Early Help Offer

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.

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.

Support for children whilst in school may include:

Sensory circuits
Zones of regulation
Mental health champions
Healthy wellbeing champions
Key worker check ins and check outs
Lunchtime nurture club
Bespoke learning interventions
Pre loved uniform
Additional transition support
Extra curricular clubs
School nurse support

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 feel you and your family might need support to solve some problems, please do not hesitate to contact our Pastoral support manager, Mrs Clowes via 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 problems/concerns 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 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

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