The Children's Hub - Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees

The Children’s Hub is the first point of contact for anyone who has a concern about the welfare or safety of a child or young person or thinks they may need extra help and support. When we are contacted, we will listen to what they are being told and the different agencies might share information with each other to try and work out whether we can help.

The Children’s Hub is a partnership between:

• Hartlepool Borough Council

• Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

• Cleveland Police

• Health Partners 

You can contact us yourself to discuss whether additional help or support might be available. If another professional or agency contacts us about your child they should have discussed this with you first. If we are contacted by a member of the public or we learn that a professional or agency has contacted us without your knowledge, we will try to let you know that this has happened. The only time you will not be told is if telling you might put your child or someone else at risk of harm or if it might affect the investigation of a crime.

Information can be shared without your permission but only if we believe that your child is being harmed, or might be harmed in the future or if sharing the information might help to stop or solve a crime. We might be required to share your information more widely where the law says they have to. Your information will be held and shared securely in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

We use your information to decide if your child might need some extra help or support. Unless there is a suspicion that your child is being harmed or might be harmed in the future, any further action will only be taken if you agree to it.

The main options available to us are:

• To take no further action

• To refer your child to another agency for specific support

• To refer your child for an Early Help Assessment

• To refer your child to Children’s Social Care for a Social Work assessment

For more information, please visit the Tees Safeguarding Partnerships website