Support to disabled children and children with health needs, and their parents and carers
Making a referral to the Specialist Children's Service
Referral can be made to the Specialist Children’s Service by local professionals or parents/carers. The following information sets out how to refer into the service.
Urgent referrals
There are specific urgent referrals where you should contact the relevant team within the Specialist Children’s Service directly in the first instance. These referrals are set out below.
- Child Protection Referrals to the Disabled Children’s Social Work Team, please telephone the team on 020 8430 7942 or 020 8430 7946 to provide details of the referral and concerns. This telephone referral should be followed up in writing immediately.
- Children’s Community Nursing Team urgent referrals, please phone the team on 020 8430 7930 to provide details of the request and fax the request to 020 8430 7931.
- Speech and Language Therapy referrals from Acorn Ward or Special Care Baby Unit (Whipps Cross University Hospital) for acute intervention, please phone the team on 020 8430 7975 or 7972 to provide details of the request.
- Urgent Community Paediatric Referrals including requests for Child Protection Examinations, please phone the team on 020 8430 7893 to provide details of the request.
Referrals from parents and carers
Parents and carers can make a referral to the Specialist Children’s Service by completing a Specialist Children’s Service Referral form which can be obtained by phoning 020 8430 7890/7901 or download the Referral Form (371KB Word file).
What happens when I make a referral?
Referrals made to Specialist Children’s Service (SCS) will be received by a Referral Officer. The referral will be dealt with by the Referral Intake Team.
- If the child’s referral is for the involvement of a single team (e.g. Speech and Language Therapy) it will be forwarded to that team for follow up.
- If the child’s referral needs the involvement of more than one team (multi-disciplinary assessment or intervention) it will be presented to the weekly Specialist Children’s Service Referral Panel. This referral panel will initiate the care pathway and plan the response, including identification of a key worker / lead professional when required.
- In cases where the referral does not meet the criteria set within the Specialist Children’s Service, this will be communicated to the referrer with a written response. For more information on the criteria download the Specialist Children's Services - Information and Guidelines for Referrers (1.2MB PDF file).
- The referrer and the child’s parents / carers will be provided with written confirmation of the referral outcome.
Some of these documents are in PDF format. To view them you may need to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Contact us
Specialist Children's Service
The Wood Street Health Centre
6 Linford Road
Walthamstow E17 3LA
Tel: 020 8430 7777
