Following the announcement from the Prime Minister on 22 February 2021, advising that all children and young people will return to educational settings from 8 March 2021, there will be no change to the Children and Young People’s Therapies service offer. We will continue to comply with social distancing measures when delivering appointments by using a virtual first approach. Therapists will deliver face to face intervention where indicated, wearing appropriate PPE for all sessions, both in education setting, clinic or at home. Within HCT all staff have been offered the COVID-19 vaccination and those who are undertaking face to face appointments are regularly self-testing using a Lateral Flow test.
Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust’s (HCT), Children and Young People’s Therapies Service provides Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Speech and Language Therapy for children and young people in Hertfordshire. The integrated therapies service delivers holistic support for a child or young person’s needs, under one provider, with multidisciplinary working across the three clinical therapy professions.
The service is jointly commissioned by East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Herts Valley Clinical Commissioning Group and Hertfordshire County Council to provide support and advice for children and young people from 0-18 years of age, or up to 25 years for those with an Education Health and Care Plan.
Our focus is on maximising children and young people’s functional skills and abilities to support them to be happy, healthy, safe and independent at home and in school. We share the vision of our partners in Hertfordshire County Council to ensure every child has the best possible start in life and the best opportunities throughout their education.
More detailed information about the Children and Young People’s Therapies Service, including how service is delivered, referrals and how we work with children and their families is available here.
To find out more about each service please follow the links below:
We are currently reviewing our training courses and workshop sessions, so that these can be delivered in a new virtual format. We hope that our new virtual training sessions will become available later in the year. New dates and details will be added here so please come back and check again if you are interested in any of our sessions.
Contact the Service
Telephone: 01923 470680 for Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy 01992 823193 for Speech and Language Therapy 01992 823093 for our Advice Line for queries from parents, carers and professionals
Children and Young People’s Therapies has changed the way we are working due to the Covid-19. Information for parents/carers and headteachers on how the service is continuing to support children from September is available here:
Please do not attend a face-to-face appointment if you, your child or anyone in your household is exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms or if you or your child are required to self-isolate during the time of the appointment.
Only one parent/guardian is permitted to attend the appointment with a child. Please do not bring any other children to the appointment.
On arrival at the HCT centre, please follow local instructions provided when the appointment was booked. Please arrive at your appointment time as there is limited waiting space in the buildings and car parks. A clinician will collect you and lead you to the clinic room. Clinicians will be wearing personal protective equipment, as per recommended guidelines.
We ask that you maintain social distancing wherever possible and when entering the building, please ensure that both of you are wearing a face covering or mask (very young children or those with additional needs will not be required to wear a face covering or mask).
Strict cleaning procedures are in place.
Along with our Advice Line we are also delivering:
Support for CYP who need to be discharged out of hospital
Support for CYP who may require end of life care or an urgent social care assessment
Support for CYP with dysphagia (eating and drinking difficulties)
Urgent moving/handling and access assessments, and advice/review of equipment needs
Assessments for statutory Education, Health and Care plans
Contacting families of CYP with therapy provision as part of their EHCP to discuss their child’s needs
Appointments to review a CYP’s needs where they have complex or urgent therapy needs or for those CYP whose needs are as yet unclear
We are not currently delivering face to face groups due to the increased risk of transmission that they pose.
If you have any urgent or new queries please contact the CYPT Advice Line number - 01992 823093 and a therapist will contact you to discuss your concern.
Please remember to also look on the Website pages under Useful Information for further advice and support.
Therapy teams work with children and young people in the most appropriate setting to promote functional skills. We routinely visit early years settings, mainstream schools and specialist educational settings. Some children may be seen at home or in clinic according to clinical need.
Multidisciplinary therapy teams are co-located in locality areas to facilitate the co-ordination of care for children, young people and their families. We have four teams across the county:
North Hertfordshire and Stevenage CYPT Team
East Hertfordshire CYPT Team
St Albans and Dacorum CYPT Team
Watford and Three Rivers CYPT Team
In addition to these teams we have specialist Occupational Therapy teams who work across the county to support with home adaptations and deliver specialist Moving and Handling training. We have a specialist Speech and Language Therapy team who support multidisciplinary autism assessment pathways across Hertfordshire.
We provide support and advice for children and young people from 0-18 years of age. Our Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy teams also support young people up to 25 years of age, when therapy provision is specified in their Education Health and Care Plan.
We are commissioned to support children and young people who:
attend an educational setting within Hertfordshire
live at an address within Hertfordshire
are registered with a Hertfordshire GP
All referrals will be triaged by the service to assess need and impact. Families and the referring professional will be advised of the next steps following triage.
All referrals sent to the service are triaged by a therapist. The information in the referral will be used to make a decision on whether an assessment appointment will be offered. Referrals for Physiotherapy must be made by a Health Professional. Referrals for Occupational Therapy and Speech & Language Therapy can be made by education and health professionals. If your child is in full-time school you should discuss any concerns you may have with your child’s teacher. Some children can be supported in their school without a referral to the service.
Virtual screening clinics are now available to book on through Eventbrite. These clinics are an opportunity for you as a parent to talk with the therapist regarding your child’s development and for us to gather information to understand your child’s needs. You may have been directed to these clinics by a Health Visitor or a professional working with your child but you do not need a referral to attend one of these clinics.
We have two separate clinics running, one by Speech and Language Therapists and one by Occupational Therapists.
The criteria for attending these clinics is as follows:
OT:
Screening Clinics are for children between 4 years and 8 years old i.e. Early Years and Key Stage 1 / Reception to Year 2. The clinics are to provide families with advice and support when there are concerns about their child’s development.
We are unable to see children requiring specialist equipment, those where assessment for home adaptations is being requested and those with complex medical needs including children discharged from hospital.
SaLT:
Screening Clinics are for pre-school children, i.e. children who are 2 years 6 months and above and are not yet in full time school. We do not carry out assessments of eating and drinking at Screening clinics
We are unable to see children with Education, Health and Care plans or those requiring associated assessment within these clinics. A referral should be made by your child’s Special Educational Needs officer.
Children already known to the service or children beyond the given age ranges for each clinic are not able to be seen. Parents can ring our Advice Line to discuss their child’s needs instead.
We are unable to see children with eating and drinking difficulties within these clinics
Please click HERE to access further information and to book your place for the OT Virtual Screening Clinic.
Please click HERE to access further information and to book your place for the SaLT Virtual Screening Clinic.
If you would like to share your story, please contact the Patient Experience team on 01707 388036 or email pals.hchs@nhs.net.
We would also love to hear about your experience on our service, please complete a survey by clicking here.
We value your feedback - click here to see actions taken as a direct result of your feedback. Please contact Abigail Bude (Patient Experience and Quality Assurance Lead) on Abigail.bude@nhs.net if you would like to provide feedback about any aspect of speech and language therapy, occupational therapy or physiotherapy.
