Important changes have been made to the Early Help Assessment (EHA) registration process. With effect from January 2020 – NOW – you no longer need to register your EHA at the Early Help Hub.
What does this mean for me?
You no longer need to email the Early Help Hub via EHACoordinator@somerset.gov.uk with completed EHA’s or contact them to find out if a family has an EHA. This will simplify the process and allow you to spend more time supporting families to make changes, to ensure that their children thrive.
You have a statutory responsibility, as set out in Working Together 2018 to work with children, young people and families and your colleagues to address early help need. In Somerset the Safeguarding Children Partnership (SSCP) has agreed that the partnership approach to early help is via the EHA and the Team Around the Family (TAF) way of working.
To embed the holistic partnership approach to early help, Team around the Child (TAC) will now be called Team around the Family (TAF), to support partners in developing their practice.
Why has this decision been made?
This decision, supported by the Early Help Board, has been taken as there was evidence that the registration process did not promote effective multi-agency working. We want to encourage practitioners to talk to the family and other practitioners supporting the family. You should always ask the family if they have an EHA, they are the owner of this assessment.
What’s next?
We have received feedback from early help practitioners that they would like more support to enhance their practice. The staffing resources which were used to complete the registration process will now be deployed to support practitioners in the field, in the best ways to help families through early help.
These staff are called Early Help Coordinators and will have locality links across the county, so that they can build relationships between professional staff in each local area and support the early help way of working.
The Early Help Hub will still exist and continues to be available to provide advice and guidance to professionals from any agency about how best to meet children’s needs and how to effectively lead and take part in the early help and Team Around the Family (TAF) ways of working.
Please remember to use the Early Help advice line to support and develop your practice. There are two options when you call the advice line, you can choose to have a case discussion with an Early Help Coordinator or speak to Somerset Direct for advice about how to complete the various sections of an EHA form. For more information on the role of the Early Help Hub including their contact details please visit Professional Choices.