4. What to do if you have concerns about a child

Undertaking an EHAP alongside a family helps record their needs, strengths, views and goals, which leads to the making of plan supported by a team around them.

The EHAP shows how workers can support families to move from worries to achieving shared goals.

The aim is to identify and build on a family's strengths to help them resolve their own difficulties through extended their networks of support that prevent further problems, so families can flourish.

EHAPS are:

• Used when a family has been identified as having needs which cannot or have not been met successfully by universal services
• Consent based

There needs to be a Lead Worker and the focus is on the family's needs, strengths and goals which forms the basis of the assessment plan. The assessment considers the wider family network and how they can offer support. The assessment is based on the following questions:

• What is working well? What are our worries?
• What make things more complicated?
• What's already working and what supports you?

Once the assessment has been completed with the family, a meeting is held with the family and professionals to discuss how to achieve the goals

Regular review meetings are held until all the goals have been met or a higher level of intervention is needed

EHAP training can be accessed though the NSCP website Early Help page for People working with children | NSCP | PWWC

It may be as a result of a referral or a professional consultation that an Early Help Assessment and Plan (EHAP) is initiated.

If the concern involves ongoing worries about a child's needs being met and the family appear to need co-ordinated support → INITIATE EHAP PROCESS with consent of parents (if there is uncertainty about whether this is the right process to follow, please contact Children's Services and ask for a professional consultation).

More information is available here:

Information for early help professionals - Norfolk County Council

Early Help Resources page for People working with children | NSCP

Early Help page for People working with children | NSCP | PWWC

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If you are working with a child with additional needs contact the Early Years Advice Line for additional support - 01603 222300 option 1.