Early Help

Working with you and your family

At Arnot St. Mary, we recognise the challenges that families face in bringing up children. Family life can be complicated and sometimes you may need some support. If you have a problem at home, please get in touch – we can support you in lots of ways. 

One of the bravest things any of us can do is ask for help.

What is Early help?

Early help means providing support to our children and families as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life. We will meet you at your point of need and -while we may not be able to fix all every problem- we can certainly work with you to find the help and support you need.

There are many ways in which we can help as outlined in our school’s offer of Early Help below.

Support for families may include: 

• Advice and support to promote good attendance
• Liaising with external services e.g. Housing and Children’s Social Care.
• Support during appointments and in meetings.
• Help to complete paperwork and forms e.g. court appearances, housing, applications for support and benefits.
• Referrals to outside agencies e.g. Continence service, sleep clinic, Paediatric SEN Inclusion Team, and Speech & Language Therapists.
• Emotional support for parents
• Information on local specialist training events linked to additional needs
• SEND coffee afternoons
• School Health support
• Early Help Assessment which may involve support from external agencies
• Links to our on-site Children’s Centre
• Providing information and signposting to other services in your local area. 

Support for children whilst in school may include:

• Sensory circuits
• Zones of regulation
• Mental health champions
• Check-ins at key points in the da 
• Lunchtime / Nurture club
• Bespoke learning interventions
• Pre-loved uniform
• Additional transition support
• Extra-curricular clubs
• Strong messages around anti-bullying, online safety and positive relationships
• School nurse support
• Lego Therapy and friendship support
• Our Keeping Safe and Healthy curriculum 

Why would I request early help?

There are lots of reasons why people look for early help. It could be that you’re worried about your child’s health, development or behaviour, or how they’re doing at school. It may be that you’re worried about money or housing and how that is impacting on your family. Maybe your child or family is affected by domestic abuse, drugs, alcohol, or crime. Perhaps your child is a carer for their SEND sibling, or maybe you’ve had a bereavement in the family that’s made life a challenge.

Whatever the concern, it’s okay to ask for help.

Where can I get early help?

If you feel you and your family might need support to solve some problems, please do not hesitate to contact our Community Team by email at earlyhelp@arnotstmary.com or contact the school office on 0151 286 1400.

What will happen when I ask for early help?

We can give you a call to either complete a home visit or you could come into school and we can talk about the problems/concerns you’re experiencing. We will ask what help and support you think you might need. This is called an early help assessment.

Early help assessment is nothing to be worried about. It’s just a conversation to work out how to help you determine what it is you feel you need support with and how this can be done. You can talk about things that are going well and things that you’re proud of as well as things that you’re finding a challenge.

We will also discuss your child or children in your family to make sure they understand how they are feeling and anything they think they might want some help with. 

What happens next will be different for every family. If an Early Help assessment is carried out and actions are identified, we will then call Team Around the Family (TAF) meetings. Again, this is nothing to be worried about. It just ensures we have a regular meeting with all professionals involved to get the best outcome for the family. You have control over what happens next and can say what you want. 

Remember, it’s your choice to have Early Help. If you have any questions please get in touch.

For more information on Early Help through Family Hubs, please click on the link below.

The Liverpool Family Hub website can provide a wealth of information around Early Help, Health & Well-being, Parent/Carer Support Service, Benefits and much more.