Early Help and LSCP Thresholds for Referral and Assessment

Early Help assessments in Sutton

The Early Help Assessment for children and young people is an assessment tool used to fulfil statutory duties towards children and young people under Working Together 2015. It is designed to help practitioners develop a shared understanding of a child or young person's needs so that they can be met quickly and effectively. It replaces the CAF form used in Sutton previously from 9 Sept 2016.

In Sutton we use the LSCP Threshold document in conjunction with the London Safeguarding Children Procedures and their associated threshold guidance

This enables us to understand changing levels of need and to identify when children and young people require referrals for statutory assessment. Early Help Assessments are usually started at Level 2 of the LSCP threshold guidance.

When to complete an Early Help Assessment

• If you are worried about a behaviour, incident or information;
• Require more information to help you plan next steps to address an issue;
• The child, young person of family needs cannot be met by a single agency;
• If a parent expresses concerns.

Further guidance is provided in the Multi-Agency Early Help Assessment Tool (EHAT) Guidance Notes

Before undertaking a new early help assessment it is important to find out if one has already been completed or started and if there is a Lead Professional, or if Social Services are involved. To do this, or for any other query, contact the childrensfirstcontactservice@sutton.gov.uk or call 0208 770 6001

A copy of the completed EHAT should always be sent to childrensfirstcontactservice@sutton.gov.uk.  Where possible documents should be emailed securely rather than posted or faxed. The signed copy should be held by the completing agency as well as a scanned copy of section K of the EHAT form. 

For any queries, please contact the Early Help Co-ordinator on 020 8770 6001.