Local Offer - Health

Support whilst waiting

Our Solihull Children’s Community Health services are continuing to experience a high volume of referrals and unfortunately that means children and young people are waiting longer than usual for their first appointment.

We understand the wait might be stressful, especially if it is preventing your child and family from carrying out day-to-day activities and that you may have concerns.

Whilst the teams are working hard to improve this and apologise for the delays there is some useful information / things you can do at home to help you manage health and wellbeing while you wait.

• Strategies to reduce anxiety and aggression
• Mental Health self-help and online resources
• Top-tips for families at home
• ADHD parent / carer booklet
• ADHD support information
• ASD support information

Situational Mutism Information Pack

This Situational Mutism (SM) Information Pack was co produced following feedback from Birmingham and Solihull parents and carers that there was little information about how to get support for children, young people and young adults with Situational Mutism.

This pack includes:

• information about Situational Mutism and how it presents
• feedback from young people on their experience of SM
• advice and guidance for professionals, and parents and carers
• signposting to resources for young people, professionals, and parent and carers

Situational Mutism Information Pack

If your child has a specific health need (such as Diabetes, Asthma, Epilepsy, Severe allergy etc) they may need a health care plan to advise the school staff on how to manage their condition. Every child’s need is usually specific to them so all care plans should be individualised for the child.

This is usually separate to an Education Health Care Plan as it looks at the health need and any specific actions or precautions the school should take into account in relation to that health condition when your child is in their care.

If your child is in a Solihull mainstream school or is about to start school into a Solihull mainstream school setting and you think your child needs a health care plan you can contact your school nurse through the school or via their website and ask for advice a support.

If your child is in a Solihull special school or is about to start into a Solihull special school setting and you think your child needs a health care plan you can contact your school nurse through the school or via their website and ask for advice and support.

It is important that a health care plan is clear, specific and detailed therefore your school nurse may ask to meet with you and your child and/or your permission to contact any specialist nurses, your child’s Gp or your child’s Consultant to ensure the information that is shared in the plan is accurate and up to date. You should receive a copy of this care plan for your own records.

It is expected that any health care plan is reviewed annually as a minimum but if anything changes with your child’s health condition it is important that you share this with the school nurse who may update the health care plan earlier. This is really important to ensure your child’s needs are still being appropriately met.

If your child has a regular medication that needs to be given in school this may not need a health care plan but will require a consent form completing - please ask your child’s school directly about their medicines in school policy and procedure.

The Vulnerabilities Team at University Hospitals Birmingham

The team consists of Learning Disability, Mental Health and General Nurses; the Vulnerabilities Team supports Children, young people and Adults with Learning Disabilities and/or Autism.

The team act as a point of contact through face to face or virtual support, when utilising services as either an inpatient or Outpatient at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital and Solihull Hospital.

The team accept referrals from families, carers, person with parental responsibility and community teams for advice and support for planned admissions or emergency admissions with a focus on improving the quality of the experience at UHB.

The team encourage the use of the Hospital Passport which tells staff at the hospital about your healthcare, your disability, how you like to communicate and how to make things easier for you - such as reasonable adjustments. The Team will also ensure that you are Digitally Flagged so staff know about your Disability and it will also alert the team to any future admissions so that we can provide support.

The team can be contacted Monday to Friday via the advice line 07768926651 or via e-mail vulnerabilities@uhb.nhs.uk.

Birmingham Children’s Hospital - Learning Disability Team

If your child has a learning disability and you are concerned about their stay in hospital, the Learning Disability Team can try and help.

The team can be contacted on 0121 333 8048.

If your child has a learning disability passport, please bring it to hospital with you. Additional information about reasonable adjustments.

• Additional information about reasonable adjustments

Did you know that children and young people with a learning disability are entitled to an annual health check to keep them well? Visit our annual health checks page and watch the video below: 

All young people and adults from the age of 14 years with a learning disability (LD) should have a health check every year by their GP.

It is essential to ensure that the GP has all the children and young people’s names on their LD register so that families can be called for appointments for the annual LD health check. Unless a young person’s learning disability status is registered on the GP systems then reasonable adjustments to care for that individual cannot be anticipated and made.

