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Early Help

Early Help 

The term Early Help is used to describe the process of taking action early and as soon as possible to tackle problems and issues emerging for children, young people and their families. Effective help may be needed for at any point in a child or young person’s life. 


In Peterborough we want children and young people to be happy, secure and ready to achieve the best possible outcomes in life.

We want children and young people:

  • To feel valued and important

  • To remain with their families where safe to do so

  • To do well at school and allow them to have the widest possible choices in adulthood

  • To be equipped to develop good jobs and careers

  • To be enabled to make age appropriate positive decisions about their life

  • To be emotionally healthy and form positive relationships

There will be times during a child or young person’s life when they or other members of their family need a little bit of extra help and support. The Peterborough Early Help Strategy sets out how children and families are supported through Early Help and explains how families can access Early Help Support.

A wide range of information on services is available on the Peterborough Family Information Service (FIS) and and families and professionals are advised in the first instance to use the search button to see the range of services available. For example if a member of your family is a young carer or you are supporting a family where the young carer in the family may benefit from support, tap ‘Young Carers’ into the search box at the top of this page to see the services available to help.

If your child has special educational needs and disabilities, you can find more information on the Social Care and Early Help (local Offer) 

Contact the Early Help Team: 

earlyhelp@peterborough.gov.uk

Or more information can be found on Peterborough City Councils Early Help pages 

Emotional Health and Well Being Support

Children and young people may experience a range of emotional health and well being issues including low self-esteem, low confidence, self harming, eating disorders. There is a wide range of support available from a range of partners including school nursing, emotional health and well being service, YOUnited , Kooth on-line counselling support (secondary age only), Targeted Youth Support Service (TYSS) and Centre 33 as well as the ‘Keep your Head’ website

Emotional and social development support for children and young people, parents and carers:

To assist parents in understanding and responding to their child’s behaviours, Peterborough has introduced the opportunity for parents to engage in Evidenced Based Parenting Programmes. Engagement with the programmes should enable parents/carers, children and young people to learn new skills and gain confidence in their abilities to help manage potentially challenging situations in the home environment. Peterborough has placed priority on providing Webster Stratton Incredible Years for children age 0-11 and Teen Triple P for children age 12 and over.

In the first instance, families are encouraged to speak to their school, early years setting, children’s centre or health worker to ask about how to access one of these programmes

 Families Information Service (FIS)