What Early Help is
Early help is provided to children, young people and families who are:
- struggling
- in need of additional support
- at a higher than average risk of experiencing problems.
Early help services aim to prevent or resolve issues before they become more serious and require specialist support. The Isle of Wight Children and Young People’s Strategic partnership recognises that the best outcomes are achieved when a combination of services work together. This is to ensure that the whole family are able to work towards better life chances of their children.
Raising a concern
Concerns about how well a child or young person is progressing may be raised by a:
- professional
- parent/carer
- child/young person themselves
An Early Help Assessment (EHA) is then used to identify their needs. This helps to co-ordinate provision of services involving a lead professional and sharing information to avoid duplication of assessments. The EHA should be centred around the child/young person. EHA is a standardised shared assessment and planning framework for use across all children’s services and all local areas in England.
Access to early help services
Many of these services are available in the community, through schools, health services and voluntary organisations. Visit the children service hub page to find out contact details of supportive services and organisations. Barnardo's are the current provider of integrated early help services for 0-19 years on the island.
If you are a professional and would like to gain a better understanding of an EHA, visit our professionals' page for Early Help.
You can download our Early Help information sheet.
Access to Supporting Families Programme
Discover more about the Supporting Families Programme.