Community Paediatrics

Why would a child be seen by the Community Paediatrics Team?

Our Community Paediatrics Team sees children for a variety of reasons:

• To provide assessment, diagnosis, ongoing management and support for children and young people with developmental delay and associated neurodevelopmental conditions.
• To prepare medical advice for education health care plans relating to children and young people under the care of the service.
• To provide carers and parents with appropriate advice and information relating to specific conditions associated with developmental delay and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Additionally the service is responsible for:

• Providing medical assessment for child protection purposes.
• Completing Initial Health Assessments for children at the request of the Local Authority.

Community Paediatrics works in partnership with a range of other agencies including Education and Early Years Services, Social Services, the Voluntary Sector and other health professionals.

What does the Community Paediatrics Service offer?

This will vary depending on the needs of each individual child or young person. Our clinicians may:

• Give specialist advice on specific conditions and arrange medical tests if needed.
• Work closely with other health professionals to ensure a child receives all the help they need. This might include:
  • Health Visitors
  • School Nurses
  • GPs
  • Physiotherapists
  • Speech and Language Therapists
  • Clinical Psychologists
  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) professionals
  • hospital-based specialists
• Work closely with, and give medical advice to, professionals in education and social care, including Early Help (Local Support Team) and school Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCo)
• Give medical advice to the education authority when a child's Special Educational Needs (SEN) are being assessed.
• Help manage the medical needs of children who are being adopted or are in foster care.
• Provide onward referral to other specialist services including Action 4 Children and Family Support or internal services such as Children and Young People's Autism Service.

Where do appointments take place?

Appointments may be completed face to face in a community clinic, school, or early-years setting. Some appointments may be carried out by telephone or video consultation depending on individual need; this will be decided by the clinician and further details provided to you.

What happens at a Community Paediatrics appointment?

The first appointment with the service usually lasts one hour (later review appointments are usually shorter, at around 30 minutes).

The first appointment is usually with a Paediatrician and follow-ups may be with a Paediatrician or with a member of the wider team including Nurses and Nursery Nurses.

Referral Information

Who can make a referral?

Referrals are accepted from:

• GPs
• Health Care Professionals
• Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCo).
• Registered Social Workers.

What is the referral criteria for the service?

Two or more areas of developmental delay or identified conditions, with an impact on neurodevelopment. These may include Downs Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy.

What does the service not offer?

• General medical conditions: for example asthma, eczema or headaches
• Autism assessments or diagnosis over the age of 5
• General ADHD assessments where this is not part of a broader neurodevelopmental review
• Behavioural issues (this should initially be referred to Family Support Services). We may offer an initial medical assessment but we are not able to provide on-going behaviour management support.
• Emotional Health and Wellbeing support (this is provided by Action 4 Children)
• Tics and Tourette's syndrome
• Dyslexia and specific learning difficulties
• Obesity and growth problems (please contact your GP for support with this)
• Constipation
• Sleep (where this does not form part broader neurodevelopmental support)
• Feeding problems
• Diagnosing Learning Disability

How do I make a referral?

If you are a healthcare professional or Special Educational Needs Coordinator, please download the referral below. Please supply as much information as possible.

Referrals will not be processed without the completed forms and parental consent.

If you are parent or carer, please speak with your GP or other healthcare professional your child is being seen by regarding your child's health for further advice.

If you have a referral query, call the new single point of access on 01283 505160 or email MPFT.PaedsReferrals@nhs.net.

Initial Health Assessment (IHA) requests, Child Protection Medicals (CP), Adult Health Forms (AH) and Adoption queries

The IHA admin team is based at The Bridge in Stafford. Paediatricians support teams across South Staffordshire in completing assessments. Contact the team on 01785 221664 or MPFT.paedsihas@nhs.net.