Young persons health
Health services to support children and young people with SEND
Health services to help children, young people and families with general, specialist and therapeutic needs.
Here you will find a broad range of health services for children and young people. This includes everything from general health and well being to more specialist services.
Sutton Children's Health Services
Information on our services for children, young people and families, including health visiting, children's therapy services, immunisations and our Family Nurse Partnership service. Find out more.
Sutton Children's Therapy Services
Children's therapies include those offered by dieticians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, plus speech and language therapists. Find out more.
Children and Young People with Complex Medical Needs
Wheelchair service
The wheelchair service is based at Queen Mary’s Hospital Roehampton and provides specialist assessment and provision for wheelchairs, postural mobility seating and pressure care to children and young people with mobility difficulties. This service is delivered by a specialist team of staff with skills in a wide range of clinical areas to enhance children and young people's mobility needs.
Referrals for assessment for children and young people under 18 registered with a Sutton GP are accepted from healthcare professionals.
Specialist Equipment
Specialist equipment can be provided for children and young people with complex health needs and/or disabilities. A range of equipment is available depending on the child or young person's health needs and could include specialist beds and sleep systems; pressure mattresses, postural support systems, special seating, standing frames, walking and mobility aids and communication aids.
Requests for specialist equipment for children and young people under 18 registered with a Sutton GP are usually from children’s healthcare professionals including community nurses and therapists.
Children’s Continuing Care Service
Sutton’s Children’s Continuing Care Service provides health care and support to families of children and young people who have complex medical needs and/or palliative care needs (including end of life care). The service is for children and young people under the age of 18 registered with a Sutton GP who meet the health eligibility criteria.
Continuing Care is provided to meet the health needs of the child or young person and their families in a variety of locations including home or in over-night stays in specialist provision. Continuing Care providers in Sutton include Epsom & St Helier Children’s Home Care Team, and specialist palliative care provision via Shooting Stars Chase Children’s Hospice.
The specialist provision from Shooting Stars Chase ensures all children and young people (as well as their families) in Sutton with palliative care needs can access the services they need. This includes specialist consultant & nursing palliative care medical support & advice; admission for symptom management, short breaks & respite care; hospice at home; end of life care and bereavement support.
Referrals for assessment for eligibility are accepted from healthcare and social care professionals.
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
CAMHS Sutton Alliance Service
This is a multi-disciplinary service providing a specialised service for children and young people with severe, complex and persistent mental health disorders. It provides a comprehensive (Tier 3) assessment and treatment service.
This service is for children and young people up to the age of 18 registered with a Sutton GP, their families and/or carers across the borough, focusing on those with severe and enduring mental health problems.
Sutton CAMHS is not an emergency service. If you have a child or young person who requires emergency assistance, then contact their GP or go to the A&E Department at St Helier Hospital.
CAMHS Team members include child and adolescent psychiatrists, social workers, clinical psychologists, community psychiatric nurses, child psychotherapists, occupational therapists and other therapists.
Referrals can be made by GP’s, other healthcare professionals, schools, and others via the single point of referral to SuttonCAMHSReferrals@swlstg-tr.nhs.uk. This ensures referring to CAMHS in Sutton is easier and more efficient with a single point of referral; screening the nature of the referral and assertively signposting it to the appropriate service.
NASEN: Girls and Autism:Flying under the radar
NHS go health app for young people
- The NHS has launched a new app to help young people take greater control over their health from an earlier age; make healthier choices and get advice and information on health issues from a trusted source when they don't know where to go.
The service can be accessed through their new website or mobile application. The app can be downloaded via the NHS Go website, the Google play store or the Apple App Store.
You can also find more information on on the NHS Go Facebook page.
NHS Go has been developed by Healthy London Partnership, a partnership between all 32 London Clinical Commissioning Groups, and NHS England (London Region).
Healthy London Partnership worked with young people from across London to find out what they needed to improve their access to relevant health information and advice. Youg people were involved in the creation and testing of NHS Go and also helped to promote it.
Community Paediatric Medical Service
The Community Paediatric Medical Service provides medical assessment, diagnosis, support and management to children, young people and their families that are vulnerable due to disease, disability and/or disadvantage. The service is provided for children and young people under 18 registered with a Sutton GP in the following areas:
- Services for children and young people with disabilities and complex health needs
- Services to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities including contributing to Education Health and Care Plans and annual reviews
- Safeguarding and protecting children and young people
- Services for Looked After Children (including adoption and fostering services)
Referrals to the service provided by Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust are usually by a GP or healthcare professional.
Easyhealth
Easyhealth was made so that people know where to find 'accessible health' information. 'Accessible' information is information that uses easy words with pictures. There are over 500 leaflets on Easyhealth, made by many different organisations. You can print off nearly all the leaflets straight away.
GP’s and Autism
The Royal College of General Practitioners (GPs) has produced a range of information for GPs about autism, and an Autism Patient Charter. The Charter says that GP surgeries will:
- Ensure all surgery staff are more ‘autism aware’ through access to the provision of guidance
- Work with people with autism to develop an autism-friendly environment, responding proactively to suggestions people with autism may have
- Make reasonable adjustments should staff suspect a patient or carer has autism, creating an environment where people feel comfortable disclosing their condition should they wish to
- Ensure staff are aware of the different ways people with autism may choose to communicate, and will try to communicate by the most appropriate means for the individual concerned
- Make staff aware of the likely causes of challenging behaviour and how to communicate effectively with someone in distress
Read more about the resources from the Royal College of GPs.
Managing Diabetes
You are almost certain, at some point in your teaching carer, to have a child and/or young person in your class with diabetes. This article looks at not just the practical side of managing diabetes but also the emotional effect it can have on everyone involved, with the aim of minimising the impact that living with the condition can have.
Mencap
Join the Learning Disability Register - Don't Miss out! Read more about Mencap.
The Traffic Light Communication Tool
It can be hard for families to get across to doctors the many things that worry them when they go to a clinic with their disabled child or young person. The Health, Functioning and Well Being Summary, known as the ‘Traffic Light Tool’, was designed to help. The tool was developed with disabled young people, parents, carers, and other experts.
The tool begins by celebrating the things that are going well. Next, there is space for the family to say what might help the child or young person to engage with the things they want to do, and what might improve their quality of life. There is also space for concerns or questions.
On the other side, there is a list of medical conditions, areas of function, and other things that families have told us to be important. The family chooses the traffic lights' colour : green if no concerns; amber if some concerns; and red if serious concerns.
Download the Traffic Light Tool.
Looked after children’s health: Key official guidance documents.
This interactive tool allows you to easily access key official guidance documents (published by government or government sponsored agencies) relating to Looked After Children’s health from one place.
Easy Read Guides to Health Conditions
A range of Easy Read guides on key medical conditions and concepts
The booklets are all available to download :
Blood Test easy read guide
Diabetes Easy Read Guide (PDF)
Epilepsy Easy Read Guide (PDF)
Looking After Your Teeth easy read guide
Booklet for families of children and young people with complex health needs from the Foundation of People with Learning Difficulties.
Special Care Dental Services Sutton, Merton & Wandsworth
Getting to know your health visiting and school nursing service
MindEd for families
NHS change 4 lifeNHS change 4 life
Talking Point
Public Health England's strategic plan for the next four years: better outcomes by 2020
This document sets out how Public Health England intends to achieve its aims over the next 4 years and outlines the key actions for the year ahead. Download the report.
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