Providing early help to our students and families at St. Alban's means we are more effective in promoting support as soon as we can. Early help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years.

At St. Alban's, our Safeguarding team meet once a week to discuss any concerns.

This team includes:

Mrs McKinney – Headteacher – Designated Safeguarding Lead

Mrs Donnellan– Deputy Headteacher and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Mrs Doherty - Pastoral Lead and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Miss Ingram - KS2 Lead and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead

Our Early Help Offer

Early help relies upon local groups and people in the community, sometimes we work together to help children, young people, and their families. Everyone needs help at some time in their lives and therefore an ethos of early help is important for any school.

Early Help can support children and their families who may be struggling with:

– Routines and family rules

– Keeping to a healthy lifestyle

– Children who are caring for a family member

– Children who may not want to go to school for different reasons

– Disability within the family including children being a young carer

– Children in the family have special educational needs (SEND)

– Children who may become involved in anti-social or criminal behaviour

– Children who go missing from home

– Children or parents/carers misusing drugs or alcohol

– Children at risk of being tricked, forced, or made to work in the criminal world

– Children who may need support because they may live in a home and see drug or alcohol abuse or adult mental health problems.

– Children who have parents who argue a lot (and sometimes might hurt each other) whether the parents live together or apart.

– Children at risk of being groomed to join groups which support illegal views

– A privately fostered child (a child from another family living within your family home)

When our team meet weekly, at these meetings we discuss:

• How the child is feeling and their behaviour and attitude to learning
• Friendships, family issues, additional needs, attendance, bullying 
• Any support pupils may be receiving for mental health or anxiety
• Other agencies involvement

This allows us to identify any pupils and families that would benefit from early help and allows us to help them access the services in the school and beyond the school.

We can offer support to children in a range of ways:

• 1:1 counselling
• Forest School
• Wellbeing groups
• Wellbeing programmes with the pastoral lead e.g. It's good to be me 
• Sensory circuits
• Yoga sessions
• The Dog Mentor Programme
• Wellbeing Wednesday 
• Zones of regulation support and rooms 
• Kiva programme
• Sessions with Forward Thinking Birmingham - Mental Health, Anxiety, Online Safety (children and parents)
• Links with PCSOs and talks for children - Prevention of County Lines, Anti-social Behaviour