Focus on Early Help for families as service relaunched in Shropshire
More families than ever before are being supported by Early Help in Shropshire, as the service relaunches following significant transformation.
Teams from children’s services and public health hosted the Early Help launch event
At a launch event on Tuesday 16 July, Early Help professionals from Shropshire Council and partners across health, education and the voluntary and community sector came together to celebrate the new strategy, which aims to give children, parents and carers the right help at the right time.
Early Help services aim to provide families with the most suitable type of support for their needs at the earliest possible stage, to stop issues from escalating into more serious problems.
Support can involve advice on parenting, behaviour, absences from school, drug and alcohol misuse and much more.
Working with families to resolve concerns right at the beginning helps them to become independent and resilient, avoiding crisis and more disruptive intervention that can also be costly for the council.
The increase is the result of significant investment in the service, as part of Shropshire Council’s wider ambition to deliver The Shropshire Plan, with healthy people at the heart of its aims.
As part of the Early Help transformation, the team have:
- Engaged with families and young people in Shropshire to find out what they need from an Early Help service and create a new Early Help Strategy
- Created an ‘Early Help Front Door’, a single point of contact for anybody to access the service or make referrals easily and quickly
- Improved accessibility for families with special educational needs and disabilities
- Made improvements to the assessment process for Early Help, reducing the time it takes for support to be put into place
- Developed an ‘integrated teams’ approach so professionals who work with families in different organisations can work together regularly and consistently, to find the best outcome for a family more quickly
- Increased the number of families receiving targeted support
- Revamped the Early Help webpages to ensure they accessible for both families and professionals.
Next steps in the project include making Early Help even more accessible in community and family hubs all over the county, along with partners in health and the voluntary and community sector. Events will be held over the summer holidays to promote the hubs to families and local residents.
Feedback from families who have benefitted from the service includes:
“I now have places I can go for help so I can get the support and advice needed for both of my children, who have special needs. To have this support has been so valuable and has given me the inner strength to be able to think clearly and act independently again.”
Kirstie Hurst Knight, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for children and families said:-
“Early Help is at the forefront of our transformation ambition, and the service is now in a strong position to help the families of Shropshire thrive, now and in the future.
“Our community partners and local voluntary organisations have played an important role, and will continue to be a vital link between the service and our unique communities.
“Thank you to everybody who took part in surveys, focus groups and engagement sessions. The insight of our local families was key to the successful Early Help transformation and will continue to inform our plans to develop, commission and deliver the right services and support that meet the needs of children, young people and families in the right place, at the right time.
“We look forward to the next steps of the project, making Early Help even more accessible as part of our family and community hubs offer this summer.”
Find out about Early Help in Shropshire What is the early help offer? | Shropshire Council
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