How To Access The service

Overview of service provision
The Early Years Children’s Occupational Therapy service (OT) work with children and their families to help develop and maximise safety, independence and functional skills in everyday tasks when children are affected by injury, illness, developmental delay and other disabilities. By providing early assessment and intervention, we aim to maximise the functional outcomes for all children allowing them to participate in the day to day activities of self-care, productivity and leisure.

The team work in a variety of different settings including homes, nursery/pre-school’s, schools, specialist education and needs schools and clinics. We aim to support in the following ways;

• Advice and support to encourage physical development.
• Assessment of fine motor skills and advice on how best to support fine motor development through activity and play.
• Assessment and support to develop functional daily living skills such as dressing, toileting and cutlery use.
• Support with postural management of children with complex physical disabilities.
• Assessment and provision of specialist equipment such as seating, bathing and toileting equipment.
• Advice to parents, carers and education settings to support a child’s therapeutic and manual handling needs.
• Assessment for home adaptations and liaison with Wirral Council Adaptations Team.
• Signposting and referring to specialist services, agencies and support networks.
• Sensory advice and strategies to support children and their families with participating in activities of daily living.

How to refer
Referrals can come from a range of healthcare and educational professionals, including health visiting team members, allied health professionals, GP’s, Paediatric consultants, school special education needs coordinators and nursery managers. We do not accept referrals made directly by parent/s or guardians. Referrals must be completed using our referral form and all relevant information included in order to allow us to triage and plan our involvement. All referrals should be returned by email to wirralchildrenstherapyservice@nhs.net and must be completed in full. Incomplete referrals will be returned to the referrer and will not be triaged by the team.

General referral criteria
Referrals to the Early Year’s Children’s OT service must meet all of the following criteria in order be triaged:
1. All children must be registered with a Wirral G.P
2. All Children must be within the ages of 0-4 years.
3. All referrals must clearly indicate the functional difficulties that are impacting on the child’s ability to participate in activities of daily living.

Please note that should the above criteria not be met, a referral will be not be triaged and instead declined with a letter sent to the referrer informing them of this.

1. For full details of our referral criteria please see the referral criteria document below
2. To complete a referral please complete the referral form document below and send this via email to wirralchildrenstherapyservice@nhs.net.