Early Help & Social Care

Early Help & Social Care Service

What is the Early Help Service?

The Local Authority (LA) has a duty to safeguard children, young people and adults in the London Borough of Havering. This includes children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

Early Help is aimed at early intervention in order to provide you with the support that you may need. This can be delivered by supporting you at meetings, giving you Information Advice & Support on topics you may benefit from (e.g. challenging behaviours) and supporting you before an escalation to Social Care may be needed. The Early Help Service has a team of highly-skilled Family Practitioners that may be able to support you if you need it.

What is Social Care?

Where a child, adult or any person living in the property appears to be at risk above the Early Help threshold the support will step up to Children’s / Adult Social Care. You will then be allocated a Social Worker who can provide you with more specialist support.

Families often feel anxious and at unease of the prospect of social services’ involvement because of experiences they may have heard from others, or just because they are frightened that social workers will remove their children from the family home. These fears are natural but a child will only be removed if there is very clear evidence that they are at risk of significant harm.

Social Workers are specially trained and can offer you intense support (if you need it). The aim of Social Services is to provide you with tailored support to your family's needs and help you with any concerns that you may have.

Once Social Workers have given their support, they may refer you back to the Early Help Service for additional support should you require it.

How do I make a referral?

Referrals to the Early Help Service and Social Care go directly to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) Team. This is the ‘front door service to Children & Adult Social Care.

You can contact the MASH Team on the details below:

Telephone - 01708 433222 during 9am-5pm weekdays.

Telephone - 01708 433999 during outside of office hours (weekends and hours between 5pm-8am weekdays)

To make a self referral online – click the following link: my.havering.gov.uk/Pages/OnlineForms/Multi-Agency-Referral-form.aspx#Information

Important Note: If someone is in immediate danger, you MUST contact the Police immediately on 999.