Children's Development and Disability Service
The Children's Development and Disability Service is for children and young people with disabilities, whether diagnosed from birth or for long-term conditions.
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Contents
Overview
The Children's Development and Disability service is for children and young people with disabilities, whether diagnosed from birth or for long-term conditions.
The service works with children and families to support the diagnosis of long term health conditions like:
- Disordered development
- Motor disorders such as cerebral palsy
- Social communication difficulties including autistic spectrum disorder
- Other complex medical or developmental needs including epilepsy
They works closely with families and other services to develop care plans, and supports onward referral for children with specialist health needs.
Support available
The hospital and community-based services are with in-reach to special schools.
They work to improve the health and wellbeing of children with special educational needs and disabilities by working with other health professionals, including:
- Physiotherapy
- Speech and language therapy and assessments including for communication, social communication
- Wheelchair and specialised equipment services
- Dietetics
- Children's nursing - children's community nurses and nurse specialists, such as epilepsy nurse, asthma and allergy
Who can access the service
Children and young people aged 0 to 18 years old.
How to access the service
New referrals are accepted for children and young people up until 16 years of age.
If a young person is at a special school, referrals can be accepted up to the age of 19 years.
Referrals are accepted from health professionals including GPs, health visitors, school nurses, hospital doctors and other health professionals, for children who meet the following criteria:
- Developmental delay affecting all areas of development
- Suspected autistic spectrum disorder in the under 5s
- Concerns about genetic conditions or specific syndromes
- General paediatric medical problems (e.g. growth concerns, possible fits or seizures)
- Children with life limiting conditions
- Children with coordination difficulties
- Children needing medical advice for an Education, Health and Care Plan