Supporting families

Northumberland supporting families partnership aims to help families who face multiple and complex needs through existing services and intensive family support.

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Supporting families

Northumberland Supporting Families Partnership aims to help families facing problems, by providing thorough intensive support through existing services.

The partnership is working with families who would benefit from extra support. This support is carried out through existing family services, such as Early Help or social work. The approach is about working with the whole family. It looks at:

  • the strengths of each family
  • what each family finds challenging 
  • what changes can be put in place to improve family wellbeing
Our services in Northumberland have successfully supported over 2000 families in eight years to positively change their lives. 

Early Help

In Northumberland, we take into account the role of parents, carers and environmental factors on children’s development. This means professionals and families are better placed to agree appropriate support. As a result, this page contains useful information for both parents and professionals.

Early Help support requests (previously Hub referral)

If you’re a parent or carer of a child who you feel would benefit from additional support, please ask the child’s school or other involved professional to make a referral to Early Help First Contact (previously the early intervention hub). Or make a self-referral using the Multi-agency referral form (MARF) below.

Early Help First Contact allows all requests come into a central point and the right support identified quickly.  If needed the situation can be discussed at Northumberlands Early Help Virtual Hub - a multi agency meeting. 

If you would like to refer a child to Early Help First Contact, please see the link below or for more information email earlyhelp@northumberland.gov.uk.

Early Help Support Request forms

Please complete the Early Help support request if:

  • you feel that a child or young person you are working with is in need of additional support and you are unsure how to access this support
  • a family you are working with may benefit from an Early Help Family Worker and there is not currently an Early Help Assessment for the family. 

Information leaflet

PLEASE NOTE: All forms available on this page must be submitted by secure email or through CryptShare. It is important to fully complete all forms.

Contact the team

Our Early Help Strategy to support Northumberland children and families from 2021 - 24 is available here:

Early Help Strategy 2021-24

In this section, you can view/download our assessment forms, action plans and the form to be used when agency involvement comes to an end.

Assessment forms are used to support practitioners when they’re identifying a need with a child, young person or family. Action plans are formulated so that all involved parties have an extensive overview of everything going on.

Please explore the link below for the relevant documents.

Early Help Assessment leaflet and forms

In September 2020 we relaunched a new look Early Help Assessment

Closing an Early Help Assessment

​Action Plans for TAFs

Further guidance

The Family Home Care Tool is a set of questions that looks at a family's home life. It helps the family, and those working with them, to understand what support is needed.
This is how it looks:
text saying - Nutrition, the quality of food and is it safe to eat. Housing, is the house well maintained, is there enough toys and facilities for children.

Guidance on the tool is here - Guidance

You can download it here - Family Home Care Tool

If the family agree, once completed, please send to FHCTool@Northumberland.gov.uk

These will be stored securely. You can also contact this email (again with consent) if you would like to check if a family have completed the tool in the past and you would like a copy.

If you have completed the tool and feel a referral to another agency is needed but you are unsure who can support this, you can make an Early Help Support request - here

Training enquiries

You can contact the team to enquire about training:

There is an e-Learning online Early Help Assessment programme available through the NCC Learning Pool. This can be accessed by local authority, health, school, and early years settings. 

If you require further training, please contact us using the details above. 

Early help assessment trainers in Northumberland

Please contact a member of the Early Help Team on 01670 536400 or email EHA@northumberland.gov.uk 

Northumberland information

Useful Websites

Parenting

Young People Emotional Welbeing

Additional information

Here you can find more information about Northumberland Supporting Families Partnership.

The Programme 2022-2025

A family outcome plan was created to help identify and address the needs of families facing multiple complex issues at local level, as set out in government criteria below:
  • Getting a good education
  • Good early years development
  • Improved mental and physical health 
  • Better managed substance use 
  • Improved family relationships 
  • Children safe from abuse and exploitation 
  • Families diverted from crime 
  • Safe from domestic abuse 
  • Secure housing 
  • ​Financial stability 

Supporting Families Partnership outcome plan

This plan promotes:
  • a common set of measurable outcomes for agencies and partner organisations to provide support
  • aims to reduce risk and vulnerability for families 
  • encourages service transformation towards a whole-family approach. 

Success is demonstrated through ‘significant and sustained progress’, using the outcome measures for each criteria. This means there should be less need for re-referral in the future. 

The extended criteria means support can be offered earlier. Some families may need this support to come from many services, some from just one. If these services aren’t involved, then the early help process will provide assessment and a planning framework.

To access funding from the government, the partnership has to agree to take part in a national evaluation of the programme. There are three things the local authorities must provide:
  • quarterly anonymised family progress data
  • information on delivery costs and savings
  • basic personal information on family members for the national impact study

How do I know whether my information could be shared?

Families working with the partnership and that meet two or more of the criteria could have their information shared.

Please click here to see 'How we handle your information' 

How are you using our information?

If your family is considered for support through the partnership, we may share your personal information (name, address, DOB, identification numbers if held) for research purposes only. These are used by the government to evaluate the effectiveness of the support.

How will it affect me?

It will not affect your benefits, services or treatments. Details will be provided in accordance with the law and will be anonymous once processed.

Why is my information being shared?

We share information to help us to improve future services. We use your information to find out how support can help families.

You can opt out of this arrangement by speaking to the worker supporting your family or telephone the Northumberland County Council contact centre on 0345 600 6400. 

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