Cheyne Child Development Service

What we do 

The Cheyne Child Development Service is a family-centred service based at Chelsea and Westminster dedicated to supporting children with special educational and developmental needs.

We maintain close links with local borough agencies, clinical commissioning groups and school nursing services to provide seamless support for children.

We offer assessment and treatment service for children up to the age of 19 with a wide range of developmental difficulties. 

Leaflet

Our team

Our team consists of Community Paediatricians, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Clinical Psychology, Speech and language therapy, Music Therapy, Physiotherapy, and Occupational Therapy. A full range of extra support is provided by the hospital's multi-professional paediatric specialists.

Community Paediatrician

Paediatricians are doctors who have specialised in Children’s Medicine. Community Paediatricians include Consultant Neurodevelopmental Paediatricians who have specialised in the  assessment, diagnosis and management of Children with developmental difficulties and children with disability. 

T: 020 3315 6488

Speech and Language Therapy

Speech and language therapy provide a service to pre-school children with speech, language, communication and/or swallowing difficulties. Further information can be found here: https://clch.nhs.uk/services/speech-and-language-therapy-children or by telephoning 020 7266 8777. If your child is school-aged please speak to the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) at your child's school about supporting your child's language and communication skills.

Occupational Therapy

The Occupational Therapy Team works collaboratively with children, their families and school communities to enable children to achieve their potential within their occupations at school, home, and the wider community. Our Occupational Therapists (OTs) may see a child or young person who requires help with: developing the skills needed to participate in self-care tasks (e.g. tooth brushing, toileting, washing, dressing, eating); participating in learning tasks (e.g. writing, using scissors, selecting and organising tools/belongings); positioning and posture to support participation in

everyday activities; accessing play/leisure resources and physical access - this may include supporting a child with motor coordination difficulties.

T: 020 7266 8777

Clinical Nurse Specialist

The Clinical Nurse Specialist’s has experience of working with families who have children with special needs. They will work together with your family health visitor or school nurse to help you access community services that will offer you and your child the relevant support. They will assess your family’s needs and can offer advice.

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Clinical Psychologist

The Clinical Psychology team offer individual/family support, group support, or consultations with school/nursery staff and other professionals for a range of difficulties (e.g. behaviour, emotional development, sleep and feeding).

T: 020 3315 3196

Music Therapy

Music therapy uses shared music making as a way of supporting children who may have communication, social, physical or emotional difficulties. Referral to music therapy can be made for children up to the age of 5 years and 11 months.

Music therapists work with children to support their development through active music making. This can help a child’s communication, interaction, and movement skills. We offer individual and group sessions.

T: 020 3315 6427

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy can enable your child to develop his or her motor skills and physical independence. Paediatric physiotherapists have detailed knowledge of typical and atypical physical development in children. They complete additional training to specialise in the assessment and treatment of babies, children and young people, and have expertise in the assessment and treatment of movement difficulties. These may include delayed development and coordination of motor skills or a long term illness or a disability, for example cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy.

T: 020 3315 8667

Location

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital (main location)

Cheyne Child Development Services
Doughty House
Netherton Grove
Block C
London
SW10 9TQ

T: 020 3315 6488 

Parkview Centre for Health and Wellbeing

Cranston Court
56 Bloemfontein Road
White City
London
W12 7FG

T: 020 3704 6060

How do I get an appointment?

Children will usually be referred to our service by a doctor such as their GP or another professional such as a speech and language therapist or through the child’s school. Our service is available to children with their GP in the following boroughs/postcodes:

  • Kensington and Chelsea: SW3, SW5, SW7, W8, W14, SW10
  • Fulham: SW6
  • Hammersmith: W6, W12, W14, NW10 (partial)
  • South Westminster: SW1

 A copy can be sent to us either via email or post;

  • By email to chelwest.ccdsintake@nhs.net
  • Post to our address:

    Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
    Cheyne Child Development Services
    Doughty House
    Netherton Grove
    Block C
    London
    SW10 9TQ

Referrals received to the service process

  • All referrals will be discussed in a multidisciplinary intake meeting which occurs once a week
  • Please note that the referral information about the child will be shared with a range of professionals
  • It is really important that the family has given consent for the referral to be sent
  • Please note that you may need to provide detailed information so that it is clear to us which service(s) will be most appropriate

Changing or cancelling your appointment

If you need to change or cancel your child’s appointment for any reason, contact our reception on 020 3315 6488. Please tell us as soon as possible so we can offer the appointment to another patient.

Before your appointment

We may need additional information such as asking you to complete a questionnaire before your appointment, so that we can use the information you provide to support the assessments made at the clinic.

The number of referrals to our service has been steadily increasing in recent years, which has led to longer waiting times. This is a national problem affecting services across the UK. We know that this can be a stressful time for parents/carers, waiting for their child to be assessed.

We have put together some information for you to support your child’s development while you wait in a leaflet.

For children under 5 

 For children over 5

Appointment methods 

Virtual appointment

An appointment may be virtual via a video platform, via phone consultation or face to face at one of our sites at Chelsea and Westminster or Parkview centre for health. If you are offered a virtual video appointment, and this is not convenient or possible for you please could you let us know so that an alternative arrangement can be made.

Video consultations with Attend Anywhere:

Attend Anywhere is a website that provides secure video calls. It is as convenient as a phone call, with the added value of face-to-face communication. This means you will be able to see your clinician, and your clinician will be able to see you and your child.  