Regular health checks can detect treatable illnesses and help prevent more serious ones, as well as familiarising the young person with the GP practice. which they may use throughout their adult life.

• Find out more about annual health checks

Continuing Care

Continuing Care Continuing Care packages for children or young people up to 18 years is for those with highly complex health needs that cannot be met by existing services.

These health needs may be the result of a congenital condition, long-term, life-limiting or life-threatening condition, disability or a serious illness or injury.

For these children and young people, they may be offered an additional care package known as Continuing Care.

Find out more about children and young people’s continuing care and read the government’s guidance on children and young people’s continuing care.

The NHS Birmingham and Solihull is responsible for leading the process of identifying if a child or young person is eligible for continuing care assessment.

NHS Birmingham and Solihull have produced an information leaflet  for parent and carers. If you require further information you can contact the contact the Children and Young People’s continuing care team at on 0121 203 3222.

Transition to Adult Continuing Healthcare provision

Continuing care packages for children and young people stops when a child or young person reaches 18 years of age.

For people over the age of 18 with severe and complex health needs, support may be provided through NHS continuing healthcare for adults. This is organised differently from continuing care for children and young people, and there is a different assessment process.

If your child or young person receives continuing care and it seems likely they will need similar support when they are an adult this should be identified in discussion with you when they reach age 14 years. At 16-17 years your young person should be referred for initial assessment for adult NHS continuing healthcare. This should again be a multi-disciplinary assessment and a decision about eligibility should be made when they are 17 years old.

Personal health budgets

If you or your child has NHS funded complex healthcare needs, you can ask the NHS for a personal health budget.

This is an amount of money from the NHS, which patients agree with their nurse to spend on their health needs. The aim is to give people more choice and control over their healthcare to increase their independence.

A family guide to CETR and dynamic support registers

NHS England DSR and CETR policy

The Dynamic Support Register (DSR) is the mechanism for local Birmingham and Solihull system partners (health, social care, education, and third and independent sector) to:

• Identify people with a learning disability or autism who may be at risk of admission to a mental health hospital
• Work together to review the needs of each person registered on the DSR
• Mobilise the right support to help prevent the person being admitted to a mental health hospital.

Early identification of people at risk of admission is essential for the prevention of avoidable hospital admissions. If risk is identified early enough, the likelihood of admission is reduced through the provision of a co-ordinated community support offer.

Before entering an individual onto the register please ensure you have gained their consent, or have undertaken a best interest decision if capacity is impaired. You are accountable for gaining informed consent and for recording such decisions in your own record keeping systems. Please visit our Birmingham and Solihull ICS web site for up to date information for citizens, including Easy Read formats.

Every referral to the DSR will be risk stratified in terms of potential for admission. This process will be undertaken by system partners together with the individual and their family or carers where appropriate.

Once an individual is placed on the register, local system partners will work through a core set of actions we offer to citizens when considering how best to support them and to mitigate the risk of admission. We recognise every individual is different, so not all actions will be applicable in every circumstance. Those actions are published on the ICS website and are contained in the information leaflets for our citizens.

DSR meetings to review the level of risk and to track progress with actions are held on a regular and ongoing basis with key system partners. The DSR is dynamic so risk may change and persons may come on and off the register at different times, according to individual circumstances.

DSR referrals can be made via the portal here Birmingham and Solihull DSR :: Dynamic Support Register

Barnado's Keyworker Service

The Key Working Function has been developed as a response to the NHS England & NHS Improvement Long Term Plan (LTP) commitment that eligible children, young people and inpatients with a learning disability, autism - or both - with the most complex needs will have a designated Key Worker. 

The Key Worker service in Birmingham and Solihull is being delivered by Barnardo’s and aims to provide dedicated key workers for children and young people with a learning disability and/or autism diagnosis, aged 0-25 with a focus on 14-25’s, who are already in hospital or in crisis and at risk of admission. The team will provide support to children, young adults and families, helping them to access the right help at the right time across complex systems. 

