Tenacres First School
Tenacres First School

Supporting Families

At Tenacres First School we recognise the challenges that families face in bringing up children. There may be times when you need extra help and support. If this is the case, please come and talk to us. There are many ways our school can help and support you and your family as outlined in this offer of early help.

We can help to plan specific support for families by following the Early Help Pathway, meaning we can carry out a whole family early help assessment where extra support is identified. We will work with you as a family to work together to set and achieve positive outcomes in a family plan.

Providing early help to our pupils and families at Tenacres First School means we are more effective in promoting support as soon as we can. Early help in schools means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to teenage years and beyond.

In Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 it makes it clear that ALL staff should be aware of their local early help process and understand their role in it.

In addition, this statutory document makes it clear that any child may benefit from early help, but all school and college staff should be particularly alert to the potential need for early help for a child who:

  • is disabled and has specific additional needs;
  • has special educational needs (whether or not they have a statutory education, health care plan);
  • is a young carer;
  • is showing signs of being drawn in to anti-social or criminal behaviour, including gang involvement and association with organised crime groups;
  • is frequently missing/goes missing from care or from home;
  • is misusing drugs or alcohol themselves;
  • is at risk of modern slavery, trafficking or exploitation;
  • is in a family circumstance present challenges for the child; such as substance abuse, adult mental health problems or domestic abuse;
  • has returned home to their family from care;
  • is showing early signs of abuse and/or neglect;
  • is at risk of being radicalised or exploited;
  • is a privately fostered child.

Everyone may need help at some time in their lives and therefore an ethos of early help is important for any school or PRU.

The coordinated Miss Marshall offer of Early Help is outlined in the table below. We believe that early interventions for children and families, in many cases, will prevent needs from escalating into statutory services.

All staff must be aware of the offer of early help. At all times, staff should consider if there is any offer of early help that we can make in order to help a child thrive through using the Early Help Pathway.

We also liaise with other agencies and people within the local community. In the table below are some National organisations that can support children, young people and their families.

Early Help Diagram

See our Safeguarding page for the names and contacts of our key safeguarding personnel (DSL, DDSLs, etc) at Tenacres.

Additional Provision

At Tenacres we can support through various professionals including:

  • School employed Family Support Worker
  • Attendance (EWO)
  • Pastoral Support
  • Staff dedicated Mental Health First Aiders x 3
  • SENCO
  • Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
  • Deputy Designated Safeguarding Officers x 2
  • Staff have been training in aspects such as Attachment and Trauma, Mental Health and Well-Being
  • Mental Health Week built in to the curriculum
  • Starlight Room/Nurture and a range of interventions
  • Outside agencies such as Educational Psychologist, Chadsgrove, SALT and School nursing team.

Worcestershire Community Services

By accessing this, parents can be signposted to community support in their own community so that support is sustainable and bespoke for the families in your school’s community.

Starting Well

The Starting Well service has a parenting and community team that can offer on line and telephone support for parents, as well as parenting courses.

The parenting team can offer 1-1 parenting advice over the phone as well as virtual parenting groups around issues such as support with children’s behaviour, anxiety, eating and sleeping routines etc, and can also signpost to agencies that can support parents in their own community. In addition to this the parenting team can also supports parenting to complete Sollihull on line, as well as Birth and Beyond for expectant parents.

The school nursing service can remain in contact with primary, middle and high schools via phone and email. They are providing a Chat health texting service for young people and can also provide consultations via WebEx. The School Nurse team can also off a call or WebEx monthly session for all vulnerable families.

If you would prefer to talk with a Health Professional, please call the Starting Well Partnership: One Simple Number on 01905 520032 (choose Option 2 for Redditch and then Option 5 for the School Nurse team).