Early Help and targeted support

A Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting is an opportunity for you, your child or young person, and the professionals supporting you to come together and plan how best to meet your family’s needs. This meeting usually takes place after an Early Help Assessment (EHA) has identified that extra support may be helpful. The aim of the TAF is to:

• Make sure everyone involved understands your family’s needs
• Work together to agree the right support and services
• Create a clear plan to help improve outcomes for your child and family

The meeting will be organised and chaired by your Lead Professional, with the first meeting usually being held within 4-6 weeks of the EHA being completed and every 6-8 weeks there after (or sooner if required) to review progress and adjust the plan if things change.

Where possible, TAF meetings should always be arranged at a time and place that works for you, so parents/carers can attend and share your views. Your voice is important, and professionals should work to make sure you are fully involved.

After each meeting, written record should be created, including an action plan setting out clear next steps. A copy should be shared with you and everyone involved in supporting your family.

As part of the Early Help process, you will have a Lead Professional (LP). In most cases, this will be a professional likely already working with you. They might be the person who you completed the Early Help Assessment (EHA) with, the person you have the best relationship with or the person who plays the biggest part in your support plan.

You and your child or young person will be involved in deciding who your LP is, and this will usually be agreed at your first Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting.

Whoever is identified as your LP plays an important role in supporting your family, being your main point of contact. They are the person to go to with any questions or concerns, will coordinate your TAF plan, lead your TAF meetings, and ensure everyone involved is working together effectively and collaboratively with you.

Sometimes, as your family’s needs change, the LP may also change. For example, this might happen if your child moves school or if a different professional becomes more involved in supporting your family.

This is the plan agreed as part of your Team Around the Family (TAF) meeting and should be agreed collaboratively with you and the professionals working with you.

Your plan should be family-led, meaning you, your child or young person, and your family are at the centre of the process. Your views and your child’s views are important and will be included in shaping the plan. Together with the professionals supporting you, you identify what changes you would like to make and why this is needed, steps needed to achieve those changes and who might support you to make them happen.

Working in this way helps make goals more achievable and meaningful for your family. To support this, professionals use an Early Help Plan (often referred to as the TAF Plan). This helps to make sure that goals and actions set are clear, realistic, achievable and focused on positive progress. The action plan helps everyone work together, stay on track, and see the progress being made over time.

Targeted Support

There may be times you and your family may benefit from a period of targeted support. This is a short period of 1:1 intervention from a worker on top of support already in place to address more complex challenges.

Where this is the case, your Lead Professional should discuss submitting a referral to the Local Authority to request Targeted Support. This will be a short, tailored package of help delivered by a Family Worker or Young People’s Worker.

This support aims to work with you and your family to make meaningful, positive changes in everyday life. Some examples of what this support might offer includes:

• Help to build routines and boundaries at home
• Provide and help implement strategies for managing challenging behaviour of your child
• Support and advice with budgeting and managing your household
• Help to build your family and professional network
• Direct work with your teenager to build confidence, resilience, understanding of healthy relationships, exploitation and safety in the community

Multi-Agency Support Group (MASG)

For some requests for targeted support, your family's circumstances may need to be discussed at the Multi-Agency Support Group (MASG) Panel.

The MASG Panel brings together professionals from a range of services across Peterborough to consider how best to support families with more complex needs. By working together, the panel can identify the most appropriate support and help coordinate a package of services tailored to your family's circumstances.

Representation includes Peterborough Targeted Support, Family Hubs, Early Years, Healthy Child Programme, Social Landlords, Children’s Social Care, Police and Substance Misuse Services.