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Referrals

Who can make a referral

Referrals must be made by a professional that knows the child or young person well (such as teacher, SENCO, educational psychologist).

The child must be over six years old.

If your child's school refuses to make a referral please call the CYPF Hub to discuss further on 0300 365 1234

Prior to referral

Before referral please take the following steps:

  1. Observe the child’s behaviour for 10 weeks and make notes including any changes and patterns in their behaviour (this must include difficulties with their concentration, impulsiveness and activity levels)
  2. Refer parents and carers to a training/education programme if available (advisable, but not compulsory)
  3. If the child’s behaviour is still having a negative impact on themselves and their family/school life, please make a referral

How to refer

Please read the ADHD referral criteria (opens in new window) document for more in depth information before you make a referral (opens in new window).

For more information please see our ADHD Support and Advice pages and our ADHD Team page.

If you are submitting a referral as a SENCO on behalf of a young child

You will need to follow the below steps before this referral for ADHD screening can be considered.

Please visit www.sdqinfo.org (opens in new window) and complete the following Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQs) for the relevant age group of your child.

  • 1x double-sided version of the Parent SDQ (P4-17)
  • 1x double-sided version of the Teacher SDQ (T4-17)
  • 1x double-sided version of the Student SDQ (S11-17) (for young people aged 11+ only)

We also require:

  • A School Behaviour Support Plan (or equivalent). If there is no School Behaviour Support Plan in place, please list what you are doing to support the child in school.

Please email all of these documents to screening@berkshire.nhs.uk

Please note, this referral will not be processed until the additional information has been received. If it has not been received within 10 working days of the date that we receive the referral, the referral will be discharged. 

 Read about the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on the NHS website (opens in new window).

Assessments

Our Autism Assessment Team provides an assessment service for children and young people up to the age of 18, where there is a concern that they have difficulties with communicating and relating to others. We assess children and young people to see if their difficulties are due to autism.

There is no medical test for autism. A decision about diagnosis is made on the basis of detailed information about your child's early development and how they are now. This information is gathered by talking to you, an individual assessment with your child, and gathering information from school.

Once an assessment is complete, families are given information about support available at home and at school. This includes information on autism-specific parenting workshops and groups in their area, and access to specialist advisory teachers where available. Parents and carers will also be invited to join an online support network.

How to refer

Please read the referral criteria carefully. If your child is showing symptoms of autism and you’ve already worked through our pre-assessment checklist, you can make a referral into CAMHS (opens in new window). Ideally referrals should come from professionals that know the child well, such as their teacher, special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) or health visitor.

For more information please see our Autism Support and Advice pages and our Autism Assessment Team page.

Read about the symptoms of autism on the NHS website (opens in new window).

For emerging mental health issues

If your child is developing difficulties with their mental health, the first level of help and support we offer is through our Schools Mental Health Support Teams (MHST), or if your child's school does not have an MHST, through our Community Getting Help services.

If you live in the East of Berkshire, these services are provided by Berkshire Healthcare.

If you live in the West of Berkshire, the services are still NHS-funded CAMH services but they are delivered by your Local Authority, rather than Berkshire Healthcare.

Find out here if your child's school has an allocated Mental Health Support Team (opens in new window). 

If your child/young person is on roll in one of the schools listed, or is part of the Slough NEET provision, please contact the school to discuss support.

If your child/young person is not at one of the schools listed, make a referral to the early help hub for your area: 

Find out more about these services below, and on the Mental Health Support Team and Getting Help Team page.

Getting more help

If your child has a long-standing or more complex mental health illness, our services for children and young people such as the Anxiety and Depression Team, Early Intervention for Psychosis (EIP) Service, Specialist Community Teams (SCT) and Eating Disorders Services are available to provide treatment for symptoms. Visit the link to find out more about the service you require and their referral criteria.

These services can be referred to using the CYPF referral form (opens new window).

If you need urgent help now

If you are having suicidal thoughts or extreme mental health difficulties and need to talk to someone now, you can contact our mental health support team by calling freephone 0800 129 9999.