Hospital appointments

Please bring along your child’s red book (child personal health record) and a list of any medications your child is taking.

All staff and visitors will need to wear surgical face masks (staff) or face coverings (visitors):

  • Reduces the risk of transmission: Evidence has shown that those infected with COVID-19 can have very mild or no respiratory symptoms (asymptomatic) and can transmit the virus to others without being aware of it. The wearing of a face mask as well as hand washing and social distancing aims to reduce risks of transmission from people who are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic for COVID-19.
  • Helping keep you safe: When patients and families come to us for emergency, planned and outpatient care, or as visitors, they will need to wear a face covering. By doing so, they are helping to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus and keeping our hospital and other sites safe.

We ask that any patient and accompanying adult wear a face covering when attending hospital appointments with the following exceptions:

  • Face coverings should not be used by children under the age of 3
  • Exceptions can be made for those visitors or patients with respiratory conditions, sensory needs, and if you feel your child will not be able to tolerate it

Please bring your own face covering to help us. However, if you do happen to forget your face covering when coming to your appointment, we will provide you with a mask. Even if you are wearing a mask or face covering please remember to still:

  • Wash your hands regularly
  • Use all hand sanitisers available in the departments

Staff may look a little different to usual when you attend appointment as they will all be wearing masks and some others may wear other personal protective equipment.

If you are unsure about anything about an appointment, please contact us on 020 3315 6488.

Autism assessments

If you would like further information about our Autism assessments please see the leaflets below.

Under 5s

Over 5s

Linking with education

When a child requires more support for education, health and social care that cannot be met from resources and interventions normally available, they may need an Education, Health and Care Plan.

The Local Authority may ask us to provide medical advice as part of the Education, Health and Care Plan Needs Assessment (EHCNA).

If your child is not usually cared for by our team, the assessment is a one off appointment, to provide information on how your child’s health and developmental needs are impacting on their education.

If your child is under the care of one of our consultants then we may be able to complete the EHCNA with information already available about your child.

If your child is under statutory school age and our team identifies that they may have special educational needs and /or disabilities, we alert the Local Authority using a ‘Early Health Notification’ form.

Local Offer websites

Each London borough has a website called Local Offer. This website has information on what is available in the local area to support you and your child. This website will be updated with information relevant to the current situation.

Find information on services and support available for children and young people with special educational needs and or disabilities (SEND) aged 0–25 and their families via the Local Offer website for:

Child protection medical assessments

When social service receive a report that a child may be harmed they have a legal duty to look into this. Social services may contact Cheyne Child development service to request a child protection medical assessment to be completed. This may be completed by a paediatrician at Chelsea and Westminster hospital and this assessment will need parental consent.

More information regarding the child protection medical assessments is available in this leaflet:

T: 020 3315 53219

Looked After Children (LAC) healthcare service

The Community Paediatric Team at Cheyne Child Development Service provide mandatory health assessments and health advise for children in care aged 0 – 18 years (including Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors) with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, South Kensington and Chelsea and South Westminster. The aim is to complete the health assessments within the stipulated time of 28 days from a child being taken into care, so as to ensure early identification of needs and intervention to achieve optimum physical, emotional, cognitive and social development and to promote good health and maximise long term life chances. A health care plan is generated from the assessments to support the care provided by social care, foster carers, GPs and other health professionals.

Advise is also available to adoption panels and prospective adopters on medical issues for a child they propose to adopt. We have a team of dedicated LAC nurses who support the service.

Urgent questions

If there are any urgent questions regarding a patient that is already known to the child development service please contact us on 020 3315 3142 or email us on chelwest.ccdsintake@nhs.net

Contact information

  • Cheyne Child Development Service main reception: 020 3315 6488
  • Parkview Health Centre main reception: 0203 704 6060
  • Child protection medical assessments: 020 3315 3219
  • Looked after children medical assessments: 020 3315 3120
  • New referrals: chelwest.ccdsintake@nhs.net
  • Music Therapy: 020 3315 6472
  • Specialist Nurse Cheyne: 020 3315 6470 or email
  • Occupational Therapy: 020 8102 4008 or email
  • Clinical Psychology: 020 3315 3196
  • Physiotherapy: 020 3315 8667

Further information 

In order to support families, advice is available in the links below.

 How to support your child’s mental health

  • The Anna Freud centre for mental health has lots of excellent information on their website on supporting all children in times of disruption
  • Kooth is the online counselling platform for Young People up to 25 with SEND

Information related to additional needs

  • The National Autistic society the latest information on understanding and supporting those who have an ASD
  • The Cerebra website has information in relation to children with brain conditions
  • 'Contact a family' are another useful website for families of children with disabilities

 Information for children about the coronavirus

  • Video by Newshound doctors answering questions from children about COVID-19
  • A workbook to complete/read together with children up to 7 years which explains COVID-19—it is available on the website in many different languages

 Information on looking after yourself as a parent

  • The Good Thinking website developed by the Healthy London Partnership provides a range of useful guidance and online apps to support mental health and wellbeing—this resource is funded and endorsed by the NHS and is focused on supporting cognition, anxiety and low mood
  • Coronavirus and your mental wellbeing
  • World Health Organisation (WHO) mental health considerations during Covid-19

Parent support groups

Parent forums are a fantastic resource if your child has additional education/health needs. Local parents groups are:

Contributors
matthewrg fokrumh sanabr sflynn amyco Viviana Flores George Vasilopoulos