Child Development Service referral information
Which children can be referred to the service?
Children or young people meeting the following criteria can be referred to the service:
- resident within the London Borough of Barnet
- aged 0-16 years (up to 19 if in full-time education and previously known to the service)
- any developmental concern.
Who can refer?
- a parent/carer or any concerned professional currently involved with the child (teacher, therapist, medical or nursing practitioner, social worker)
- for neurodevelopmental paediatrics, a referral from a professional is required.
Essential information that we require for a referral
- usual identifiers (name, date of birth, parental name(s). address, contact phone number, language, school)
- your own observations
- what has been done so far to try and help?
- what is your actual concern/question?
Please use our standard referral form, if possible, supported by appropriate reports.
Which professional teams are represented at the weekly intake meeting?
The following teams are represented at the weekly meeting:
- developmental paediatrics
- physiotherapy
- occupational therapy (both ‘health’ and ‘local authority’)
- speech and language therapy
- specialist community nursing (special needs)
- pre-school teaching team
- education services (specialist advisory teaching teams)
- disabled children’s social work team.
More details on these teams, including contact details, can be found on the Who we are and what we do 
(PDF: 74KB) information sheet.
Please note that Barnet Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) has its own weekly referrals meeting. There is close cooperation between our two teams, but they have their own referral form.
Decisions made by the intake team at the meeting
- Do we have sufficient information to allow allocation to a service or clinic?
- Which service(s) will offer initial contact?
- If two or more services are needed, would joint assessment be feasible/desirable?
- If there are complex problems, which team should take a lead role in supporting the family?
- Do we need further information to consider this case at a future meeting?
What does this mean for families?
Where it is clear from the initial referral that a child is going to need input from several services, they do not have to wait until they have seen one service in order to get on the waiting list for another. This shortens waiting times.
It will be clear to the family and the referrer, which service(s) will offer the initial contact. Subsequent involvement of additional services will take place if appropriate without needing further referrals.
What does this mean for referrers?
- You will have to ensure that the parent understands that information about the child will be shared with a range of professionals, and agrees to this, as is standard practice in many areas.
- You will know that your referral is being considered by a senior multi-disciplinary and multi-agency forum.
- You will only have to complete one referral form, even if the child needs to access several of the above services.
- You need to provide detailed information so that it is clear to us which service(s) will be most appropriate. We particularly welcome the written observations of the person who first raised the concern. For school-aged children, we must have information from the school before offering appointments.
We would like to encourage ‘consultation’, not just referral. If in doubt about what a child needs, please contact us using these contact details (PDF:27KB) – you might save the parent an unnecessary or inappropriate appointment.
Email this pageLast modified by: Lauren Burbidge on 23/11/2010