If you are currently receiving help from CAMHS and things have become very difficult for you, and you need some extra help, you can call the CAMHS duty worker Mon-Fri 9am-5pm. They will be able to talk to you, and if it's helpful, organise some extra support for you, but this may take a little time to arrange. The number for your duty worker will have been given to you following agreement of your initial treatment plan, but if you can't find it, call us on 0300 365 1234 (calls charged at local rate).

Making a referral to CAMHS

Support with mild to moderate issues

Getting Help Team

The Getting Help Team offer brief, focused evidence-based interventions in the form of CBT support and guided self-help with children and young people who demonstrate mild/moderate anxiety or low mood.

If the child is under 12 years this intervention may be primarily with the parents. If the child is 12 years plus the interventions are predominantly with the young person. 

Referrals can be completed by GP, parents/carers, school staff, young people or any other organisation that the child/young person is known to. All referrals come through via the Early Help Hub within each locality.

Mental Health Support Teams

Mental Health Support Teams offer evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy-informed interventions to children and young people experiencing mild to moderate anxiety and/or depression similar to the Getting Help Team detailed above, however a practitioner known as an Education Mental Health Practitioner is based within certain schools within the borough. 

Early Interventions in Psychosis

The criteria that must be met for a referral to the Early Interventions in Psychosis Team are:

  • The patient has experienced a period of psychosis for at least one week
  • The period of psychosis has been accompanied by a decline in functioning
  • It is the first episode of diagnosed psychosis and symptoms emerged within the past three years
  • The patient has not previously been prescribed anti-psychotic medication
  • Patients from age 0 will be considered
  • Referrals must include a detailed history of the presenting complaint
  • In borderline cases, strong objective indications such as being at peak age or a first-degree relative, will be taken into consideration.

We usually do not accept referrals for:

  • Drug induced cases where psychosis remits once drug use stops, usually within seven days
  • Cases where a clear organic cause is evident
  • Symptoms which are wholly explicable in the context of PTSD or personality disorder
  • Crisis case should be referred to acute services in the first instance 

Those considered in an At Risk mental state will have the following criteria:

  • Experiencing distress
  • Be in younger adulthood (typically between 14-30)
  • Have evidence of decline in social functioning by 30% over the last year which has been sustained for at least a month

With at least one of the following:

  • Mild psychotic-like symptoms that are distressing but do not meet the threshold for psychotic diagnosis, but significant enough to gain clinical attention (present at least once a week for a month over the last year)
  • Frank psychotic symptoms that last for less than one week and resolve spontaneously
  • Strong (first degree relative) family history of psychotic illness 

Further CAMHS Support

Our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) provides support, advice, guidance and treatment for children and young people with severe or moderate mental health difficulties whose symptoms are having a significant impact in their day to day lives. Usually, these symptoms will have been occurring over several months and won’t have responded to prevention and early intervention services, such as counselling and behaviour support, evidence-based parenting or treatment from primary mental health workers.

Certain conditions (such as bedwetting, family relationship difficulties and obesity) should not be referred to CAHMS unless there is evidence of other severe mental health concerns at the same time. These conditions are better dealt with via specialist clinics, your local authority’s education services, GP, or the Local Offer for your area (opens in new window).

We also do not currently have a specialist CAMH service for children and young people with severe learning disabilities. If you need a specialist mental health assessment for a young person with challenging behaviour and a severe learning disability, you will need to apply to the CCG for an individual funding request.

Our HealthHub team is available from 8am-8pm Monday to Friday if you need to talk to someone about a young person prior to making a referral.

We accept referrals from health, education, children’s services colleagues, parents and carers. Young people can also self-refer if they are over 16. 

Please read the CAMHS referral criteria (opens in new window) carefully before you go ahead and make a referral using this link (opens in new window).

Specialist School Nursing Team

The Specialist School Nursing Team offers open access to all children, parents and carers and school staff enrolled or working in the four special schools. 

Other professionals working with the children and parents and carers attending one of the special schools can refer to the Specialist School Nursing Team by completing our online form (opens in new window).

Once a referral has been received and accepted, the relevant Specialist School Nurse will contact you within seven working days.

Children's Community Nursing Team

The Children's Community Nursing Team provide nursing services for children and young people up to age 18 with acute and complex nursing needs. In East Berkshire this would primarily include children with learning disabilities and an additional nursing need.

