Early Help

[Orangelaptop]

Can anyone tell me what early help do please? I'm having my child assessed for autism and I received a letter saying to try all of these organisations. When I showed the school, they said to refer to early help as they would diagnose him quicker.

The problem is that I've googled early help and it's all safeguarding and social services so now I'm worried.

What exactly do they do and are they any help please? I don't know wether to refer or not now.

Yes he has all these traits but we manage it. I'm worried they think I'm a bad parent even though I know I'm not as I have other children that are doing so well.

I'm just a bit worried.

Early help can support families of DC with additional needs, including navigating the diagnostic process(es). It isn’t all about safeguarding.

In my experience, a coordinator visits you at home to ask about your child, what issues you have, what things they do or don’t like, milestones etc. Then they look at what services they can put in place to support a diagnosis. They basically coordinate all services and oversee the process of help and diagnosis.

Ring up and verify whether they can help expedite this first. They can't in my LA area.

Is it safeguarding Early help or SEN early help? If you want an EHCP opening an early help is the first step of the process.

I can’t speak for other LA’s but for us early help just meant a joined up approach to supporting our ds, social services were not involved. I think there may have been the option to request them, likewise with the EHCP, but it wasn’t a requirement.

For us 6 years ago and for a relative recently, it led to a very fast assessment and diagnosis - within 3 months.

Not in my LA it isn't!

Early help here provides generic support wth parenting for families with needs that are relatively straightforward and cannot refer to, or accelerate assessment bym the neurodisability service of CAMHS. That is GP led.

Every LA has to provide an Early Help offer providing less intensive and less skilled support than the full social work offer through children's services. But what this consists of, and how it interacts with health services, varies in each LA - hence the suggestion you ring up and check

@greyflannel
Might well be in the OPs LA.
What is the process for starting the EHCP process in your LA?

See below

Referral from GP or undertaken by CAMHS if already in their service and meets assessment criteria (referral to CAMHS also exlusively by GP). Not from Children's Services, not from Education, not from elsewhere in Clinical Commissioning Group.

Any LA insisting on an Early Help referral as the first step to request an EHCNA is acting unlawfully.

Even in LAs where EH cannot expedite diagnostic referrals they can support parents with the diagnostic process.

No - I think technically they have a role here to offer support to families during the wait for assessment to take place, but in practice, if DC's needs are complex, they will admit their one size fits all wellbeing or behavioural interventions are likely to be inappropriate and will require individualised specialist support.

They can still provide support though. Even if that support is referring more complex cases on to the CwD children’s services team or for very complex cases whoever deals with continuing care in the area, or by prompting an EHCNA request if one is required, DFG if necessary, supporting a DLA application and so on. EH shouldn’t be one size fits all support anyway, and any service who only sees their support as only providing direct support and intervention themselves is not understanding their role correctly.