Introduction
Early help for children and families is relevant to everyone who works in services that support families, including the voluntary sector, adult mental health, community health, adult social care, housing, and leisure. It is a shared responsibility across Surrey to work together to promote the welfare, safety, and development of our children.
If the child or family is not already receiving support, the next step is to identify what type of support they require. Children’s needs vary, and different levels of support may be required at different times. Assessing a child's needs ensures they receive the right help at the right time.
In Surrey, children's needs are assessed though an Early Help Assessment and the appropriate response to their needs is determined using the Continuum of Support.
This guidance provides an overview of emerging-needs services that can be accessed directly, as well as targeted services available through the Children’s Single Point of Access (C-SPA), MindWorks, Early Support, Early Help School Advisors, the Adolescent Service, Family Centres, and the Family Information Service
Children with needs that are emerging
Children and families adjusting to life circumstances, with mild or temporary difficulties, where the best intervention is within their community network.
These children and their families may be getting advice within the MindWorks offer or through the Healthy Child Programme. We know children with these needs are best supported by those who already work with them, such as early years settings or schools, who can organise additional support with local partners as needed.
The Family Information Service (FIS) offers free, impartial information and signposting for families with children aged 0 to 19, or up to 25 for those with additional needs. The service helps families make the most of local and online support available in their community.
Contact
You can use the FIS website and directory to find the information you are looking for.
You can also contact the team directly by email: surrey.fis@surreycc.gov.uk
Each Family Centre has an emerging needs offer to meet the needs of the children and families in the area they cover. Access to these does not require a request for support (RFS).
The offer is a varied menu of groups and courses (face-to-face and online) run by the Family Centre or with partner agencies (such as schools and Home Start, local charities/ organisations) both in the Family Centres and in community settings.
Contact
Details of the services each centre offer are on the Family Centre websites,
including how to access the service directly.
Information about parenting courses and workshops is available on the Parenting Courses webpage and in the FIS directory.
Mindworks Surrey is the children and young people’s Emotional Wellbeing, Mental Health and Learning Disability services in Surrey. It is delivered by a group made up of NHS, national and local voluntary sector organisations all working together to support children and young people in the county.
Contact
Support from Mindworks professionals can be accessed without wait or a diagnosis by accessing the Mindworks website.
Mindworks Surrey also provides a 24/7 crisis line free on 0800 915 4644. It’s open all day and all night, seven days a week. The crisis line is available for children and young people from the age of six.
It can be used by those who are already receiving mental health services, and by those who are not. No formal request for support is needed.
Early Help Schools Advisors (EHSA) can offer advice and support around any emerging needs of children and families to all schools within Surrey, including primary, secondary, specialist, independent, colleges, and pupil referral units.
Each Surrey school has a designated EHSA based on where the school is located. The EHSAs can support schools by:
- Discussing the emerging needs of families
- Advise and signpost to services and resources
- Provide information to complete Early Help Assessments (EHA)
- Provide information on organisation of Team Around the Family meetings (TAF)
Please note: EHSAs do not undertake direct work with families or with schools located outside of Surrey.
Contact
When needs are emerging, schools can access advice, support, and signposting by contacting earlyhelp.schools@surreycc.gov.uk and an Early Help Schools Advisor will respond within two working days.
Children whose needs require targeted support
Children who may be vulnerable and showing early signs of abuse and/ or neglect; their needs are not clear, not known or are not being met.
These are children who require a lead practitioner for a co-ordinated approach to the provision of additional services such as family support services or parenting programmes.
Family Centres provide whole family 1-to-1 targeted support for families with children and young people that have multiple needs from pre-natal to 18 years (up to 25 years for those with additional needs).
A lead practitioner, with consent from the family, will provide/ coordinate support to all family members in various settings such as the family home, in the community, at school and at the family centre base.
Support will include:
- Completion of an Early Help Assessment and Family plan
- Working with, for example, School’s Early Year settings, Health teams, housing (or any service that supports the family) as part of six to eight weekly Team around the Family (TAF) review meetings
- Gaining and reflecting all the children’s voices, wishes and feelings throughout the support. The child’s voice will also be integral to the support plan and actions
- Where early signs of neglect areas presenting Family Centre practitioners are trained to complete a Graded Care Profiling 2 to help work with Families around this.
How to request support
Allocations to Family Centres 1-to-1 targeted support are through C-SPA
and/ or step down from social care assessment teams and Child in Need (CIN) teams.
A Request for Support form (RFS) should be completed and submitted to the C-SPA who will triage and decide on the appropriate service.
Step downs from social care assessment/CIN require consultation with the Family centre manager prior to allocation (no RFS needed).
Vision and Purpose of the Adolescent Service
- Deliver the right support at the right time for children aged 11 to 17 who are experiencing multiple and complex needs.
- Maintain family stability by providing timely support without breaking key relationships.
Core Practice Principles
- Relationships drive change – we work with children and families to define what 'safer' looks like.
- The Relational Practice is underpinned by empathy, trust, honesty, trauma-informed and restorative approaches.
- Locality model strengthens community connections and practitioner knowledge.
- Least intrusive help first, increasing support only when needed.
Who We Support
- Children aged 11 to 17 who are at risks of extra-familial harm, including Child Sexual Exploitation, Child Criminal Exploitation/ County Lines, radicalisation, serious youth violence, missing episodes.
- Adolescents at risk of entering care.
- Young people diverted from or entering the criminal justice system.
