Meet Our Family Support Worker Donna McAteer

   You contact Donna at school

On 0116 2832328

or directly on 07378 285273

What is Early help?

Early Help’ means providing help for children, young people and families as soon as problems start to emerge or where it is likely that issues will impact negatively on children’s outcomes.

Early help…

• Is for children of all ages and not just the very young,
• Can be very effective in supporting a child, young person and/or their family to step down from statutory services as well as preventing the escalation of issues.
• Is important because there is clear evidence that it results in better outcomes for children.

LCC recognise that Early help is a term that describes much of the everyday work of schools.

Here is our Early Help Offer and how we work with families needing support.

Early Help Offer

Early Help in Leicester

The vision of all partner organisations working with children and families in Leicester is to improve children’s lives by working in partnership to raise aspirations, build achievement and protect the most vulnerable.

This is based on the belief that:

• Children, young people and families develop resilience if there are protective factors in place such as: a positive relationship with an adult; good literacy and communication skills; good school attendance; and, parents in or actively seeking/ready for work
• Children’s needs are best met when help is offered in a universal setting within a socially mixed group and early on when problems start to emerge
• Children and young people’s needs are best met when addressed in the context of the whole family, meaning that parents/carers/siblings’ needs are addressed with consent as part of a holistic and integrated Early Help response

Early help services should support and strengthen families so that they can thrive.

The Role of Schools

Day to Day Support

Most families, most of the time, can get on with their lives quite happily with little or no outside help. If they need help it is usually provided by universal services, such as schools.

Focused Pastoral Support

All families can have times, however, when difficulties arise and they either may not recognise it or may not know how to start putting things right. Schools play a role in supporting families to address these difficulties through more focused pastoral support, which might include bringing in support via an external agency.

Early Help Assessment

For those children and families whose needs and circumstances make them more vulnerable, or where schools need the support of other agencies to meet the needs of the family, a co-ordinated multi-agency approach is usually best. In Leicester this is achieved through undertaking an Early Help Assessment and assigning a Lead Practitioner to work closely with the family to ensure they receive the support they require. Schools should be a key partner in any multi-agency work to support families

What does Donna do?

Our Family Support Worker works full-time at school to support families.  This support can include:

• Help if you are worried about your child 
• Dealing with difficult behaviour
• Coping with medical issues   
• Financial advice including budgeting and with completing forms e.g. DLA
• Seeking advice and signposting to other agencies  

Donna works closely with other organisations to promote free family learning events in school.  Recent events have included Family Health and First Aid and Feed Your Family for a Fiver.

Alongside working with families, Donna works 1:1 and with small groups of children with:

• Anger management and control 
• Development of self-esteem and confidence
• Friendship issues
• Family issues: bereavement, parent’s separation/divorce.   
• Unpicking and supporting children with their worries