Social Care and Early Help (Local Offer)

Services can be provided directly by the council or purchased through Direct Payments.

However, these direct payments can only be used to provide short breaks for parents or social opportunities for the young person. The family are responsible for identifying their own person to undertake this work. 

An agreement has to be signed and the monitoring arrangements will ensure that these directly arranged services still meet the identified outcomes from the Education Health and Care plan.

Services available are:

• Universal services such as schools, health visiting, GPs
• Targeted services for children and families beginning to experience – or at risk of – difficulties, for example school counselling, parenting programmes, support for teenage parents
• Specialist services for children and families with severe and complex needs, including child protection services, inpatient child and adolescent mental health services

You may have come across the three terms Early Help, Early Years and Early Support.  So what do they mean?  What is the difference?.  Below we have tried to describe each term.

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.  You can find out more about Early Help on the Families Information Services Early Help page 

View a leaflet about Early Help. This leaflet is available in other languages on the Families Information Services Early Help page.  View the accessible text version of the leaflet.

Early years refers to children from birth to the age of five.  The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to five years old. All schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers must follow the EYFS, including childminders, preschools, nurseries and school reception classes.

Early Support

Early Support in Peterborough is a pathway for children in their pre-school years with complex health, education, or care needs.  These children will require considerable ongoing support from across education, health and care. This includes:

• children who have great difficulty communicatin
• children who have sensory or physical difficulties
• children who have complex health needs

Help with managing behaviour is one of the top topic’s parents tell us they want to have better information on, and support with. There are lots of things to try that can make a really big difference – some are quick wins, and some take longer to work.  There is no magic wand that fixes things but by trying different approaches you may make things easier for your child and for you/your family.

It starts with trying to work out what happens and when, before then working out what things make the behaviour disappear, more manageable or worse.  Some things work all the time and sometimes you’ll need to adapt as your child changes.

Talk to your child’s nursery or school – they will be able to help with advice and can access additional support from education and health services if needed.  They can help you to explore what is working and what else you might try. If you have a health visitor or paediatrician, they will be able to offer advice and support too.

Early Help is a free Peterborough City Council service that helps families who need a bit of extra support. You might be worried about your child's behaviour or development. Or you and your family might experience some changes or difficulties that you can't manage by yourself. Whatever you are worried about, Early Help can support you and your family so that small problems do not become big problems.

The professionals who know you will assess the needs of your family using an Early Help Assessment. This will help you to get you support as quickly as possible.

It is a voluntary process. You choose whether to be involved and can withdraw from the process at any time. Sometimes, children and young people can make their own decisions about whether they need an Early Help Assessment, and who they want to support them.

If you think you and your family might benefit from some support, you should ask a professional who you know. This could be your doctor, or a teacher at your child’s school. They can tell you more about Early Help.

The Early Help Assessment process will help to identify additional support and co-ordinate the support around the family. More information can be found on the Early Help pages.

Social care assessments are the process by which information about children young people and families is gathered, so that decisions can be made about what support and interventions families may need and be entitled to.

Early Help

All children, young people and their families should have had an opportunity to engage with Early Help, before a referral is made to Children's Social Care. Early Help is about ensuring that children and families receive the support they need at the right time.

Early Help can be accessed through the completion of an Early Help Assessment. These assessments are completed by a wide range of professionals, including schools, pre-school, health and voluntary organisations working with the children, young people and families who may have additional needs.

The Early Help Assessment process will help to identify additional support and co-ordinate the support around the family. More information can be found on the Early Help pages.

Within Peterborough there is a central hub for receiving referrals and making decisions about the most appropriate service to respond to the referral. 

To contact the central hub the telephone number is 01733 864180.

In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Webster Stratton (The Incredible Years) and a range of Triple P parenting programmes are available to help families better understand and manage their children's behaviours.  These programmes are free to parents and are endorsed by our paediatricians and neurodevelopmental service.

