Notts: New County Council specialist support unit has over 1,500 calls in first five months

Notts County Council set up the Early Help Unit in September to act as the first point of telephone and email contact for children, parents, carers and agencies for support around issues such as parenting, school absenteeism and emotional health and wellbeing.

Once consent has been established to discuss the individual case, the team then puts the person in touch with the most appropriate team managing an early help service such as the county council’s targeted support service, a relevant children’s centre or another agency if necessary.

Coun John Peck, committee chairman for children and young people’s services, said: “Supporting, nurturing and empowering children and families across the county is critical for us.”

“The work of the new Early Help Unit gives a good example of the sort of success we can achieve with these integrated services.”

“We are committed to supporting the most vulnerable and will target services to those who need them most.”

“Working together in an integrated way will enable us to make best use of our available resources and continue to provide quality services.”

Chris Jones, from the Early Help team, added: “The purpose of the Early Help Unit is to provide that first point of contact to help children, families and organisations when problems first start to surface, and to offer that help and support to prevent things from getting out of control.”

“The number of requests for services has been encouraging and we have been able to get the help and advice to these people to help them when problems are first identified.”