early help

[strawberryvolvic]

My children's school asked if they could refer me to early help. I agreed at the time as I felt kind of like I had no choice. I have since changed my mind, I know it's completely voluntary so how do I back out now? I don't want to tell the school I have changed my mind as I think they will just convince me to go along with it as they can be quite pushy, if early help contact can I just tell them I dont want to proceed?

What led up to them suggesting you see Early Help?

Yes, you can decline the support. If the schools concerns are at a high enough level they may decide to refer to social services if you decline. They would have to then decide whether concerns were high enough for them to intervene. I assume not if they are suggesting early help rather than SS to start with.

It is worth talking to the early help team about whatever the 'issues' are. It might be worth giving the support a try. You can always change your mind.

@strawberryvolvic could you give some more details? What kind of early help were they recommending?

How are you doing generally? X

I ah e had early help (attendance issues) found it a mixed back between nice to have another person there when dealing with the school and useless! They only start involved for 3-6 months anyway

I had early help when my teen wasn't attending school and was violent at home. I'd been asking for help for her for a decade.
It was a horrible process but in the end they realised I'd been doing everything I could. They got me to apply for DLA for my child (which I got) and put in process an autism assessment, still on that waiting list 3yrs on but you can't have everything.

thanks for the comments, i'm certain i don't want them involved so just need to know how best to decline, if i decline through early help will the school be informed?

Early help have a lot of involvement (at least they did with me) with the school - indeed mine had more than me there so yes they will be

I did say no the first time and he did manage 2 terms after that but they did get involved the next

Just an update to this, I got a letter from social services (MASH) saying my child had been referred and that I need to contact Ss safeguarding mash services as soon as possible! I called them because I was confused where that had come from and it turns out apparently all referrals to early help go through to safeguarding social services in my area?! I was assured that this was not social services when I agreed to the referral. Can I still decline now? I’m really annoyed this has gone down as safeguarding. Is this standard procedure?

Standard procedure.

It's the screening process. They'll ask you some questions, find out what/if you need anything. If you want early help they then arrange appointment for someone to ring or see you from early help. And yes you can still decline.
MASH is just first point of contact.

Thank you. The woman was away on annual leave so I didn’t speak to her and the other person couldn’t tell me anything other than what the reason for the referral was.

But I know it seems scary because of what it's called

When I got a letter from MASH (different reasons) it says the address it's come from is based in the police headquarters. So yes I know it feels and you look and you get scared.

But it's not scary

Yeah I was surprised as always been told early help isn’t social services (though I doubted that anyway if I’m honest)

They're all linked in a way I think?

If you have early help it's not a social worker though

I ultimately declined early help. But they still might be able to signpost you to some groups or things that might be able to help you.
You have someone come round to the house anyway at first meeting to discuss what it is and you can decline at the meeting even if you get that far.

I don't know though sometimes I wonder if it might have been good to accept it

Who knows

If you are actively being offered help for a reason without having to chase and beg for it, then take it.

The bar is extremely high. If they're offering it then it's very likely that it would benefit your children.

They said all referrals go to that so no it isn’t all referrals in my area

It isn't safeguarding.
MASH take all referrals and then filter to different levels. Just think of it as a central referral hub.
So yes they might deal with high level child protection or low level early help and will filter each case to the right stream.
Depending on how the directorate works some early help hubs come under education and some under social services. However you won't have social work leading this it will be the tier below.

It is I have spoken to them and the social worker is on annual leave.

No...it is not a social services referral. It is a referral to MASH that will be triaged out to the right area...be it early help, sw assessment or safeguarding.

Social Workers make this decision. It sounds like it has been allocated to someone in the team to follow up but they're now on leave. A decision won't be outcomed until they speak to you.

Trust me, I used to work in a MASH team.

But that’s unfair I wouldn’t have agreed if someone could decide it was a sw assessment!

The school referred for early help so unless, having looked at the referral and spoken to you they feel sw involvement is needed it will be outcomed at early help level.
Some LAs call the teams SPOC or single point of contact which is maybe clearer than MASH.
NB..You can still refuse a social work assessment if it was offered.

You can’t refuse a social services assessment

People are actually trying to reassure you but I think you're getting the wrong end of the stick or misunderstanding what they're saying

I’m saying I don’t want Ss involved and should have been told it’s part of Ss rather than them telling me it’s nothing to do with them.

Ok