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Wakefield Local Offer

Early Intervention and Prevention Service

About

The Early Intervention and Prevention Service offer a range of support and services designed to help families in the Wakefield District at the right time. This is provided in the form of groups and interventions through the Family Hubs and Youth Hubs across the district.

The support available can be accessed for a range of reasons, for example:

  • School attendance problems
  • Behavioural problems
  • Employment and debt problems
  • Health problems
  • Wellbeing problems
  • Have a child that needs help

If you are having issues with any of the above or any other similar problems, getting support as soon as possible could be really important.

Family Hubs provide a venue and a linked network of local community venues, specialist services and partner organisations so that you can access early help, meet other local families, take part in activities, and join helpful groups.

You can find out where your nearest Family Hub is here: Family Hubs – Wakefield Families Together

Youth Hubs deliver support for young people aged 11-24 and work closely with other teams and partners to meet the needs of young people from across the Wakefield district.

You can find out where your nearest Youth Hub is here: Youth Hubs – Wakefield Families Together

There are different ways to access support from the Early Intervention and Prevention Service, these include:

  • Team Around the School (TAS)

If you have a concern about your child in relation to behaviour, school attendance, or emotional health and wellbeing, contact your school who, with your permission, can request support and a TAS meeting can take place.

At the meeting, the school TAS Lead, Family and Youth Hub Practitioner, School Nurse, Future in Mind Practitioner, and Education Improvement Teacher (Secondary Schools) or Inclusion & SEND Advisory Teacher (Primary Schools), will discuss the concerns and make a recommendation of the best package of support to offer, by which service.

This support plan would then be fed back to you, and the service who have been identified as responsible for leading on support would get in touch to agree the plan, discuss timescales, and start date.

  • Team Around the Early Years (TAEY)

If you have a concern about your child in relation to your child’s development, speech-language and communication, physical health, emotional wellbeing, and behaviour, contact your childcare provider or Health Visitor who, with your, permission, can request support and be taken to the next TAEY Meeting.

At the meeting, the childcare providers (nurseries, pre-schools, childminders), Early Years Coordinator, Area Early Years Special Educational Need Coordinator (SENCo), and Health Visitor will discuss the concerns and make a recommendation on the best package of support to offer, by which service.

This support plan would then be fed back to you, and the service who has been identified as responsible for leading on support would get in touch to agree on the plan, discuss timescales, and start date.

Find out more about the Team around the School and Team Around the Early Years here: The ‘Team Around’ approach – Wakefield Families Together

  • A referral from a professional

If you or your family are working with another professional who thinks you would benefit from working with the Family or Youth Hubs then, with your consent, the professional can complete an Early Help Nomination Form. Once the Family or Youth Hub receive this nomination, they will contact you to discuss your needs and what support is available.

  • A family referring to themselves

You can phone, email, or walk into one of our Family or Youth Hubs and our staff will be available to discuss your needs and what support is available. Details of your local Family and Youth Hubs can be found here:

Family Hubs – Wakefield Families Together

Youth Hubs – Wakefield Families Together

The Early Intervention and Prevention Service works with many services across the district, whether that be other Council teams, partner agencies, and Voluntary Community Sector organisations, for example:

  • Community Anchors
  • Health Improvement Team
  • Spectrum Health
  • Turning Point Talking Therapies
  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)
  • Wakefield and District Housing (WDH)
Next Targeted Early Help Service
Last updated: 05/12/2022