Northumberland County Council - Supporting families

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 identification form

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.

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 (previsouly 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 links below to access rrequest forms and leaflets, or email earlyhelp@northumberland.gov.uk.

Early Help Support Request forms

Click here to access the MARF
Additional Education Information form - to be used by education providers and schools, alongside the MARF.
MARF guidance can be found here
Please send support requests to earlyhelp@northumberland.gov.uk.

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

Northumberland Early Help 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

Telephone: 01670 536400
Email: EHA@northumberland.gov.uk

Early Help Assessment forms

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 for more information click here

Click here for the Early Help Assessment (EHA) form (2020 Version)

Closing an Early Help Assessment

Click here for the Early Help Assessment closure form (2020 Version)

Action Plans for TAFs

TAF Action Plan (2020 Version)

Further guidance

Contact us - training enquiries

Training enquiries
You can contact the team to enquire about training:

Telephone: 01670 536400 and ask for the Early Help Assessment Team
Email: EHA@northumberland.gov.uk

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.

Training dates
Please click here to view a copy of the training programme for 2020-2021.

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

Useful links

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

The expanded programme 2015-2020

In January 2015, supporting families was selected as an early starter for the national expanded 2015-2020 programme. Funding was confirmed for the first financial year, running as a ‘payment by results’ model.

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:

parents and children involved in crime or antisocial behaviour
children who have not been attending school regularly
children who need help (identified as in need or subject to a child protection plan)
adults out of work or at risk of financial exclusion, or young people at risk of this
families affected by domestic violence and abuse
parents and children with a range of health problems

Click here to see the Northumberland Supporting Families Partnership outcome plan.

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 or continuous employment’, 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.

Click here for information about Early Help.

Sharing information

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

Privacy notice: how we may use your information

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 the 'how we may use your information' leaflet.

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 03456 006400.