CYSCP
Early Help
Support for partners in delivering Early Help for families
We use the principles of the Supporting Families Programme to underpin our Early Help and prevention work with children and families.
The Supporting Families Programme is the delivery model for Early Help in York and aims to ensure that those families who need help and support get it at the earliest opportunity and from the right people.
Early Help can be provided by one agency, or with a multi-agency response. When we say agency, we mean:
- schools
- childcare
- health
- police
- voluntary sector
- City of York Council
The support a child or family receives may include:
- an assessment of need informed by all members of the family
- targeted support where needs cannot be met by universal or community services
- signposting to other relevant support that may be helpful
Supporting Families Advisers
To ensure that practitioners across the city are supported in the work they do with and for families, the Supporting Families Team offer a package of support to lead practitioners or any other individuals or services who are providing Early Help support to children and families.
Supporting Families Advisors do not work directly with families but are a point of contact for partners in the city who are working with children, young people and families at an Early Help level.
Support can include:
- support for all Early Help partners in settings across the City in terms of practice and process, use of assessment tools and the availability of services
- advising Early Help partners who else may be involved with the family to allow the development of an effective Team Around the Child and Family (TACF)
- provide case specific advice and guidance to help you better support the families you are working with This includes providing advice in cases where progress has become “stuck”
- where and Early Help assessment and/or TACF is in place for a family, the family will be eligible to access support from the Supporting Families Employment Adviser where there is an identified need
- attendance at team or training meetings to provide advice and support about Early Help practices
- reaching out to offer advice and guidance where there has been a recommendation for you or your agency to provide Early Help support to a family via an Early Help Assessment (EHA) and TACF
Early Help tools and resources
To support practitioners in supporting families we have a library of tools and resources available, including our assessment form, Team Around The Family forms, and our Early Help Resource Pack - which gives comprehensive guidance around all areas of Early Help delivery.
We also offer additional resources, such as our Children’s Workforce Induction Pack, and links to local and national guidance around safeguarding, Early Help and information sharing.
These resources will be added to this page as soon as they are available, or contact us on email: [email protected] if you require support.
Contacting the team
Contact the Supporting Families Team on email: [email protected], and a member of the team will respond to you; please provide your phone number if you would prefer a call back.
Delivering Early Help
Where you are taking on the lead practitioner role, send Early Help assessments and Team Around the Child and Family documentation to email: [email protected].
Maintaining records of Early Help assessments
We maintain a central record of the support a family has received so that we can help understand a family’s journey.
This means we can link together agencies who might be working with the same family. It also means that if the family is referred to the Targeted Intervention Service or Children’s Services, it is clear what support has already been in place and when.
Raise York - Your Family Hub Network and Family Information Service
Families and communities help to provide a foundation for children and young people to grow, develop and feel safe. Raise York brings together children; young people; families; communities and professionals so everyone can get the connections, help and support they want and need.
The Raise York network is a key component of how our city can come together to deliver the Early Help Strategy. The Raise York partnership have developed tools and information for families and partners.
The York Family Information Service is a free and impartial information service for parents and carers of children and young people aged 0 to 19 (or up to 25 for disabled children).
They can help with anything and everything around family life and being a young person. If you’re a parent or carer and have a question but don’t know where to go, then get in touch.
You can contact Raise York on email: [email protected], by telephone: 01904 554444 (Monday to Friday, 10.00am to 4.00pm), or by text on telephone: 07786 202241.
York SEND Local Offer
The York SEND Local Offer sets out services and activities available to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities; support is available from birth to 25 years. Our website provides helpful information for families, and resources for professionals working in SEN services. Email: [email protected] for more information.
Communities and prevention
The City of York Council’s approach is to place ward and neighbourhood level working at the heart of building resilient communities, recognising that local people are best placed to understand and find solutions to the particular needs of their communities. The Council’s Communities and Prevention team, provide a focus on prevention, early help and asset based community development, working across all life stages. The team take a strengths based approach, seeing people as assets, recognising the core economy of friends, families and neighbours and building social networks and reciprocity.
The team will seek to build capacity in communities, mapping community assets with citizens and growing a culture of active citizenship and social action. It will also involve creating a wide reaching early help network, involving other parts of the council, schools, primary care networks, other agencies and partners alongside citizens and communities in order to support children, young people and families who are at the edge of social care, through a universal early help offer. Our children’s centres have been reviewed to enable the co-design of new Family Hubs reflecting the ethos of the ‘supporting families agenda’, ‘best start in life’ and ‘working together’ policy developments.
Further information is available on the following websites: