At Harrow Gate we firmly believe that every individual child deserves the best opportunity to fulfill their physical, emotional, intellectual and social potential.

We therefore have developed a thorough, transparent and supportive process in school for The Early Help Assessment (EHA) tool (also known as Common Assessment Framework) which is a national standardised approach that can be used across all services working with children, young people and their families to offer early intervention and support.

It is an assessment that looks at all areas of the child, assessing need early and looks at a child's strengths, needs and goals after considering all aspects of his/her life, family and environment.

The assessment is designed to be shared between professionals and used as a starting point for planning a positive way to support the child and to begin to make forward steps in meeting the child's needs. Key to the assessment process is working in partnership with families and the child or young person.

The purpose of an Early Help Assessment

The assessment process for children, young people and families will help agencies meet the obligations set by Sections 10 and 11 of the Children Act 2004 to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. The assessment will help early identification of need and promote co-ordinated service provision for children with additional needs.

This process applies to all professionals working with, or coming into contact with, all children, young people and families.

The school lead on EHAs is Susan Dobbing, the school Welfare Officer. For further information about Susan please see the Welfare Officer section under the heading 'Parents.'

The role of the Early Help Assessment Lead in school is to:

  1. Carry out the initial assessment with the family, child (where applicable) and professionals involved. This assessment is then forwarded to the EHA team.
  2. Organise the Team around the Family meetings
  3. Make relevant referrals
  4. Liaise with all agencies, including receiving support from the Local Authority EHA Team.
  5. Arrange and document regular review meeting

Please follow link for further information on forms and process  https://www.stockton.gov.uk/eha