There are different kinds of health services available to support your child.
These range from:
Most health services are ‘universal’ which means they are available to everyone.
In Brent these services are arranged or ‘commissioned’ by the Integrated Care Board (ICB) in North West London which is called NHS NW London.
Children with SEND can access universal services directly without needing to go through any kind of referral. The majority of children with SEND will have their needs met in this way.
These services include:
Some of these services are offered through Brent’s network of Family Wellbeing Centres. These centres offer a range of support to you and your child – from pregnancy, to the age of 18 (25 for young people with SEND).
You can find your nearest GP, dentist or pharmacist using by entering your postcode below.
If you are worried about your child’s development you should contact your GP or health visitor first or speak with your child’s school or nursery.
Children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities may be entitled to receive the following:
Anyone aged 14 or over who is on their GP's learning disability register can have a free annual health check.
You do not have to be ill to have one - in fact, most people have their annual health check done when they are feeling well. It is a good way for you and your child to get to know your doctor better. It will also help your GP better understand what care is right for your child.
Support, advice and easy to read resources about joining the learning disability register are also available from Mencap.
Health passports are available for children and young people with learning disabilities and/or complex needs.
The ‘passport’ is a booklet that can be taken with you when your child is attending hospital or other places that provide health and disability services.
It gives healthcare workers important information about your child so they can get a better understanding of their needs and the support they may require.
The passport includes details about:
Children’s services and schools in Brent have copies and can help you complete one for your child.
Children and young people may need targeted health services if their needs cannot be fully met through universal services.
Your child will normally need to be assessed and referred by certain professionals to access these services. This could include your child’s GP, school, health visitor or social worker.
These services are specially designed to support and treat people with certain conditions.
These could include hearing impairments or conditions which affect a child’s communication skills.
Targeted services include:
Children or young people with complex health care needs may need specialist health services if their parents or carers are unable to provide all the care they may need.
These needs could be because of a life-threatening condition, profound disabilities or for children who may need safeguarding.
To receive support from specialist services, a child or young person’s disability must be permanent and substantial, and have a negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities and their family’s wellbeing.
Specialist health services include:
Dynamic support registers (DSRs) and Care (Education) and Treatment Reviews(C(E)TRs) are essential elements of the pathway providing people with a learning disability and autistic people with appropriate support and care at the right time – so that they can lead the lives they want to and meet their ambitions and aspirations; and can stay safely and healthily in the community or return to this as soon as possible.
NHSE have co-produced a set of young people Dynamic Support Register (DSR) and Care Education and Treatment Review (CETR) guides for Autistic young people aged between 16 and 25 years. These leaflets are aimed to empower young people to better understand the process and benefits of deciding whether to be on a DSR, have a C(E)TR and be actively involved in this process.
They are accessed via the NHSE DSR CETR webpage
Children and young people with SEND may need support with emotional health and wellbeing at some time.
This could be for feelings of anxiety, depression or for an eating disorder. If you are worried, look for more help. Any professional working with children and young people should know what to do such as a GP, teacher, SENCO or health visitor.
To help, there is a wide range of support out there.
This includes:
Our Preparing for Adulthood website has more information on this support, as well as details of other help and advice available.
Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) occurs when children or young people experience severe difficulties attending school, often resulting in severe distress associated with school attendance and frequent or prolonged absences from school. This might be due to a range of different factors linked to school, home and the child or young person.
Psychologists have carried out extensive research into Emotionally Based School Avoidance and estimate that up to 5% of children experience EBSA.
You may have noticed your child:
At school, your child may not express any distress at all, meaning that school staff do not identify or notice the EBSA. Alternatively, your child may:
Evidence from research has shown that the best way to support children experiencing EBSA is for the family, school and child to work together to determine the causes, triggers and factors that have led to the school avoidance. Psychologists recommend being curious about the reasons why children are anxious about attending school.
Having a calm conversation about what is making them feel worried is a good place to start. Ask to meet with your child’s school to talk about these difficulties and to put a plan of support in place for your child. If you are ever concerned for your child’s safety and wellbeing, please refer to the list of resources and services in the Emotional Health and Wellbeing section.
Brent Inclusion services are currently developing an EBSA support strategy. A working group of professionals from Brent services, CAMHS and schools have attended EBSA training delivered by psychologists.
The working group is developing materials and resources to be shared with Brent schools by January 2023, and an EBSA training package for school staff will be offered in spring 2023.
Currently, a range of Brent services including: the Educational Psychology Service, WEST (Wellbeing and Emotional Support Team), BOAT (Brent Outreach Autism Team) Early Help and The Virtual School are working with schools and families to support children and young people experiencing EBSA.
This EBSA toolkit provides a deeper explanation of Emotionally Based School Avoidance including: risk factors, how anxiety works, autism and EBSA, and what support strategies can be helpful for children and young people. For an accessible version of any of the resources referred to in the toolkit or on this page, you can email epservice@brent.gov.uk
There’s a range of support available to parents or carers of children with SEND who are accessing health services.
Healthwatch Brent is an independent organisation there to help people get the best out of their health and social care services. Based on people’s experiences of local health and social care services, it can make recommendations about how those services could or should be improved.
Get Your Rights provides information to promote a better understanding of the rights children and young people have when they are using the NHS.
PALS can help when you have concerns about the treatment and care you have received. PALS provides confidential advice and will help to resolve problems or issues that you have about the services.
You can find PALS groups in Brent on the NHS Choices website.
The Brent Parent Carer Forum offers information, support and friendship for families of children and young people aged 0-25 with SEND.
The Brent SEND information, advice and support service (SENDIASS) provides impartial and confidential information, advice and support about education, health and social care issues for parents and carers of children and young people with SEND aged 0-25.
There are details of more organisations that provide health and wellbeing services and support on our Local Offer directory.