Surrey Early Support Service for young children with disabilities
This service provides support to families of children aged 0 to 5 who have disabilities or complex medical needs.
How can Surrey Early Support Service help my family?
We will give you information about support that is available to you and your family. We want to work with you and support you and your family to become more confident and resilient in the future.
What does Early Support do?
We can:
- visit you at home
- keep in touch with you regularly, not just when there is a problem
- offer information, advice and practical support about local services
- make referrals and applications to services you want to access
- offer a Team Around the Family meeting to families that have children with very complex needs
- offer support through groups, short term key worker support (maximum six months) or long-term key worker support (maximum one year), depending on the needs of your child/family.
How can I get this support?
To refer to this service, please ask a professional working with your family to email the completed Request for Support form to cspa@surreycc.gov.uk clearly stating that you would like a referral into the Early Support Team.
To find out if your family is eligible for our support, speak to someone who is supporting your child such as a health visitor, therapist, local Family Centre worker or portage worker.
What happens after a referral?
The Early Support Service will contact you and arrange to come and visit you at home. We will discuss with you the level of support that is right for your family, who will be involved and for how long.
Early Support referral criteria
- Child with complex health needs, disabilities and/or special educational needs aged 0 to 5 years (a diagnosis is not required).
- Three or more specialist health/education professionals involved (or referred to).
- Parent/carer gives consent for Early Support to be involved.
- Family in need of regular input to increase resilience and improve child's outcomes due to significant social, financial, health and/or community challenges.
- A professional working with your child/family can make a referral via a Request for Support sent into the C-SPA (Children's Single Point of Access).
Contact the Early Support Coordinator regarding referrals for life limited children, babies with complex needs on discharge from hospital and new to area children.
Email: earlysupport@surreycc.gov.uk