CAMHS Single Point of Access (CaFSPA)

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The CAMHS Single Point of Access are one of the teams within the Children and Families Single Point of Access (CaFSPA).

We are the central referral hub for children and young people’s mental health needs for children who are not currently open to a mental health service. When a referral is received, we will triage and signpost to the most appropriate service based on their needs.

Our ethos is getting the right support, at the right time.

We are a multidisciplinary team made up of nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, education practitioners, emotional health and wellbeing practitioners, and are supported by our administration team. All of our clinicians have a background of working within children’s and adult mental health services.

We maintain strong links with internal and external agencies to ensure we can direct children and their families to the most appropriate service or services to meet their needs.

There are a range of emotional and mental health services within our area – you can find out more by looking at this our Emotional and Mental Health Services in Our Area page. You can still refer directly these services, however if you are not sure which is the most appropriate, you can refer to us.

We are separate to the core CAMHS team who are the specialist service you see face to face.

To contact us, please telephone 0808 178 0611 - option 2. Our working hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm. For any immediate or urgent concerns about your child’s mental health wellbeing which cannot wait until our usual hours of work, you can contact the All Age Mental Health Access Team on 0808 196 3002.

How to make a referral

We accept referrals from professionals and also, self-referrals.

We ask that you take your time when completing referrals and give us as much information as you can, this means that we will be better able to ensure we signpost you to the correct service.

Mental Health Referrals

Self Referral

After completing your self referral, should you wish to send additional supporting information you can email this to us cafspa@mpft.nhs.uk. Please ensure you child’s name and date of birth is included in your email.

Click here to self-refer

Professional Referral Form

Click here to view

Referrals are screened daily (Mon-Fri) by our clinical team and prioritised according to risk. You can also contact us over the phone for urgent queries at 0808 178 0611 – Option 2.

For any immediate or urgent concerns about your child’s mental health wellbeing which cannot wait until our usual hours of work, you can contact the All Age Mental Health Access Team on 0808 196 3002.

Neurodevelopmental Referrals

We are excited to have launched our new integrated referral form for all Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Condition assessment requests for children and young people.

The teams who offer these assessments remain the same:

Autism assessments are offered by the CYP Autism Service
ADHD assessments for age 6-11 are offered by Community Paediatrics
ADHD assessments for age 11-18 are offered by CAMHS

We have streamlined the referral process and incorporated the previous school reports within this one form. This will support referrers to provide all necessary information required by the service to enable effective triage, reducing the need to request additional information. We anticipate this will improve wait times for young people and their families and lead to them having more effective access to the right support at the right time.

We advise that the professional that knows the child or young person the best makes the referral together with their parent/carer. This professional would usually be from a child/young person’s educational setting. If this is not the case and the referral is being made by another professionals, please be aware that detailed information from the child/young person’s education setting will be required to be added to the form before sending it in to us. Due to this level of information that we require, we do not recommend that referrals are made by a GP as their knowledge of a child/young person is usually more limited than other professionals. The best referral route would be to discuss your concerns with your child’s school. You can find further information about ADHD assessment requests in this leaflet.

Click here to view the Neurodevelopmental Referral Form

Please note that we only accept referrals from professionals for the Neurodevelopmental Referral form. To ensure that we are able to triage your referral in as quick a time as possible, please ensure that all sections of the form are completed in full. Any referral not completed in full will not be accepted and will be returned to referrer.

Safety Plan

Should you have concerns for a child/young person’s safety, we would give the following advice.

We advise the following steps are taken by the adults supporting the young person:

At the early signs of distress, young person to try and use distractions, including using links signposted to (see links below).
Where there is self-harming or a risk of this, medication and sharps within the home to be secured and monitored by parents/adults to reduce the risk of impulsive actions.

If there are concerns about young person’s mental state, in normal service hours (Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm), contact your CAMHS duty team. If not open to CAMHS call CaFSPA 0808 178 0611 (option 2).

Outside of normal service hours, call MHSI 0808 196 3002 or NHS (111).

If young person injures self, wounds will be cleaned and dressed at home. If necessary, attend the local health services for wounds to be assessed and treated.

In cases of medical emergency 999/A&E to be used.

If young person leaves home/school in distress, and cannot be located, they should be reported as missing to Police.

Free self-help resources:

Young Minds Free 24/7 crisis support – text YM to 85258
Calm Harm (Stem4) App
PAPYRUS or call 0800 068 41 41 - click here to view their HOPEBOX resource
What’s Up App
Childline or call for free: 0800 1111 (24 hours)

CAMHS Single Point of Access (CaFSPA)

On this page…

How to make a referral

Mental Health Referrals

Self Referral

Professional Referral Form

Neurodevelopmental Referrals

Safety Plan

More in this section

Young People

Parents / Carers

Children and Young People's Mental Health Participation Team

Emotional / Mental Health Services in Our Area

Useful links

CAMHS Single Point of Access (CaFSPA)

On this page…

How to make a referral

Mental Health Referrals

Self Referral

Professional Referral Form

Neurodevelopmental Referrals

Safety Plan

More in this section

Young People

Parents / Carers

Children and Young People's Mental Health Participation Team

Emotional / Mental Health Services in Our Area

Accessibility tools