Early Help Offer at St. Teresa’s

At St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, we recognise how challenging day to day family life can be. It is perfectly normal for all families to need a little extra help or advice from time to time. If you, as a family, are struggling or if you have any worries or concerns about your child, St. Teresa’s Early Help offer can provide much needed support and advice. This may include concerns about behaviour, home circumstances, mental health or general well-being. Please come and talk to us.

Key personnel:

Mrs J. Holmes– Head teacher/ Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) Mental Health and Well-being lead / Attendance Lead

Mrs K. Balazs – SENCo

Contact the school office: 01772 742331 bursar@st-teresas-penwortham.lancs.sch.uk or speak to us on the gates.

The Role of Schools

Day to Day Support

Most families, most of the time, can get on with their lives quite happily with little or no outside help. If they need help it is usually provided by universal services, such as schools.

Focused Pastoral Support

All families can have times, however, when difficulties arise and they either may not recognise it or may not know what to do next. Schools play a role in supporting families to address these difficulties through more focused pastoral support, which might include bringing in support via an external agency.

Early Help Assessment

For those children and families whose needs and circumstances make them more vulnerable, or where schools need the support of other agencies to meet the needs of the family, a coordinated multi-agency approach is usually best. In Lancashire, this is achieved through undertaking an Early Help Assessment and assigning a Lead Practitioner to work closely with the family to ensure they receive the support they require. Schools should be a key partner in any multi-agency work to support families.

The following five commitments are the core elements to St. Teresa’s Early Help Offer. By implementing these commitments, St. Teresa’s aims to ensure:

• Pupils, parent/carers and staff are clear on the Early Help support available through the school
• Clarity for partners, supporting improved multi-agency working
• Delivery approaches of Early Help support for more vulnerable families are up to date with local offers
• Commitment to the personal development and well-being strand of the Ofsted Framework
• All pastoral support is done to support the whole child, with the school values at the heart of all that we do to help others.

How can we help?

We can offer:

• A listening ear
• Advice and strategies to support your family with challenging behaviour or attendance concerns
• Access to counselling from our in-house well-being coach (if appropriate)
• Signposting for clubs to help support mental and physical well-being
• Support in accessing free school meals
• Second-hand uniform
• Support with adult literacy needs
• Access to local food banks and charities who can support
• Advice regarding any SEND concerns that you may have
• An Early Help Assessment (see below) to identify areas where you may benefit from support.
• Referrals for parenting support such as Triple P
• Work with other agencies who can provide specialist help – the school nursing team, CAMHS, CANW, NEST
• Contact details of organisations who can support with housing, financial or mental health concerns.

To ensure your family will access the correct level of support at the right time, we use the principles set out in Working Well with Children and Families document.

What is Early Help?

Early Help means providing help for children, young people and families as soon as problems start to emerge or where it is likely that issues will impact negatively on children’s outcomes.

Early Help

• Is for children of all ages and not just the very young
• Can be very effective in supporting a child, young person and/or their family to step down from statutory services as well as preventing the escalation of issues
• Is important because there is clear evidence that it results in better outcomes for children.

Lancashire County Council recognises that Early Help is a term that describes much of the everyday work of schools.

https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/practitioners/supporting-children-and-families/

Early Help in Lancashire:

The vision of all partner organisations working with children and families in Lancashire is to improve children’s lives by working in partnership to raise aspirations, build achievement and protect the most vulnerable.

This is based on the belief that:

• Children, young people and families develop resilience if there are protective factors in place such as: a positive relationship with an adult; good literacy and communication skills; good school attendance; and, parents in or actively seeking/ready for work
• Children’s needs are best met when help is offered in a universal setting within a socially mixed group and early on when problems start to emerge
• Children and young people’s needs are best met when addressed in the context of the whole family, meaning that parents/carers/siblings’ needs are addressed with consent as part of a holistic and integrated Early Help response.

Early Help services should support and strengthen families so that they can thrive.

We follow the Working Well with Children and Families Guidance

https://www.lancashiresafeguarding.org.uk/media/19299/wwwcf-part-1-and-2-final.pdf

Lancashire CSAP (Children’s Safeguarding Assurance Partnership) website:

The CSAP website is full of useful safeguarding and CP information.

Your Family’s Early Help Assessment and family RADAR has replaced the CAF document.

Early Help Assessment – Section E – family radar

The Early Help Assessment and Plan features a family radar. The family radar is linked to the cycle of change and will help you to identify which areas of support the family need the most. By completing a family radar, we are trying to get the families you work with to understand at what point of the cycle of change they are at.

Early Help Assessment

The Early Help Assessment is an intervention with a family to gather, explore and analyse with them information about all aspects of the child or young person (and their family’s) life and then to identify areas where change will address support needs and positively impact on their lived experiences.

This is recorded on an Early Help Assessment form which includes the family’s Early Help Plan.

Your Family’s Early Help Assessment is available to all practitioners and professionals working with children, young people, and their families across Lancashire.

Working alongside families from a holistic, strength-based approach when areas of support are first identified will stop escalation towards crisis and the need for more intensive and specialist intervention.

Through the Early Help Assessment, Plan, and reviews via Team Around the Family meetings the wider partnership of services can provide families with the right support at the right time.

The Early Help Assessment and Plan features a family radar. The family radar is linked to the cycle of change and will help you to identify which areas of support the family need the most. By completing a family radar, we are trying to get the families you work with to understand at what point of the cycle of change they are at.

Please refer to the school Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy for more information.