If you believe a child needs some additional help and support and you do not believe that there are immediate safeguarding concerns, a good approach is for you and the family you are supporting to complete an Early Help Assessment (EHA) together.
An EHA is a whole family assessment which helps you unpick and determine the needs of all family members and therefore, what help and support is required to help the family meet those needs.
The EHA is not about form filling; it is about having a meaningful conversation with a family about their strengths and worries, working out what they need and pulling in the right people to provide support a Team Around the Family (TAF).
Information on the what the Early Help Assessment is can be found below:
The EHA is an assessment tool and as such it is not to be considered as a referral form or used to request additional services.
The EHA form can be downloaded to complete below:
The TAF approach is one where professionals come together around a family to create a single SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) action plan to which the family and all professionals contribute and help to identify who else might be asked to help.
The EHA should not be used as a way to pass families onto another team.
Please note that an EHA is not required if there is already a higher-level assessment in place e.g., a social worker.
All completed partner-led EHA’s should be returned to EarlyHelp@redcar-cleveland.gov.uk
The EHA and plan forms are available under supporting documents here.
What happens next?
Once we've received your Early Help Assessment it will be logged on our central database and an Early Help Coordinator (EHC) will be alerted.
The EHC will contact the author/lead practitioner of the Early Help Assessment to give feedback and offer support and guidance to them on next steps.
The lead practitioner will then work with the family and team around the family, as agreed in the action plan, reviewing it regularly to ensure that it is up to date and that things are progressing well.
Early Help Assessment Team
The team of five full-time Early Help Coordinators who are based in the Multi-agency Children’s Hub offer advice, guidance, and support to those working with children and families to prevent needs and risks escalating.
They can provide a wealth of tools, information, and training; and can support practitioners to complete Early help Assessments, Team around the Family action plans, and gather the voices of children for family meetings.
They will also help practitioners to understand risks and safeguarding. To contact the team please call them at Redcar and Cleveland MACH on 01642 130678.