Service Information:
The Children and Young People’s Therapy Service (CYPTS) consists of children’s Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists. We are supported in our work by Therapy Support Practitioners and administrators.
We work with children and young people from 0 – 19 years who have difficulties in a wide-range of areas.
We are organised into four area teams which together cover the whole of Somerset. We provide a service to those children and families who are registered with a Somerset GP.
The Children and Young People’s Therapy Service is a specialist service for children and young people who are experiencing moderate or severe difficulties in a wide range of areas which need the input of a Physiotherapist, Speech and Language Therapist or Occupational Therapist. As a specialist service there is an expectation that most children and young people referred will have received an early help intervention and they are only referred when the difficulties are continuing despite intervention having been put in place. There is a wealth of information on our website to give you advice and help you know whether to make a referral and how to do so. You can consult paper copies of our Fact Files for School-Age children or download them from our website. Fact Files – Children and Young People’s Therapy Service – Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (somersetft.nhs.uk) They will give first line advice on how to help children and young people with different presenting difficulties and guidance on when to refer.
Service Criteria to include in the EHA:
Please ensure you include the following information so that your referral can be triaged by our therapists and a decision made on whether an assessment is indicated. There is no section on the form for health ongoing needs with or without a diagnosis so if this is relevant information please find somewhere on the form to outline this.
The below information is required in addition to the information already requested in the EHA.
Section 4:
It is vital that you list the GP that the child or young person is registered with – as a health service we cannot register a child to our system without the GP information. If more than one child or young person is named on the EHA then please ensure it is clear which child/young person, the concerns are about which you are referring for.
Section 6:
Please ensure you include what has been tried for the need you are referring to e.g. if it is about the child or young person’s communication then the work mentioned in this section needs to include how they have been supported up until now e.g. small group language work or weekly coordination group.
Section 7:
Clearly list the specific concerns e.g. ‘poor coordination skills leading to frequent trips and falls’ or ‘difficulty in following instructions within the classroom’. Try to avoid just describing their behaviour in this section as the CYPTS does not accept children/young people for behavioural difficulties. Please give specific examples of the difficulty and how it is affecting them e.g. instead of ‘speech is unclear’ you need to give more detail e.g. ‘X tends to leave sounds off the ends of words and is not yet able to use the ‘k’ or ‘g’ sounds. Adults who do not know her well find it difficult to understand her.’
There are additional information sheets available on our website which you can use to support your referral to give information on the child/young person’s needs – e.g. OT Additional Information Form, SLT Communication Competencies Form, Speech Sound Screener. If you are able to provide this information it will support triage and potential acceptance of the referral.
Section 9:
If you consider a child/young person’s needs more than one therapy e.g. OT and SLT then please select both in this section.
Use the drop-down menu to select “Children and Young Peoples Therapy Service”.
Contact Details:
Email address: CYPTSReferrals@SomersetFT.nhs.uk
Address: CYPTS Referrals, CYP Therapy Service, Priory House, Priory Health Park, Glastonbury Road, Wells, Somerset BA5 1XL
Additional Information:
If you are still unsure after having read the information on our website you could ring us on our telephone advice line, details below:
Advice Line: 0303 033 3002, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.