Working with you and your family

At Holy Trinity RC Primary school we recognise the challenges that families face in bringing up children. Family life can be complicated and sometimes you may need some support. 

We can offer help and support in a friendly & non-judgmental way to help overcome barriers and improve the outcomes for you and your family. 

What is Early Help?

Early help means providing support to our children and families as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life.

School works to provide Early Help to those children and families in the school community with emerging needs, which may not be appropriate for Social Services intervention, but require some support.

The “levels of need” model is used to assess at which level the help should be provided.

 

 

Early Help is the vision of all partner organisations working with children and families, to improve children’s lives by working in partnership to raise aspirations, build achievement and protect the most vulnerable.

There is clear evidence that early help results in better outcomes for children.

A key objective of Early help is to provide information, advice and access to services at the right time to meet a family's needs and to support them in resolving concerns as soon as they emerge.

Support can be delivered from a wide range of services depending on what is needed; people already working with your family might offer additional help or support so that you can access more specialist or targeted services.

There are many ways in which we can help as outlined in our offer of early help below:

Support for families may include: 

• Advice and support to promote good attendance at school
• Liaising with external services e.g. Housing, Children's Social Care, Adult Social Care & Children & Family Wellbeing Service
• Help to complete paperwork and forms e.g. court appearances, housing, school letters, grant applications and benefits.
• Support during appointments and in meetings.
• Referrals to outside agencies e.g. Speech and Language Therapists, Domestic Abuse Advocacy services (IDVA's) & Parenting Support.
• Wrap around childcare including Breakfast & After school clubs
• Emotional support for parents
• Information on local specialist training events linked to additional needs
• School nurse support
• Early Help Assessment which may involve support from external agencies
• Children and Family Wellbeing pastoral visits 
• Providing information and signposting to other services in your local area. 
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Why would I request early help?

There are lots of reasons why people look for early help. It could be that you’re worried about your child’s health, development or behaviour, or how they’re doing at school. It may be that you’re worried about money or housing and how that is impacting on your family. Maybe your child or family is affected by domestic abuse, drugs, alcohol, or crime. Perhaps your child is a young carer for someone in their family, or maybe you’ve had a bereavement that’s made life a challenge.

Whatever the concern, it’s okay to ask for help.

Where can I get early help?

If you would like to request early help support or would like more information, please contact Mrs K Clowes - 01282 613709 - Option 2 or email the school office bursar@holytrinityrc.lancs.sch.uk

What will happen if I ask for early help?

Mrs Clowes will give you a call to either complete a home visit or you could come into school to talk about the difficulties you’re experiencing. Mrs Clowes will ask what help and support you think you might need. This is called an early help assessment.

Early help assessment is nothing to be worried about. It’s just a conversation to work out how to help you determine what it is you feel you need support with and how this can be done.   You can talk about things that are going well and things that you’re proud of as well as things that you’re finding a challenge.

We will also discuss your child or children in your family to make sure they understand how they are feeling and anything they think they might want some help with. 

What happens next will be different for every family. If an Early Help assessment is carried out and actions are identified, a Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting will then be arranged. Again, this is nothing to be worried about. It just ensures there are regular meetings for you and any involved practitioners to ensure the best outcomes for you and your family. It is important to remember that you have control over what happens next and can say what you want. This is your early help assessment.  

Remember, it’s your choice to have Early Help support. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs Clowes for an informal discussion. 

For more information on Early Help please click on the Link below 

Lancashire County Council Early Help Assessment 

Support for families may include: 

• Advice and support to promote good school attendance
• Liaising with external services e.g. Housing and Children Social Care.
• Support during appointments and in meetings.
• Help to complete paperwork and forms e.g. court appearances, housing, school letters, grant applications and benefits.
• Referrals to outside agencies e.g. Continence service, Paediatric Learning Disability Team and Speech and Language Therapists.
• Emotional support for parents
• Information on local specialist training events linked to additional needs through the termly SEND newsletter
• SEND parent drop ins with Headteacher/SENDCo
• School nurse support
• Early Help Assessment which may involve support from external agencies
• Children and Family Wellbeing pastoral visits 
• Providing information and signposting to other services in your local area. . 

The Children and Family Wellbeing service (CFWS) also has lots of useful information on their website - Find a children and family wellbeing service - Lancashire County Council 

Information on other groups and events locally can be found here - Lancashire County Council Events