Children’s Specialist Services in Halton

Welcome to Halton Children’s Specialist Services

You will find us located at Child Development Centre in Widnes, Halton.

Below you will find a summary of our services, together with full details of how to make a referral for children and young people living in Halton.

We offer a single referral form for professionals for referrals to the following services:

  • Community Paediatric Service
  • Neurodevelopmental Nursing Team
  • Neurodevelopmental Pathway (NDP) operated by a multi-disciplinary team (MDT)
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Physiotherapy

Additionally, some referrals may require a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency assessment approach.

In these cases, the referral may be reviewed by a wider group of professionals including: Speech and Language Therapy Service provided by Communicate-SLT, Educational Specialist, Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHs).

Please ensure you use all the most recent forms available below.

Referrals will be considered from:

  • Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCo) from a school or Early Years setting.
  • Health professionals such as a health visitor, school nurse or therapist
  • Social Care professional such as an Early Years or Social Worker
  • Medical professional such as a GP or a hospital doctor

Once the referral for the child or young person has been reviewed by all the specialist services and partner agencies, both the parent/carer and the referrer will be informed by letter (or email if indicated on the referral form) of the team’s decision.  Either of the following responses will be received:

  • Confirmation of the service or services that have accepted the referral for assessment, together with information about next steps should treatment be required. Signposting to the local and national offer will be provided.  

or

  • Informed that the referral has not been accepted together with the rationale for the decision not to accept.  Signposting to the local and national offers will be provided for support.

Children and young people accepted onto the Neurodevelopmental Pathway by the MDT are likely to have either a suspected condition, or in some cases a known or previously diagnosed condition that requires integrated and coordinated assessments.

The assessments provide information for the MDT to decide on a diagnosis and/or provide an integrated package of care for treatment.

Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust provides the administration and coordination of the Neurodevelopmental Pathway (NDP) on behalf of partner agencies which include Communicate-SLT, Halton Borough Council, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, and Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.


Referral forms for professionals 

Step One: Please complete the single referral form for professionals in full.

Step Two: Depending on the reason for a referral complete any of the following forms that are relevant:

Appendix 1 – Children with social communication difficulties
Appendix 2 – For physiotherapy referrals please complete a physiotherapy history sheet
Appendix 3 – For OT and Physiotherapy referrals please also send completed the teacher and parent/carer questionnaires for school aged children or teacher and parent/carer questionnaires for pre-school age children.

Please view the Motor Skills – Handbook for Referrers and Sensory Handbook – Parents.

Appendix 4 – For a paediatric referral for children with suspected ADHD only for children over 5 years old (please also complete the 3 separate forms):

Advisory information for referrers before considering a referral for ADHD
Parent SNAP form
Teacher SNAP form

Step Three:

Please submit the completed referral form electronically.

For all single service referrals sent to:

Community Paediatrics
bchft.haltonpaedsadmin@nhs.net

Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
bchft.haltonchildrenstherapy@nhs.net

Neurodevelopmental Nursing Team:
bchft.haltonNDNT@nhs.net


Our services

Children’s Physiotherapy Service
Will assess children with a range of injuries and conditions and will develop fun interventions to help improve their condition.

Children’s Occupational Therapy Service
Our team will assess and provide advice and support for children to develop skills in the areas of self-care, education and play.

Community Paediatric Service
Provides support for children with behaviour and/or sleep issues relating to a diagnosed neuro-developmental condition.

Neurodevelopmental Nursing Team (NDNT)
Can treat a wide range of neurodevelopmental conditions, consists of Consultant Community Paediatricians and Specialist Doctors.


Contact us

By phone in 0151 495 5400:

  • Option 1 for Neurodevelopmental Nursing Team (Additional Needs Nurses)
  • Option 2 Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Team
  • Option 3 Children’s Community Nursing Team
  • Option 4 Prescription requests
  • Option 5 Community Paediatric Service
  • Option 6 General enquiries and reception

By email:


Resources

Services to Support Health and Wellbeing in Halton
Support for Children, Young People and their Families in Halton.


Useful links

Halton Portage Service

St Helens Portage Service

Whizz Kids

Claire House

Halton and St Helens Wheelchair Services

Halton 0-19 service

Halton Parent Partnership

Rays of Sunshine

Cerebra

Local offer Halton

SEND St Helens

Contact a Family

New Life Charity for disabled children

Family Fund

Carers Centre St Helens

Carers Centre Halton

REACT Children’s Charity

Communicate SLT – Children’s Speech and Language in Halton