Our Early Help Service provides a range of assistance for families with children aged 0 to 18 years old (up to 25 if the young person has a disability or additional needs).
There are a number of teams and services involved, including our:
Holiday opening hours and service changes
View our opening hours and service changes for the Early May Bank Holiday, on Monday, 4 May 2026.
Early help service
What is the Early Help Service
Family wellbeing centres
Family wellbeing centres offer free local support for children, young people and families in Brent. They bring together health, early years, parenting and wellbeing services to help families stay well and get support early.
The centres offer universal support for all families, as well as targeted help for those who may need extra support. This includes advice, activities and services that support:
- children’s development and wellbeing
- parents’ physical and mental health
- family relationships and early help needs.
Families can access support such as:
- health and wellbeing services
- early years and parenting support
- activities for children and young people
- help with family and life challenges
There are Family Wellbeing Centres located across the borough, making it easier for families to get support close to where they live.
Early years services
Early years services gives advice to families on early education, including funded childcare for 0-4 year olds and out of school childcare for older children. They also provide support to early years childcare providers to sustain high quality provision.
Parenting team
The Parenting team coordinate a programme of accredited and short course parenting training and one to one parenting support through the Parents As First Teachers approach.
Targeted Prevention Hub
The Targeted Prevention Hub provides professionals working with children and young people aged 10–18 with rapid access to specialist advice, guidance, and support services. It is not a case-holding service; rather, it functions as a multi-disciplinary hub that works alongside lead professionals to deliver coordinated, targeted interventions.
The service is designed to reduce risk, build resilience, and prevent escalation into statutory or youth justice services.
Youth Justice Service (YJS)
YJS is comprised of representatives from the local authority, police, National Probation Service, CAMHS, and local service providers. In addition to supporting young people who have offended, YJS work with young people to successfully complete court and police ordered youth justice disposals, and offer non-statutory early interventions, groupwork and preventative work.
The principal aims of the YJS are to:
- reduce the likelihood of young people offending or re-offending
- protect children and young people
- protect members of the public
- ensure that sentences are served.
The YJS also focuses on achieving three Youth Justice Outcomes:
- reduction in youth re-offending
- reduction in the numbers of first-time entrants to the justice system
- reduction in the use of youth custody.
Youth Services
The refreshed Brent Youth Strategy 2025 – 2028 was co-designed with young people from Brent.
The Brent Youth Strategy Delivery Group supports delivery of the Youth Strategy Action Plan priorities: Being Heard and Taking Part, Reaching Goals and Enjoying Yourself, Feeling Good, and Staying Safe.
The Delivery Group includes young people from Brent Youth Parliament and Brent’s Best Start Family Hubs, who meet with council and voluntary and community sector (VCS) partners to help shape delivery, share a youth perspective, and feed back to other young people.
Early Help Assessment (EHA)
We want all children and young people to have the best start in life and receive the ongoing support they and their families need to fulfil their potential.
An Early Help Assessment (EHA) allows professionals, such as GPs, teachers and support worker to refer families to children and young people’s (CYP) services when support and help is needed.
This assessment helps us to get families the right help, at the right time, as quickly as possible and allows us to:
- deal with any concerns at an early stage and prevent them from getting more serious.
- listen to children, young people and their families to identify their strengths and needs at an early stage
- bring together all of the information about families on the same form so that they do not have to repeat the same story to different professionals.
- assess the family's needs in a holistic way and help them to set goals
- work in partnership with the family and partner agencies to deliver co-ordinated services
- review and monitor the family’s progress towards achieving their goals
The EHA process is voluntary and consent is required from parents or carers for relevant information to be shared between agencies.
If you are a parent or a carer, and are concerned about your child, do not complete an EHA. Instead speak to your GP or our Early Help teams who can help and advise you.
Complete an Early Help Assessment
An EHA should always be completed by a professional and used when:
- a professional is worried about how well a child or young person is progressing. For example, there may be concerns about their health, development, welfare, behaviour, progress in learning, or another aspect of their wellbeing
- a child, a young person, or their parent or carer raises a concern
- a child or young person's needs are unclear, or are broader than the professional's service can address.
A guide is available to help practitioners and volunteers referring a child/and or family for support.
The EHA must be completed in real time, you will not be able to save or complete it at a later stage.
If you experience any difficulties with the online EHA form, email: family.frontdoor@brent.gov.uk
Training and support
For information on when and how to refer a child and/or families, read the Brent Thresholds Guidance.
A rolling programme of multi-agency, free training to support professionals with completing the Early Help Assessment is also available. Alternatively, bespoke training can be delivered if there are five or more professionals who require it.
For further information about training, please contact Safoora Ahmed, EHA Development Officer on 0208 937 4799 or email: safoora.ahmed@brent.gov.uk.
What happens next
After you have submitted your EHA, you will be contacted by a member of the team within five working days.
Once you have had an assessment and we know what you need, our team will plan a package of support to help you and your family. We will agree how long we will work with you. Sometimes this may involve other organisations, for example, a mentor for your child or a referral to a speech and language therapist.
Together, we will review progress and make any changes as we go along if we need to. Any support that we put in place is only done with your consent.
Safeguarding
We always put the safety and wellbeing of children first. If we have concerns about your child's safety, we have a duty of care to report this to social care services or the police. View more information on safeguarding.