About the Service
What does the Neurodevelopmental Service Offer?
Thee service offers information, advice and guidance, as well as some limited interventions for children and young people following a diagnosis. The primary function of the service is to offer children and young people from preschool age to 18 years a neurodevelopmental assessment and a profile of need (some children may only be able to be fully assessed from the age of 5). Please ask your local service for information about our early years and pre-school teams, who provide assessment for children under 5.
It is really important to say that an assessment does not always mean your child will receive a diagnosis and a diagnosis should not be the only route to accessing support. If your child has needs both the school and local authority may have a duty to meet those needs without the presence of a diagnosis.
More information and Frequently asked Questions.
Who is part of our team?
The Service is made up of a number professionals with different skills and expertise to ensure we can offer the highest quality service possible.
These roles include:
- Community Paediatricians
- Clinical Psychologists
- Assistant Clinical Psychologists
- Allied Health Care Assistants
- Speech and Language Therapists
- Occupational Therapists
- Specialist Nurses
- Specialist Nursery Nurses
- Administrators
- Team Leads
- Service Managers
These professionals work together with schools, pre-school settings, health visitors, school nurses, educational psychologists, social care workers and other professionals to gather as much information as they can about your child. This is so they can make a full assessment of your child’s needs and identify whether they have a diagnosable neurodevelopmental condition.
When your child’s needs are complex and where we may have to consider other emotional and physical health factors. We work with other services, which may include the local Community Paediatricians, CAMHS and the Disabilities Service. We hold multi-disciplinary meetings to discuss your child before we make any decisions.
The Neurodevelopmental Service is a separate service to CAMHS and Learning Disability Service. These services do work closely together, as very often children and young people can need support from more than one of these services. It is important for families to be aware that each service has a different referral process, contact information and are not always based in the same locations. Please check out the CAMHS and Learning Disabilities pages for further information.
Working together to support children and young people with Additional Learning Needs is important. Health services work with Local Authorities to let them know if very young children have additional learning needs. More information can be found by visiting the Additional Learning needs page.