If you are a parent or carer and you feel that your child needs a referral to our Children's Community Nursing team, please visit your GP.

We accept referrals from health service providers, education professionals and social care workers if the child or young person:

  • is under the care of a consultant and;
  • has a nursing need and;
  • is registered with a Berkshire General Practitioner.

If this criteria is met, please make a referral using the Children's Community Nursing referral form (opens in new window).

Please note:

We do not accept referrals for overweight children. There is an information pack available which you can access by contacting your local dietetics team. 

Community Nutrition and Dietetics

We provide support and advice to children and young people with their nutritional intake to promote good growth and or help manage a clinical diagnosis, such as:

  • Fussy eating and food refusal
  • Faltering growth related to poor intake
  • Allergy advice

Referrals to the Community Nutrition and Dietetics team must  be made by a healthcare professional by completing the Community Dietetics referral form (opens in new window) and returning it to: integratedhub@berkshire.nhs.uk

When making a referral, please provide details of the child or young person’s height, weight and change in weight centiles over the last six months.

For more information on our service, please visit the Community Nutrition and Dietetics page.

Our community paediatricians provide specialist medical care for children and young people under 18 with complex needs relating to neurodisability, sensory impairment, developmental disorders or special educational needs.

We undertake autism assessment for children aged under 5, and run clinics in East Berkshire special schools. 

We accept referrals from professionals who have been involved with the child or young person. You can make a referral using our online form (opens in new window).

Please see the Community Paediatricians page for more information on our service.

Our occupational therapy team helps children who have difficulties doing everyday activities, such as dressing, feeding, writing, socialising and play, due to a problem with their fine motor skills, coordination and/or ability to make sense of the world around them. We also provide advice and guidance on sensory strategies, and specialist equipment such as off-the-shelf hand splints, adapted cutlery and plates, writing aids and specialist seating for schools.

Please check that all the strategies relating to their difficulties in the Health and Development section have been tried, and if you still have concerns please make a referral as below.

For more information on the assessment process please see our Occupational Therapy service page.

For children  and young people in the East - Slough, Windsor, Ascot, Maidenhead or Bracknell

We accept referrals for all children and young people from 0-19 years using our online referral form (opens in new window).

We accept referrals from parents and carers, teachers, special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs), GP and other healthcare professionals.

For children and young people in the West - Reading, Wokingham or Newbury

We will only accept referrals for children who are school aged and have an EHCP (Educational, Health, Care Plan). If  the child has one, you can make a referral using our online form (opens in new window).

For children in the west who do not have an EHCP please refer to Dingley Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Please see the Royal Berkshire Hospital website (opens in new window) for details of their referral criteria and how to contact them.

We are a small Paediatric Continence team comprising clinical nurse specialists and nursery nurses. We support children up to 19 years of age experiencing delayed toilet training, daytime wetting, treatment-resistant night time wetting and chronic constipation and/or faecal soiling, and their families.

Prior to referral

Children and young people should receive level 1 continence input by healthcare professionals in primary care such as a health visitor, school nurse or community nurse, GP or paediatrician for a minimum of 3 months. This may include advice and support on constipation, toilet training problems or bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis), to promote continence and help in the prevention of treatable conditions such as constipation.

Referrals

Referrals are accepted for complex bladder and bowel problems, idiopathic constipation, day and night time wetting, and children with additional needs whose toileting has been delayed and unresponsive to level 1 input and toilet training at home.

Children and Young People can only be referred to the Paediatric Continence Service by a healthcare professional involved in their care, for example, a School Nurse, Health Visitor, GP or Paediatrician.

Please do not use the online form on this page. Referrals to the Paediatric Continence team must be made by a healthcare professional by completing the Paediatric Continence referral form (opens in new window) and returning it to: integratedhub@berkshire.nhs.uk 

Before referring a young person to physiotherapy, please check that all the strategies relating to their difficulties in the Health and Development section have been tried.

For more information on our service please see our Physiotherapy service pages.

Children and young people 0-19 years old with a Berkshire GP

Referrals can be made for children and young people 0-19 years old with a Berkshire GP. These are accepted from parents, teachers, SENCOs, GPs and other health professionals. You can make a referral using our online form (opens in new window).

