EARLY HELP

Supporting families is central to our work at our Family Hubs. This section explores the wide range of support available, ranging from midwifery and early help family support to housing, money and benefits.

About Early Help

We take into account the role of parents, carers and other environmental factors of a child’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

Are you a parent or carer of a child who you feel would benefit from additional support?

If so, please ask the child’s school or another involved professional to make a referral to Early Help First Contact. Or make a self-referral using the Multi-Agency Referral Form (MARF) below.

Early Help First Contact allows requests to come into a central point, so that the right support is identified quickly. If needed, the situation can be discussed at Northumberland's Early Help Virtual Hub, which is a multi-agency meeting.

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

Early Help Support request forms

Click here to access the MARF (You may not have information for all the boxes, that is okay, fill in what you can).
Additional Education Information form is 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.

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.

If you would like to contact the team, please use the telephone number or email address below:

Telephone: 01670 536 400
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 links below for the relevant documents.