Family Support and Early Help

If you need to speak to Mrs Taylor:

• You can phone the school office (01772 700052) to speak her or leave a message and she will call you back.
• You can also message her via Dojo or email l.taylor@smgprimary.co.uk
• She is also on the gate at the beginning and end of the school day. If you need to speak to her privately away from the other parents and children, please let her know.

If someone working with your child in school feels that you may benefit from some extra support, our Family Support Worker will speak to you discreetly to find out if we can be of any help. Support will only be given if that is what is needed and you want it.

Things we can help with:

• Supporting a child with health problems.
• Help with attendance and/or punctuality of a child in school.
• Concerns about the behaviour of a child at school or home which maybe impacting on family life.
• Family breakdown, separation, illness, domestic violence etc.
• Loss and bereavement.
• Finding a nursery/child care.
• Benefits advice.
• Access to specialist organisations and support groups.
• Accessing health services.
• Seeing health visitor or school nurse.
• Supporting new families to settle into the school community.

Please Note - The School’s Family Support Worker will also refer children who are at risk of harm directly to Child Protection/Local Children's Safeguarding Board as per School’s Child Protection Policy. Mrs Taylor is a Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL) along with Mrs Rich the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and Mrs Milne also a DDSL.

How Support Can Be Offered

Our Family Support Worker will find out what you need by talking with you in a private space in school or over the phone, however you feel most comfortable. We can help you with any concerns you may have about your child’s education and wellbeing, and we are also here to talk to if you need support yourself. Mrs Taylor also works closely with the SENDCo Mrs Drummond to support children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)

Support For Families Includes: 

• Emotional support for children – 1:1 sessions in school with Mrs Taylor or Mrs Hopes (our Learning Mentor) which could be a single session or a series of planned sessions. This is where school or parent/carer have identified a need. Parent/Carer Consent is always gained before these take place.
• Providing information, signposting or referring to outside agencies, for example, Child and Family Wellbeing Service, Children’s Social Care, CAMHS, specialist support services (such as the bereavement, community safety team and victim of crime supports), as well as therapeutic service such as Child Action North West (CANW), Key Unlocking Futures, GHIST, Cancer help, Paediatric Learning Disability Team, Speech and Language Therapists etc.
• Support during appointments and in meetings.
• Help to complete paperwork and forms e.g. housing, school letters, grant applications and benefits.
• Advice and support to promote good attendance and punctuality.
• Guidance with access to training and parent workshops in school e.g. Cre8abilty, Resilient Minds.
• Emotional support for parents.
• Lead on Early Help Assessments (EHA) and Team Around the Family(TAF) meetings.
• Support for transitioning pupils.
• Give parents access to Disability events and training events.

If you agree to receive support, we may need to provide a plan which will be drawn up together. This will describe the support that is needed and who will provide this. If there is more than one agency needed to provide support an Early Help Assessment(EHA) may be completed with your consent. This form helps us collect useful information and will make sure that you do not have to keep repeating information over and over to different agencies.
A meeting (called a Team Around the Family –TAF) would be arranged where everyone can decide on an action plan so everyone is clear what they have to do.

Throughout this process the Family Support Worker will aim to:

• Involve you and your children in all the decisions that affect your family.
• Ask your views whist you are receiving support to make sure it is what you want.
• Tell you what information is to be gathered and get your agreement about what is shared. (Please note that sometimes information may need to be shared without your consent if someone is at risk of harm or to help stop a crime).

What is Early Help?

Early Help means providing help for children, young people and families as soon as problems start to emerge or where it is likely that issues will impact negatively on children’s outcomes.