You can find out more on our Parenting Offer fact sheet.

Early Support is a national program established to improve the way that services for children with disabilities work with families and together.

The service is a pre-school age service for families with a child who has a disability. Children will have significant and profound learning, sensory impairment, physical impairment, social or communication difficulties, autism, and other disabilities and conditions that will impact on their life long development and learning.

The 0-25 service is composed of the 0-18 children’s service and the 14-25 transition service.  Criteria for access to each of these services have some differences as set out below.

0-25 service for children and young people aged 0-18

The 0-18 service will provide an assessment where the child has:-

• A presenting need which relates directly to the child’s disability
• A physical, learning and or neuro-developmental disability or condition diagnosed by a doctor or consultant that is substantial, long lasting and permanent.
• Complex needs which in order to achieve outcomes appropriate to their potential, as a result of their disability, the child or young person requires total or substantial support, not appropriate to their age, from another person which is not available within their family or wider network
• Social Care support and safeguarding needs that cannot be met from other services without a specialist assessment

The 0-25 service is informed by the SEND legislation and guidance.  Therefore, children and young people accessing the service will be in education or training. The majority will have an Education Health and Care plan. Transition planning and preparation for adulthood within the 0-25 service will begin at the age of 14.

0-25 service for children and young people aged 14-25

The 14-25 service will provide an assessment where the young person :-

• has presenting needs which are likely to have a substantial and long term adverse effect on their ability to carry normal day to day activities. As a result of the young person’s needs, the young person is unable to achieve two or more of the outcomes specified within the Care Act Eligibility Criteria (or is likely to if under the age of 18)
• has complex needs which in order to achieve outcomes appropriate to their potential, as a result of their disability or impairment the young person requires total or substantial support, not appropriate to their age, from another person which is not available within their family or wider network
• will be in education or training and most likely have a current Education and Health and Care plan
• will require a transitions plan
• has social care support and safeguarding needs that cannot be met from other services without a specialist assessment

Short Breaks provide opportunities for children and young people with disabilities to spend time away from parents and carers within quality services.  Short breaks also provide parents and carers with breaks from their caring responsibilities and facilitate quality of life by enabling families to access places and activities together.

Short breaks are defined as:

• Day time support in the child's home environment or elsewhere
• Overnight care and support in child's home environment or elsewhere
• Educational or leisure activities for disabled children outside their homes

More information can be found Short Breaks page.

The Children and Families Act 2014 gives parent carers and young carers, a right to assessment and to have their needs considered.

Further information can be found by clicking on this link that will take you to the Caring for someone in Peterborough webpage

Homes, not hospitals

Transforming care is all about improving health and care services so that more people can live in the community, with the right support, and close to home.

Transforming care will mean that fewer people will need to go into hospital for their care. This means that we can close hundreds of hospital beds across England.  To do this we are making sure that services in the community are much better.  You can find out more on our Transforming Care  page.

Many services to disabled children within the 0-25 service are managed through a Child In Need (CIN) process which is part of the Children Act 1989. This process requires visits to children every four weeks and a review meeting every six weeks. These are requirements for all children subject to CIN processes within Peterborough City Council.

Many parents of children with disabilities and complex needs have told us that they are unhappy with the increased number of visits and reviews for children subject to the Child in Need process.

In view of this we have developed a new process to manage some children's services and plans under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Person's Act 1970. The main difference means that visits to children can take place a minimum of three monthly with reviews taking place six monthly.  

Social Care Occupational Therapists 

If you are a parent or guardian of a child or young person with a physical or learning disability, then occupational therapy in the community can help you.

Occupational therapy staff can give you advice and information on activities of daily living, moving and handling issues, seating at home, housing needs and provide assistive equipment and adaptations to overcome some of the challenges you may experience.

Please download, complete and return the Children's Occupational Therapy Referral Form to the address provided on the application form for an occupational therapy assessment of your child's needs, which will be reviewed.