Early Help and Intervention
Supporting Pupils and Families at the Earliest Stage
At Healey Learning Centre, we believe that providing support early is essential to safeguarding and promoting pupil wellbeing.
Early help means identifying emerging needs and providing support before concerns escalate or become more serious. By responding early, we can help pupils overcome difficulties, strengthen resilience and ensure they receive the right support at the right time.
Early help is a key part of our whole-school safeguarding approach across all learning centres.
What Is Early Help?
Early help refers to support provided when a child or family begins to experience difficulties that may affect wellbeing, development, behaviour or learning.
These needs may not meet the threshold for statutory safeguarding intervention, but they still require timely and coordinated support.
Early help may be appropriate when a pupil needs:
additional emotional or pastoral support
help with behaviour or regulation
support with attendance or engagement
family support or guidance
access to specialist services
coordinated support from multiple professionals
The aim is always to prevent problems from escalating and to support positive outcomes.
Identifying When Early Help Is Needed
All staff are trained to recognise signs that a pupil or family may need additional support.
This may include changes in behaviour, emotional wellbeing, attendance, engagement with learning or family circumstances.
When concerns are identified, staff share information with the safeguarding team, who consider what level of support is most appropriate.
Support may include:
✔ internal pastoral support
✔ targeted intervention within school
✔ early help involvement
✔ multi-agency support
✔ referral to statutory services if required
The welfare of the child is always central to decision-making.
Working With Pupils and Families
Early help is most effective when schools and families work together.
We work in partnership with parents and carers to:
understand needs and concerns
agree support strategies
coordinate help from relevant services
review progress and outcomes
Where appropriate, families are fully involved in planning and reviewing support.
Multi-Agency Early Help Support
Some pupils benefit from support provided by professionals outside school.
Where needed, Healey Learning Centre works with external services to provide coordinated early help support. This may include:
early help teams
local authority services
health professionals
family support services
therapeutic support providers
other specialist professionals
Working together ensures that support is joined-up, consistent and responsive.
Early Help Across All Learning Centres
Early help arrangements operate within one unified safeguarding framework across all Healey Learning Centre locations.
Procedures, decision-making and support pathways are consistent across learning centres, ensuring every pupil receives the same standard of care and support regardless of where they are educated.
When Concerns Escalate
Early help is part of a wider safeguarding system.
If concerns increase or risk becomes more significant, the school will take further safeguarding action, which may include referral to children’s social care or other statutory services.
Safeguarding decisions are made by trained safeguarding leaders in line with established procedures.
Our Commitment
We are committed to identifying need early, supporting pupils and families effectively, and ensuring every child receives the help they need to stay safe and thrive.
Early support can make a lasting difference — and we act promptly whenever help is needed.
Further Information
If you would like to speak to the school about early help support, please contact the safeguarding team.
For full safeguarding procedures, please see:
👉 Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy
👉 Reporting a Safeguarding Concern