Early help and support for families

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).

The service includes our:

• Family wellbeing centres delivering the 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 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
• An embedded team that works in to support siblings in a 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 work in partnership with families to provide the right support at the right time, so that any concerns or issues you may be facing can be dealt with at an early stage and prevented from getting more serious.

Once we have assessed what you need, our key workers plan a package of support to help you and your family and we agree how long we will work together. Sometimes this may involve other organisations, for example, a mentor for your child or a referral to a speech and language therapist.

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

Safeguarding

We always make sure that the safety and wellbeing of children are put first in everything we do. 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.