At some point, your child or family may need extra support from one or more services.
To find out what level of support your family needs, and which services can provide it, professionals such as your GP, health visitor, childminder, or family support worker, will need to carry out an early help assessment. The assessment focusses on your child, your needs, and on other things that may be impacting your family life, such as housing or financial difficulties.
The assessment is used across all services who work with children, young people and their families. It involves professionals meeting with you and your child so that you can tell them what's working, what's not, the support you need and how they can help you. They record the information you give them in the assessment form so that they can work out the kind and level of support that they can give you. They'll draw up an action plan, which sets out this support, so you know what you can expect from the services who will offer support.
If lots of agencies are involved, there may be a number of professionals working with you from different agencies. These will come together to make decisions. They're known as the team around the family (TAF). They'll choose a lead practitioner who'll be responsible for talking with you on behalf of the group.