Once a referral is made, it will be triaged (looked at by a clinician) to see how we can help. This may be telephone advice, signposting to other services or a local clinic/school assessment

Preschool children in Wokingham and Reading

Preschool children in Wokingham and Reading are not seen by our service. Referrals from GP’s and Consultants will need to be made directly to:

Dingley Specialist Children’s Centre
3-5 Craven Road
Reading
RG1 5LF

0118 322 5213

Orthopaedic conditions

We do not see children with orthopaedic conditions such as painful joints/muscles, broken bones or respiratory conditions.

These are seen at Dingley for the west of the county and Wexham Park or Frimley Hospital for the east of the county.

Routine height and weight measurement checks

No referral is necessary for routine height and weight measurement checks completed in reception year and year 6. A referral is required for other services such as bed wetting clinics. 

For more information on our school nursing service please visit the School Nursing pages.

To make a referral

You can make a referral to us for yourself if you are aged 13-19, or if you are a parent or carer, school or other agency. To make a referral please visit the link for your area below, fill in the form, and the team will be in touch. If you are/your child is home schooled, please use the link for the area that you live in.

Bracknell referral form (opens in new window)

Reading referral form (opens in new window)

West Berkshire referral form (opens in new window)

Wokingham referral form (opens in new window) 

Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead

Please note, we do not cover Windsor and Maidenhead or Slough, you will need to contact these areas directly as below.

Slough 01753 373464 / 0800 7723578 publichealthnursing.4slough@nhs.net

Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (opens in new window): 0300 365 6523 school.nursing@achievingforchildren.org.uk

Specialist Dietetics

We accept referrals from any relevant healthcare practitioner for the following complex conditions/nutritional issues:

  • Enteral feeding, both nasogastric and gastrostomy feeding
  • Any child attending special school with nutritional or eating issues that are affecting their growth or wellbeing.

Referrals to the Specialist Dietetics team should be made using our online referral form (opens in new window).

When making a referral, please provide details of the child or young person’s height, weight and change in weight centiles over the last six months.

Our Speech and Language Therapy team assesses and supports children and young people with speech, language or communication difficulties. We also work with children experiencing eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties.   

Please visit our Speech and Language Therapy pages for more information on our service. 

If your child is not yet in school and has speech, language and communication difficulties

We recommend that families and early years settings start by following the advice and strategies on our advice pages or take one of our Early language development workshops. Strategies should be followed for 8-12 weeks. If after this you are still worried, there are different ways to request help from our Early Years Speech and Language Therapy Team, depending on your locality.

For West Berkshire (Reading, Newbury and Wokingham) please email the relevant team directly:

For East Berkshire (Bracknell, Slough, Windsor and Maidenhead) please complete our online referral form (opens in new window).

We aim for all families to be contacted by a speech and language therapist within 18 weeks, but it can take longer if a large number of requests have been received.

If your child is not yet in school and has difficulties eating, drinking or swallowing

If you have concerns about your child's eating, drinking and swallowing, please speak to your health visitor first, and please also visit our advice pages on food textures and finger feeding.

If you continue to have concerns, eg your child is losing weight, has repeated chest infections, refuses certain food textures, is coughing/gagging on food and/or drink, and you feel this needs further assessment, ask your health visitor or doctor for help to refer to the Eating, Drinking and Swallowing team. You can also self refer using our online form (opens in new window).

If your child is attending school

Please discuss with your child's teacher or the school's Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) who will liaise directly with a member of the School-Age Speech and Language Therapy Team to decide the next steps.

If your child attends school and you have concerns about their eating, drinking and swallowing

If you have concerns about your child's eating, drinking and swallowing skills and they are school-aged, please discuss these with the SENCO at your child's school and complete our online referral form (opens in new window).

For children and young people of school age in Slough

The service is accepting referrals for new Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessment requests only. These referrals can only be made by Slough Borough Council. Should you have any concerns regarding your child’s speech, language or communication skills, please discuss them with the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) at your child’s school.

If your child is home educated or attending an independent school

Please complete our online referral form (opens in new window).