Why would a child be seen by the Community Paediatrics Team?

Our Community Paediatrics Team sees children for a wide variety of reasons:

• To assess and diagnose general medical problems, learning difficulties (if a medical or neurodevelopmental cause is suspected), complex disabilities, or sensory impairments such as visual difficulties or hearing loss. The team does not generally deal with one-off, short term illnesses, but offers long term support, management and co-ordination of services.
• To offer parental support, including parenting groups (child or topic specific).
• To prescribe medication - if appropriate.
• To complete child protection and Initial Health Assessments for children who are being adopted or are in foster care.
• To prepare medical advice for education health care plans.

We work in partnership with a range of other agencies including Education and Early Years Services, Social Services, the Voluntary Sector and other health professionals.

What will happen if my child has an appointment with the Community Paediatrics Team?

This will vary depending on what type of appointment you attend. Our clinicians may:

• Give specialist advice on specific problems and arrange medical tests if needed
• Work closely with many other health professionals to ensure a child receives all the help they need - those professionals might include health visitors, school nurses, GPs, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, clinical psychologists, child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) professionals and hospital-based specialists
• Work closely with, and give medical advice to, professionals in education and social care
• Give medical advice to the education authority when a child’s special educational needs (SEN) are being assessed
• Help manage the medical needs of children who are being adopted or are in foster care (looked after by the local authority).

Generally the first appointment lasts up to one hour; later review appointments are usually shorter, at around 30 minutes.

Your appointment may be completed face-to-face with a clinician or by telephone, or video consultation depending on your child’s needs - this will be decided by the clinician and further details provided to you.

Who can make a referral?

Referrals are accepted from:

• GPs
• Health Care Professionals including health visitors, school nurses and specialist nurses, paediatric therapists
• Special Educational Needs Coordinators

How do I make a referral?

If you are a healthcare professional or Special Educational Needs Coordinator, please download the referral below. Please supply as much information as possible. This will ensure that the assessment is carried out by the most appropriate professional(s). Referrals will not be processed without the completed forms. If you are parent/carer, please speak with your GP/other healthcare professional your child is being seen by regarding your child’s health for further advise.

If you have a referral query, call the new single point of access on 01283 505160.

Initial Health Assessment (IHA) requests, Child Protection Medicals (CP), Adult Health Forms (AH) and Adoption queries

The respective admin teams for these are now based at The Bridge in Stafford, with medics continuing to support across localities.

• Email: MPFT.paedsihas@nhs.net
• Telephone: 01785 221664

Where do appointments take place?

Your appointment may be completed face to face in a community setting with a clinician or via telephone or video consultation depending on your child’s needs - this will be decided by the clinician and further details provided to you.

We try to hold face to face clinics locally, to make them as convenient as possible for families. They may take place in community clinics across South Staffordshire, or in special schools. Sometimes a child (with/without their parents or carers) may need to be seen in school or nursery, so the community paediatrics team can talk to their teachers about any concerns in school.