Across Staffordshire, we aspire to ensure that more children, families and communities can feel happy, be safe and enjoy their life.

As part of Staffordshire’s investment in partnership working and multiagency collaboration, the Family Strategic Partnership was formed to create a platform for partners in Staffordshire to work closely together to a set of shared priorities.

This Newsletter aims to highlight the partnership work that we do across Staffordshire and the new way that we are working together to improve the lives of families and communities in Staffordshire.

In Staffordshire, we know that early intervention and prevention work are better than trying to cure complex family problems that have developed over time.

Across Staffordshire we have trained over 200 members of our partnership workforce including, police officers, firefighters, teachers, school nurses, doctors, teachers and volunteers (to name only a few) how to spot signs of concern in children and families and how they can offer support at the earliest opportunity to stop problems getting worse.

If you work with children and families, there are probably a number of ways that you can help them either by informal Earliest Help, or through more formal Early Help.

Help us to understand how many people across Staffordshire understand the principles of 'Earliest Help and Early Help' by taking our quick survey.

Take The Survey

The below videos demonstrate a number of ways that we can help vulnerable people within our community. These videos all show examples of community based Earliest Help. If any of the people within these scenarios needed more formal support they could be referred for Early Help from the local authorities First Response team.

If you spot a child with multiple needs, you can make a referral for formal Early Help.

The new Early Help model that supports children and families in Staffordshire has recently been improved and has successfully rolled out across the whole of the county.

All referrals for formal Early Help will need to be made by calling 0800 1313126 or by completing a new web based enquiry form where you will also be able to access the Early help Assessment documents and other supporting information.

Make an Online Referral

We want to make it as easy as possible for professionals to understand and be confident in playing your role in providing Early Help to children and Families in Staffordshire. 

The Staffordshire Safeguarding Children's Board offer free training to partners that work with children and families. The training has been a huge success so far, and we have a lot more partner organisations signing up to the Early Help training.

Sign-up to the Early Help Training online now.

 Early Help Training -Sign Up