BSOL Keyworker Service leaflet

Transition to Adult health services is a significant step. In the time when you are aged between 14 to 18 the changeover to adult health services will begin and you will begin to see changes to your health support (if you receive it). All health services are required to have transition pathways for young people who require adult health services. You should be told by the people delivering your treatment what the changes will be, but it’s worth talking to each service to see what this change will look like and how you can prepare.

Your GP (the doctor you see locally) will stay the same and you will continue to visit the same GP surgery as before unless you move out of the area.

Consent to treatment

From the age of 16 it will be you who gives permission before you have any medical treatment, examination, or test. The NHS say on their website: ‘Like adults, young people (aged 16 or 17) are presumed to have sufficient capacity to decide on their own medical treatment, unless there's significant evidence to suggest otherwise.’

Consent to treatment - children and young people (NHS)

This means that your doctor may ask for your permission to talk to your parents about your health and treatment, and ultimately it will be you who says yes or no to something.

Learning Disability Register

If you have a learning disability you can ask to be added to the Learning Disability Register at your doctor’s surgery. Anyone of any age, and any level of learning disability can join the register, even if you live independently and have little or no support. Find out more about the learning disability register.

Annual Health Checks

Annual Health Checks, by being on the Learning Disability Register you will get extra support when you visit the doctors and could receive an annual health check (Mencap guide) from when you are 14 years old. Mencap have guides and information on their website about annual health checks and the learning disability register. They have a section about health for those with a learning disability, including frequently asked questions and information about getting help when you visit the doctor.

Health services can be confusing and there are a number of different services and agencies involved.

Our Health services for children in Solihull chart shows health services and agencies involved in providing care for children and young people in Solihull.

Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (formerly CCG):

SEND is a priority within the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) in the following ways:

• ICBs must consider how they will meet the needs of children and young people aged 0 to 25 and set this out in their Forward Plans
• ICBs must consider how to ensure a diverse skill mix of leadership, which should include a consideration of whether there is knowledge and expertise related to children and to SEND
• Each ICB must have an Executive Lead responsible for SEND and accountable for how well SEND support by partners is delivered. ICBs have to work with children’s system leaders, children and young people and families when forming their strategies and have to show how they have met their statutory responsibilities relating to SEND in their annual report.

The ICS Briefing provides a detailed summary of what the ICS means for children and families with SEND.

If you would like further information please visit Caring about healthier lives: Birmingham and Solihull ICS. 

Dates of upcoming NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board meetings can be found here. These meetings are open to the public.

The Designated Clinical / Medical Officer Team

The Solihull Designate Medical and Clinical Officers (DMO/DCOs) support the Health Integrated Care System to ensure they meet their responsibilities under the SEND Code of Practice (2015). DCOs and DMOs are typically health care professionals e.g. Speech and Language Therapies, Community Paediatricians or GPs.

They work with their education, social care and expert by experience colleagues with a focus on improving the quality of experience of health support for children and young people who have SEND support needs.

If you have questions or concerns about the care you have received speak to the health professional involved or their manager in the first instance.

If your query remains unresolved you can contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), who can provide support, advice and information to help you.

If you are worried about the care you have received, you can make a complaint.

Make an enquiry of complaint

Enquiries are dealt with by the organisation that employs the health professional.

Health visiting and school nursing services

Your views matter

Children and Young People community health services

University Hospitals Birmingham; Community Paediatrics, Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy, hospitals etc.

Make a complaint

SOLAR

Patient Advice and Liaison Service

Patient Advice and Liaison Service complaints and compliments

Healthwatch Solihull

Healthwatch Solihull is the local champion for health and social care. They are independent and are not part of NHS or care services.

They:

• answer questions about local NHS and care services
• link to the Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS), supporting those making a complaint about NHS services
• gather information about what people think about NHS and care services to influence the planning and delivery of services

Contact Healthwatch Solihull

• Telephone: 0808 196 3912
• Email: enquiries@healthwatchsolihull.org.uk

Healthwatch Solihull Enterprise Centre
1 Hedingham Grove
Chelmunds Cross
Chelmsley Wood
Solihull
37 7TP