Padgate Academy understand the importance of helping children and families early.
We will endeavour to support you to the best of our ability so that things do not escalate to statutory services and your child’s education is not affected.
A Think Family Assessment (TFA) is important around early help, but school can offer a myriad of other support and signposting for our pupils and their families, so please do not be afraid to ask us for any support you may require.
What is Early Help?
Every family has its ups and downs. Being a parent/carer is hard work and there are no instructions. Sometimes, you or your children may need extra support. This may be before your children are born, when they are very young, or throughout their school years. There is nothing to be ashamed of in asking for help.
Early Help helps you recognise what’s going well for you, where you may benefit from extra help, and who is the best person to work with you and your family to make this happen. This may be through a Think Family Assessment.
Think Family Assessment
When you decide that you would like some support, you will be invited into school to chat with an Early Help Lead about what’s going well and what’s not going well for you and your family. They will listen to your concerns and let you know what sort of help is available, including initiating a Think Family Assessment.
The Think Family Assessment is how we get a full picture about the whole family. We use it to help you see what is working well, and identify the areas you could do with a bit of extra support.
It is your choice to take part in the assessment, and you can choose who else should be involved. A good assessment is done with you not to you.
Every person and family are different, but a Think Family Assessment will:
- Help you see what’s going well and not so well for your family
- Help you and others to see what support you might need
- Create a picture of your family’s circumstances, which can be shared (with your permission), so you don’t have to repeat yourself to different workers
- Help you to be part of a team of people working together on the same plan to get things going well again.
What happens after the TFA?
With your consent, people from different organisations working with your family will share information and work together to help support you and your children.
This could be school, health visitors, mentors, school nurses, etc. This may then be followed by a ‘Team Around the Family’ (TAF) meeting.
Why do I need to give my consent?
Your personal information belongs to you. Agencies can’t share your information unless you agree, because your information is protected by law under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
What is a ‘Team Around the Family’ meeting?
The family and workers involved come together to make a support plan. This is reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that progress is being made for your family and that the right support is in place.
The meeting can be held in school, and will be led by a professional such as the school’s Early Help lead, or a family support worker from the Early Help team.
Your lead professional will arrange the review meetings and be someone you can speak to at any point about any concerns or issues you and your family are experiencing.
Would you like to talk to someone?
If you would like to talk to someone in school, you can contact:
- Ms S Lawson (Early Help Lead)
- Ms S McKittrick (Early Help Lead)
- Any member of the pastoral/safeguarding team.
How can I find more information about help and support available?
- https://www.warrington.gov.uk/early-help is an online directory where you’ll find information about the services and support in your local area.
You can also contact the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) team:
Tel: 01925 443322 - Email: earlyhelpfrontdoor@warrington.gov.uk
