Early help service

Our Early Help Service provides a range of assistance for families with children aged 0 to 18 years old (up to 25 if the young person has a disability or additional needs).

There are a number of teams and services involved, including our:

• Family wellbeing centres: that deliver early help offer for children and families 
• Family solutions team: works through family wellbeing centres to support families with children aged 0 to 18 years old (up to 25 for young people with disabilities) on a range of issues including mental health, domestic abuse, drug and alcohol misuse, parenting and money advice. 
• Early years services: gives advice on childcare for all ages including free childcare for 2, 3 and 4 year olds and out of school childcare for older children.
• Portage team: a free home visiting service for pre-school children with a disability or additional needs
• Embedded team: that works to support siblings in families where older children are working with specialist /and/or statutory services (including pupil referral units and the youth offending service).
• Accelerated support team: providing a rapid-response service to young people (on the edge of care) between the ages of 11 and 17 and their families.
  
  
  

We want all children and young people to have the best start in life and receive the ongoing support they and their families need to fulfil their potential.

An Early Help Assessment (EHA) allows professionals, such as GPs, teachers and support worker to refer families to children and young people’s (CYP) services when support and help is needed.

This assessment helps us to get families the right help, at the right time, as quickly as possible and allows us to:

• deal with any concerns at an early stage and prevent them from getting more serious.
• listen to children, young people and their families to identify their strengths and needs at an early stage
• bring together all of the information about families on the same form so that they do not have to repeat the same story to different professionals.
• assess the family's needs in a holistic way and help them to set goals
• work in partnership with the family and partner agencies to deliver co-ordinated services
• review and monitor the family’s progress towards achieving their goals

The EHA process is voluntary and consent is required from parents or carers for relevant information to be shared between agencies.

An EHA should always be completed by a professional and used when:

• a professional is worried about how well a child or young person is progressing. For example, there may be concerns about their health, development, welfare, behaviour, progress in learning, or another aspect of their wellbeing
• a child, a young person, or their parent or carer raises a concern
• a child or young person's needs are unclear, or are broader than the professional's service can address.

A guide is available to help practitioners and volunteers referring a child/and or family for support.

The EHA must be completed in real time, you will not be able to save or complete it at a later stage. If you need help, read our guidance document or for further support read the training section below.

If you experience any difficulties with the online EHA form, email: safoora.ahmed@brent.gov.uk

After you have submitted your EHA, you will be contacted by a member of the team within five working days. 

Once you have had an assessment and we know what you need, our team will plan a package of support to help you and your family. We will agree how long we will work with you. Sometimes this may involve other organisations, for example, a mentor for your child or a referral to a speech and language therapist.

Together, we will review progress and make any changes as we go along if we need to. Any support that we put in place is only done with your consent.

Safeguarding

We always put the safety and wellbeing of children first. If we have concerns about your child's safety, we have a duty of care to report this to social care services or the police. View more information on safeguarding.