Posts Tagged ‘autism’

Following extensive clinical and
managerial discussions between York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and
NHS Scarborough and Ryedale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) regarding
children and young people’s behavioural services in Scarborough, the Trust made
the decision that it is no longer the appropriate provider for this specialist
service.

In December 2018 the Trust informed the
CCG of this decision and supported the CCG in identifying alternative
specialist mental health providers for these services.

These providers have now
been lined up by NHS Scarborough and Ryedale CCG and families will be written
to and informed of the new arrangements for their child as soon as contract
arrangements have been finalised.

A small number of
children will be referred back to their GP to discuss future care options.

The behavioural
services included in the new provision will include children and young people’s
autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnostic
assessments, as well as referrals for behavioural problems where there may also
be health concerns to be addressed. These services will continue to be provided
in Scarborough.

The majority of Community
Paediatric and Children’s Therapy services provided by York Teaching Hospital
NHS Foundation Trust are unaffected by these changes and will continue to be
provided in Scarborough.

Dr Peter Billingsley, NHS
Scarborough and Ryedale CCG Associate Chair, said: “The decision of our local
Trust has given us an opportunity to bring forward plans for developing more
specialist and tailored services for some of our most vulnerable children and
their families, and we will continue to do this over the coming year in
partnership with North Yorkshire County Council and others.

“Ultimately, our
ambition is to reduce waiting times and speed up diagnosis so we can help more
families in Scarborough and Ryedale.

“The Trust is working
closely and very positively with the CCG and the new providers to minimise
disruption and make sure all of the children who are on the caseload now, and
who have been referred in more recently, will be transferred safely and
communications will be going out to all those families over the next couple of
weeks.”

Across North
Yorkshire, clinical commissioning groups are facing similar issues and over the
next 12 months the CCGs will be working together to review all behavioural
service models, alongside partners including GPs, the local authority, children
and their families to see how services can work better together to develop a
robust and sustainable model and reduce the waiting times for these behaviour
services going forward.  

In the meantime
children and their families should continue to access health services through
their GP as required, and if parents and families require information or advice
they are requested to visit the NHS website when seeking assistance in
addressing behaviour concerns at https://www.nhs.uk/

Parents, families or
carers can access North Yorkshire County Council services for advice,
information and support which includes the Healthy Child Programme (Health
Visitors and School Nurses) by visiting the websites below for details:

• www.northyorks.gov.uk/our-partners-and-commissioned-services
• http://cyps.northyorks.gov.uk/autism
• www.northyorks.gov.uk/send-specialist-support-and-inclusion

There are also a
number of charities which provide useful information and support around
children’s behaviour issues:

• www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk/
• www.autism.org.uk
• www.nipinthebud.org/child-mental-health-conditions/recognising-adhd

If there are any other identified health needs or concerns then families should contact their GP for advice, support and onward referral as required to other core health services which can address these health needs.