Refer a child, your person or family to the Early Help Allocation Panel (EHAP).
If you are a professional
If you are supporting a child, young person or family that has multiple issues, needs intensive support, and you're unsure who to make a referral to, please complete our online request for service form
This is a voluntary process and so you must get signed consent from the parent or carer, or young person before you submit your request.
If you are a family member
If you are a family member and wish to refer to EHAP, please call us on 01225 39 69 31
What the EHAP do
The EHAP is chaired by the Head of Children and Families Prevention Services or their deputy, and a wide range of targeted early help services and other organisations attend the panel to ensure we make the best possible decisions.
This multi-agency panel work with a number of agencies to:
- Identify children, young people and families who would benefit from early help to allocate or recommend the most appropriate service
- Provide targeted early help services and interventions to address the assessed needs of a child, young person or family, and improve their outcomes (if a service takes a referral from EHAP they will undertake an assessment of the need and if they can meet that need)
- Bring the child, young person or family back to the EHAP for another discussion (the services present will do this) if they cannot meet the needs identified or the young person or family decides not to work with the service (all families discussed with receive a letter from the Chair explaining the decision that has been made and offer support)
The EHAP also considers a child, young person or family who doesn't meet the thresholds, but has been referred to the Children's Social Care triage team (if permission has been given by the family) to see if they would benefit from early help. Even though it might not be clear which early help service is suitable.
Next steps
Your early help request will be considered at our EHAP which meets every 2 weeks to ensure that the child or young person receives timely support from the most appropriate service.
If a safeguarding concern becomes clear whilst we are processing your request, the chair of the EHAP will pass it to the social care duty manager, or service manager, for a discussion and agreement about the best course of action. We will consider a child, young person or family who doesn't meet the thresholds, but were referred to the Children Social Care triage team (if permission has been given by the family) if they would benefit from early help, even though it might not be clear which early help service is suitable.
We will also consider a child or young person who doesn't meet the thresholds, but would benefit from early help, even though it might not be clear which early help service is suitable.
We aim to contact you within 5 working days and follow this up with a written response within 15 working days.