Early Support, Multi-Systemic Therapy, Signpost. On completion the form should be submitted to the appropriate service (see here for contact details)

To register early help activity:

  • If you have access to Mosaic and are undertaking activity yourself, please record this directly onto Mosaic.
  • If you do not have access to Mosaic, please contact the Families First team to register the activity by calling 0113 3781840.
  • Should you need any further assistance regarding early help activity, please contact your local Early Help Hub.

Workforce development opportunities: 

There are a number of training opportunities available in relation to early help. For more information contact michelle.cunningham@leeds.gov.uk

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