Early Help

Early Help

Early Help is support that is offered to children and their families when additional support is identified which is beyond the scope of universal services.

Anyone can offer early help and details can be found in the Early Help framework (see key downloads ) , this includes a suggested early help plan .

Should family needs exceed what can be offered at Level 2 early help then consideration can be given to utilising the Supporting Families team. This decision should be made with families.

The Partnership, along with Partners have developed the Early Help Strategy for 2025. The strategy focuses on 4 areas to improve understanding of Early Help across Southend. 

What is the Supporting Families Team?

The Supporting Families team works with families. The team works with everyone in a family to help them make changes which would mean the family no longer needs extra help.

A family support practitioner works by visiting families at home and creating a plan with the family. The plan is reviewed with the family and other people who may be working with the family.

 How do I refer to the Supporting Families team ?

The Supporting Families team is a Level three intervention, details can be found in the Threshold documents (see key downloads )

A referral is completed and sent to the Childrens Single Point of Contact.

The referral will have details of what support has been tried before and what happened.

Families do need to agree to support.

Referrals to the Supporting Families Team are received via email to the Childrens Single Point of Contact [email protected]

The C-SPOC request for service form can be found here: Childrens Services – Information | Safeguarding Southend Partnership

Telephone: Childrens Single point of contact – 01702 215007

The new Southend Early Help Framework was released on 9th October 2023 and is a framework for everyone who works with children and their families with early help needs in Southend.

It sets out the Pathway which all practitioners must follow in identifying, raising, and responding to concerns about children requiring early help and should be read in conjunction with the Southend Continuum of Need Threshold Document, ‘Right Help, Right Service, Right Time‘.

Partners delivering early help may find it useful to seek advice and guidance from the Early Help Advisor. This is a new role with a specific purpose of supporting professionals who are coordinating early help plans. The advisor can be contacted at: [email protected] or call: 01702 215783