Sometimes children and their families might need some extra help, this might come from a range of different organisations, all working together.

An Early Help Assessment is a way of noting down what is going well in your family, what the worries are and what needs to happen to help things improve.  Together you will then agree the best way to make this happen; this will be written into a Family Plan.    

You might need help in one or more of the following areas:

• School, education or training
• Home and life relationships
• Health and emotional wellbeing
• Work, finances or housing
• Domestic violence or abuse
• Crime or anti-Social behaviour

If you have worries about your family, then ask a professional who's working with you or your children for an Early Help assessment.  Also a professional connected to your family who has concerns may suggest to you that together you do an Early Help Assessment to see how your family can be supported. 

Your support worker will go through these steps with you:

1.  You and your support worker will talk about what is going well in your family, what the worries are, and what needs to happen to improve the situation.  This will be written into the Early Help Assessment form. 
2. Your support worker will get a team of people together, you will fill out a My Family Plan, this will remind everyone about what is going to happen, how will be doing it and by when. 
3. You will choose one person from that team to be your Lead Professional (LP). They will support you to and make sure the team keeps their promises.
4. You will review your plan regularly to make sure that things are improving for your family.

The whole process will take a little time, but we can only do it with your permission.