Surrey families with children who need more specialised health services are set to benefit from a new, centralised referral service from 1st November 2017. It means that children and young people with additional needs will be referred into the most appropriate services for them in a more timely and efficient way. This will minimise delays in accessing services and treatment, thus improving outcomes for the children and families’ experiences of local health services.
The service, ‘One Stop’, has been developed and launched within just six months by Surrey’s new provider of children’s NHS community services, Children and Family Health Surrey.
One Stop is a clinically-led referral management service responsible for screening all referrals from GPs, health visitors, school nurses and other health and education professionals for eight specialist health services: Speech and Language, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Developmental Paediatricians, Enuresis and Continence, Parent Infant Mental Health Services and Tongue Tie. In addition, One Stop will be the central referral hub for all requests for contributions for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) from Developmental Paediatricians and Paediatric Therapies.
Referrals to One Stop are triaged by a specialist team of nurses and paediatric therapists from a range of backgrounds, including health visiting and complex care. They ensure that the children and young people with additional needs are triaged into the most appropriate service and are therefore seen by the right health professional, first time.
The One Stop team is co-located with Surrey’s children’s mental health service referral team (the CAMHS Mindsight One Stop) as part of Children and Family Health Surrey’s vision of closer integration between the county’s physical and emotional wellbeing services.
The Children and Family One Stop has been operational for referrals originating in mid Surrey since July 2017 and, as of 31st October 2017, is available for the rest of the county.
Sarah Baker, Interim Director of the Children and Family Health Surrey service says: “This is great news for the children who need support from more specialised community health services. When we started running the county’s NHS services in April 2017, one of our aims was to provide a more accessible, equal and consistent community health service for families across Surrey. Introducing our One Stop service is one of many improvements we’re already making, and will mean children and young people with additional needs will be seen by the right health professional, first time. This will minimise delays in accessing services and treatment, thus improving outcomes for the children.”
Rhiannon Thomas, One Stop Service Director adds: “The goal for the Children and Family Health One Stop service is to improve the experience of referrals into services for children and young people and their parents/carers and, in doing so, assist health professionals with clear and timely communication. “The Children and Family Health One Stop team will communicate with referrers and parents to let them know the status of their referrals and also provide a ‘re-navigation’ service, recommending a range of alternative support options, if the child or young person is not eligible for a Children and Family Health clinical service.”