Children's Occupational Therapy (Paediatric)

Our Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service provides assessment and therapeutic intervention for children and young people with difficulties completing daily occupations which impact their participation in some of the following areas:

Self-care: Washing, bathing, dressing, toileting, teeth and hair brushing, eating and sleeping

Productivity: Challenges with fine motor skills such as using a pencil or scissors, ability to record information, barriers to accessing the curriculum including Physical Education at nursery/school/college

Leisure and play: Play skills and engaging with peers, participation in sport and physical activities, safety concerns at home or accessing the community

Aims of the Service

• To support with enabling the child or young person to maximise their participation and independence in daily activities at home, educational provision and within leisure settings.
• To work in partnership with the child/young person, their parents and carers and educational setting to meet the child’s individual goals.
• To work in collaboration with other professionals from health, social care and education.

Who can refer to the service?

Referrals are accepted from Health Care Professionals, Social Care Teams, SENCo’s, Learning Support Teams and The Physical Disabilities Outreach Team.

Who can be referred?

Children/young people from birth up until their 18^th birthday:

• With consent from the person with parental responsibility or child themselves if considered to have Gillick competence
• Those registered with a Worcestershire GP
• Who have a ‘Looked After’ arrangement with Worcestershire Local Authority and continue to reside in Worcestershire with a Worcestershire GP OR who have a ‘Looked after’ arrangement with another Local Authority and are placed in Worcestershire with individual funding agreement.
• Who live in Worcestershire and require a housing adaptation or have social care equipment needs in the home. This applies to all children and young people who have a GP either within or outside of Worcestershire.
• If the child/young person is a student at a special school in Worcestershire, we will accept referrals up to a young person’s 19^th birthday for school-based issues only.
• Any child placed in a Worcestershire school with a GP out of county will be considered on an individual basis with liaison with their local NHS service.

How to refer and the information we require:

• Referrers should complete our referral form in full. The form is available on Carenotes/THEA or can be downloaded directly from this page - Download our referral form.
• We require examples of difficulties that are impacting on independence, and/or participation in self-care, productivity and play/leisure activities.
• It is important to identify what support, strategies and advice is already in place to support the child and young person and the outcome and impact this has had e.g. universal information from the website and have accessed our Advice Line.

Please note ALL our referrals should be sent electronically via our generic email address: WHCNHS.PaediatricOT@NHS.net 

Re-referrals

Re-referrals will be considered if there is a new difficulty or a change impacting on function. Evidence of strategies trialled will be required to determine suitability for further assessment.

Our service is unable to accept referrals:

• Without clear evidence of impact on occupational functional difficulties and participation (see table page 1).
• For emotional and behavioural difficulties in isolation where other services are best placed to support (e.g. referral to Family Front Door, Early Help, CAMHS).
• For upper limb splinting (please refer to the acute therapy team)
• Where the difficulties are only related to academic tasks e.g. isolated spelling and handwriting difficulties (these should be signposted to the Learning Support Team).
• Children that experience a range of sensory preferences that do not have a significant impact on function e.g. aversion to specific noises. Please review our universal advice to support such sensory differences and preferences.
• We do not do sensory screening in isolation for home and school environments.
• Specifically for tribunal work for children not known to the service.
• For overcrowding matters as this should be directed to the housing association
• Relating to assessment and provision of wheelchairs. Please refer to the Wheelchair, Posture & Mobility Service

What happens next?

• Referrals received will be triaged and a decision made about whether or not the referral meets our service specification criteria and whether they have accessed the graduated response. Referrals are managed on a clinical prioritisation basis.
• If the referral is accepted, parents/carers will be informed of this decision.
• If the referral is not considered appropriate or we feel that our universal offer is appropriate following the graduated response, we will share these details with the referrer and parent/carer.
• There is a significant waiting list for assessment and support. At triage cases will be risk assessed and clinically prioritised due to the urgency of their need.

For further information, please contact us:

Email: WHCNHS.PaediatricOT@NHS.net

Resources

• What is Occupational Therapy for Young People
• Paediatric Occupational Therapy leaflet