Children’s Specialist Services in Halton

General introduction

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 professional referral for children and young people living in Halton.

Our services

Children’s Physiotherapy Service
The Children’s Physiotherapy Service assesses children with a wide range of injuries and conditions and develops fun, engaging interventions to help improve their physical function and overall wellbeing.

Children’s Occupational Therapy Service
The Children’s Occupational Therapy Service provides assessment, advice and support to help children develop skills in self‑care, education and play, enabling them to participate more fully in everyday activities.

Community Paediatric Service
The Community Paediatric Service supports children who have behavioural and/or sleep difficulties related to a diagnosed neurodevelopmental condition.

Neurodevelopmental Nursing Team (NDNT)
The Neurodevelopmental Nursing Team (NDNT) treats a wide range of neurodevelopmental conditions. The team includes Consultant Community Paediatricians and Specialist Doctors who provide expert assessment, treatment and ongoing support.

How to access this service

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

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, 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

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 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.

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 team 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 team to decide on a diagnosis and/or provide an integrated package of care for treatment.

North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust provides the administration and coordination of the Neurodevelopmental Pathway (NDP) on behalf of partner agencies which include 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 occupational therapy 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 for parents.

Appendix 4 – For a paediatric referral for children with suspected ADHD only for children over 5 years old

Please also complete the following three forms:

Step three:

Submit the completed referral form electronically via email using the information in the 'Contact us' section.

Useful information

Resources

Neurodevelopmental Pathway (NDP): Frequently Asked Questions

This document aims to answer questions regarding the neurodevelopmental pathway (NDP) for the assessment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism in Halton, Warrington and Cheshire West.

Read our NDP FAQs.