Health and Wellbeing
Local Health Services
Staying well is essential to the health and wellbeing of all children and young people in Birmingham. Children and young people with special educational needs may need access to more targeted and specialist local health services to support their specific needs.
The following services are available to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Health Visiting
Health visitors work with all parents who have new babies, offering support and advice from late pregnancy until the child is at school. Birmingham Forward Steps is a combined service which includes health visitors and voluntary agency partners across the children’s centres. The services deliver early years health and wellbeing support for children aged 0–5 in Birmingham.
School Health Support Services
The school health support service will be delivered to all children and young people and their families where the child or young person is.
School nurses are part of the Birmingham School Health Support Service which Birmingham City Council commissions. School nurses work across all mainstream schools to protect and promote the physical and emotional health of children and young people and to ensure that they get the most from their education.
See the School Health Support Service for more information.
Special School Nursing
Special school nurses undertake a range of nursing activities to maintain and improve the health of children and young people with complex health needs attending a special school.
Find out more about Special School Nursing.
GPs and Dentists
Your General Practitioner (GP) is your ‘family doctor’ and the main point of contact for general healthcare for NHS patients. All UK residents are entitled to the services of an NHS GP. The GP treats all common medical conditions and may refer to other specialist services if required.
Primary Care Networks – NHS Birmingham and Solihull
If you need help finding a GP, Dentist or Pharmacy, you can search by postcode from the following.
The Neurodevelopment Pathway Team (NDP)
The NDP team is a multidisciplinary (MDT) professional service that assesses children and young people for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Neurodevelopmental (ND) disorders influence brain functions and alter neurological development, causing social, cognitive, and emotional functioning difficulties. A child with a neurodevelopmental disorder may have problems with perception, concentration, impulse control, communication, social interaction and emotional expression. The most common ND disorders are autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit / hyperactive disorder (ADHD).
Find out more about the Neurodevelopment Pathway Team.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapists provide support to children and young people to participate in everyday activities of daily life, within the areas of self-care, school and play/leisure.
The NHS Community Occupational Therapy service in Birmingham provides advice, parent workshops and support for children and young people with a functional difficulty which has a significant impact on their participation in aspects of daily life.
Find out more about local occupational therapy within Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHC).
Find out more about local NHS occupational therapy
Accessing OT sensory assessments leaflet
Birmingham City Council also provides an Occupational Therapy service which provides assessment and aids, equipment and adaptations at home for children and young people with disabilities.
Children and Young People’s Occupational Therapy Team (CYPOT)
Common Paediatric
Community paediatricians are specialist children’s doctors who are trained to assess and manage a wide range of developmental, physical and social issues that can affect a child’s health, safety and learning.
Child Development Centres
A team of healthcare professionals are based at four Child Development Centres across Birmingham. They provide co-ordinated team-based assessment and intervention for pre-school children who have complex developmental difficulties across the five Child Development Centres in Birmingham.
Find out more about child development centres.
Journey through Child Development Centres explained.
Community Nursing and Palliative Care
This specialist nursing service cares for children and young people who have a specialist nursing need at home or in a community setting.
The children’s community nursing and palliative care team cares for children in the community with a specialist nursing need. It can help children and their families manage:
- Life-limiting or life-threatening conditions
- Oxygen-dependent babies
- Chronic illness
- Childhood cancers
- Nasogastric tube feeding
- End-of-life and palliative care
- Bereavement support
Find out more about the children’s community nursing and palliative care team.
Transition to Adult Health Services
The transition from children’s to adult’s health services is a significant step and transition planning with health practitioners needs to start by school year 9 (age 13 to 14 years). Young people who are moving from children’s to adult services will have an annual meeting to review transition planning from age 13/14 onwards until their transition is complete.
Ideally the health transition plans and reviews will link with other multi-agency review meetings such as the Annual Review of an education, health and care plan or SEN support plan.
All health services are required to have transition pathways for young people moving to adult health services. More details about this can be found in your local NHS trust.
The Waiting Room
Developed by Common Unity and Forward For Life. The waiting room provides you with links to hundreds of Birmingham and Solihull-based services that can help you take more control of your health and wellbeing. It also provides links to key national organisations that can help you be more informed of the options available.