Early Help Offer and Support
Our Early Help and Support offer
At Poulton-le-Sands we aim to extend our positive and supportive environment to include the families of the children who attend our school. We know that sometimes children and their families face challenges that can negatively impact their education, home life and wellbeing. As part of our commitment to helping children to reach their full potential we have an ever-increasing range of support available to both the children in school and their families.
We understand that you may, at times, need additional support in meeting the needs of your family whilst also dealing with the many challenges of day to day life. We know that by working together in partnership with our families we can best meet the needs of our children and their families.
In summary, our Early Help offer includes:
- Providing information and signposting to other support services and groups in our local area.
- Liaising with external teams and services e.g. Children’s Social Care, Health etc.
- Advice and signposting to appropriate support to promote good attendance as well as mental health-related barriers to attending school – for children, young people and parents.
- Help with completing paperwork and forms e.g. housing, school letters, funding and grant applications and benefits etc.
- Referrals to outside agencies e.g. Barnardo’s Mental Health Support Team, local food banks, Citizens Advice Bureau
- Information on parenting courses and workshops.
- Lead Professional on Early Help Assessments (EHA’s) and Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings.
Barnardo’s Moving Mindsets
Morecambe Bay Mental Health Support Team
We have an Educational Mental Health Practitioner that comes into school on a weekly basis to support the mental health and emotional wellbeing needs of the children and young people in our school. They can also signpost and refer to other appropriate local services and support groups.
For more information about what the MHST offers, please see the link below or contact Mrs Wheeler in school.
Barnardos Moving Mindsets – Morecambe Bay Mental Health Support Team
Citizens Advice Bureau – Schools & Family Adviser
We are very fortunate to be part of the Citizens Advice Bureau Schools Project. Parents and Carers can contact the advisors (Jeni and Charlotte) directly or speak to Mrs Wheeler who can help with a referral.
Early Help Support
What is Early Help?
All families can face challenging times. Early Help simply means coming together and working with you and your family to offer support as soon as problems start to emerge. When families face issues or problems, getting the right support at the right time is essential and can stop a minor issue becoming a more serious crisis that is much more difficult to overcome.
Early Help is voluntary – you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to. However, it is generally a positive experience and can lead to better outcomes and new opportunities for the families that get involved.
Early Help is not a referral to Children’s Social Services but it can be good evidence to be shared with them in the future, should a need for more intensive support arise.
Why would I want early help?
There are many reasons why families may need early help. It could be that you are concerned about your child’s behaviour or that you’re worried about increased household bills and expenses and how this is affecting your family? Maybe your own mental health and wellbeing is suffering and you are struggling to cope? Each family will have their own reasons why they may need that bit of extra support.
Where can I get early help?
If you feel you and your family might need some extra help and guidance, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Wheeler or your child’s teacher. Everything will be dealt with in confidence and only shared on a need-to-know basis within school and externally.
How does it work?
Early Help involves listening to all members of the family, especially the children, to find out about their needs and what is working well for them. This can be done through an informal chat and/or an Early Help Assessment (EHA).
Mrs Wheeler will invite you into school where we will talk about the challenges you are having and what support you think you might need. We will also discuss all the things that are going well and what you are proud of, so it’s not just about the negatives or things you find difficult.
You decide what happens next and can opt out at any time.
However, if you are happy to complete an EHA, an action plan is then agreed to make sure you get the right sort of help. Then all the support services and other professionals working with the family come together in a coordinated approach, called a Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting, to share the support of the whole family. Your EHA is shared with them so everyone knows and understands your family’s story and can support you all in the best possible way.
Information sharing
There may be times when your information has to be shared for safeguarding reasons. This would be:
- If a child is at risk of harm
- If an adult is at risk of harm
- If the information could help prevent or detect a serious crime
Children’s services will not be involved unless one of the above happens, you request it or if things within your family become more serious.