- 16 to 17-year-olds at risk of or presenting as homeless.
- Young people who require additional support due to emotional and mental health presentation, education vulnerability, neurodiversity or complex family dynamics.
How to request support
A Request for Support form (RFS) should be completed C-SPA will triage and decide in accordance with the continuum of support.
Support from the Central Hub
Where you have a concern about a young person (11 years and older) and you think that they may be being vulnerable to, or experiencing extra familial harm are being criminally or sexually exploited, going missing, involved in anti-social behaviour, drug use and violence, carrying weapons even at a low level then please email the Adolescent Central Hub on central.hub@surreycc.gov.uk.
We will then have a consultation with you about your young person and will be able to offer advice and support. This may include support to complete the extra familial harm assessment and safer plan, an Adolescent Practitioner to work alongside you or support to access other services to support your young person.
Mindworks Surrey is the children and young people’s Emotional Wellbeing, Mental Health and Learning Disability services in Surrey. It is delivered by a group made up of NHS, national and local voluntary sector organisations all working together to support children and young people in the county.
Contact
Support from Mindworks professionals can be accessed without wait or a diagnosis by accessing the Mindworks website.
Mindworks Surrey also provides a 24/7 crisis line free on 0800 915 4644. It’s open all day and all night, seven days a week. The crisis line is available
for children and young people from the age of six.
It can be used by those who are already receiving mental health services, and by those who are not. No formal request for support is needed.
This service provides support to families of children aged 0 to 5 who have disabilities or complex medical needs. Putting the child at the centre, we listen to parents and establish a team around the family to coproduce a plan of support.
This service is for:
- Families with young children with multiple and complex health, neurodiversity and additional needs aged 0 to 5 years (a diagnosis is not required). This includes babies/children with complex needs on discharge from long-term hospital stays and life limited children.
- Children who have three or more specialist health/education professionals involved (or referred to).
- Families in need of regular input to increase resilience and improve child outcomes due to significant social, financial, health and/ or community challenges.
Almost every child five and under with a complex medical need will meet the service’s criteria, however potential referrals need to be discussed with a co-ordinator before being sent through to the service. For more information, please visit Early Support Service.
How to request support
A Request for Support form (RFS) should be completed, with as much information as possible about the child's additional needs and the family's situation.
Children whose needs require intensive support
Children who are struggling to cope, this might include children and families with a range of overlapping needs that mean they may require greater input as they have multiple interconnected needs and need a coordinated targeted response.
They may require longer-term intervention from specialist services to achieve or maintain a satisfactory level of health or development or to prevent significant impairment of their health and development and/or who are disabled.
The IFSS teams work closely with a wide range of partners and colleagues in social work teams where specialist services are required. The team supports families where there are interconnecting needs across all family members; seeking to prevent impairment of children’s health and development by
supporting areas such as housing, domestic abuse, parenting, substance misuse, mental and physical health, education, and employment. IFSS work will usually involve addressing support needs of parents and the family as a whole.
The need to provide intensive support may be due to continued efforts of earlier interventions that have not effectively reduced the difficulties for the children and their family. However, staff should not automatically refer to IFSS just because there has been prior involvement with another service, but carefully consider the needs of the family and who is best placed to be their lead practitioner.
Note: It will not normally be appropriate to 'step-up' to IFSS from targeted services as this would involve changing the Early Help worker.Instead, service should work together to add the additional support needed. IFSS should
also not routinely be used as a step-down option for Family Safeguarding. The focus of this intensive support service is to prevent needs escalating, not maintaining work started from social care plans which could be achieved from other teams.
How to request support
A Request for Support form (RFS) should be completed, C-SPA will triage and decide if the family meet the service criteria, and Assessment Teams will refer direct. IFSS should be seeking to support families where intensive and multi-agency support is required but not meeting the threshold for statutory support.
Vision and Purpose of the Adolescent Service
- Deliver the right support at the right time for children aged 11 to 17 who are experiencing multiple and complex needs.
- Maintain family stability by providing timely support without breaking key relationships.
Core Practice Principles
- Relationships drive change – we work with children and families to define what 'safer' looks like.
- The Relational Practice is underpinned by empathy, trust, honesty, trauma-informed and restorative approaches.
- Locality model strengthens community connections and practitioner knowledge.
- Least intrusive help first, increasing support only when needed.
Who We Support
- Children aged 11 to 17 who are at risks of extra-familial harm, including Child Sexual Exploitation, Child Criminal Exploitation/ County Lines, radicalisation, serious youth violence, missing episodes.
- Adolescents at risk of entering care.
- Young people diverted from or entering the criminal justice system.
- 16 to 17-year-olds at risk of or presenting as homeless.
- Young people who require additional support due to emotional and mental health presentation, education vulnerability, neurodiversity or complex family dynamics.
How to request support
A Request for Support form (RFS) should be completed, C-SPA will triage and decide in accordance with the continuum of support.
Support from the Central Hub
Where you have a concern about a young person (11 years and older) and you think that they may be being vulnerable to, or experiencing extra familial harm are being criminally or sexually exploited, going missing, involved in anti-social behaviour, drug use and violence, carrying weapons even at a low level then please email the Adolescent Central Hub on central.hub@surreycc.gov.uk.
We will then have a consultation with you about your young person and will be able to offer advice and support. This may include support to complete the extra familial harm assessment and safer plan, an Adolescent Practitioner to work alongside you or support to access other services to support your young person.