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Children's Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Services - Occupational Therapy

Our Occupational Therapists support babies, children and young people who have conditions which impact on their functional abilities.

The team includes Occupational Therapists, Therapy Assistants, and Support Staff.

The service is available to children and young people; aged 0-18 years of age, (0-19 with an active EHCP) who have either their home address, school or GP within the Wolverhampton area.

What does your service do?

We work with children who have neurological, developmental, and orthopaedic conditions who may also have complex long-term medical, social and learning needs. We offer specialist assessment and intervention to maximise children’s functional ability within everyday activities of daily living (occupations) at home, in education and in the community.

We support children and young people to develop their independence with activities such as bathing; toileting; eating and drinking; washing and dressing, and support difficulties with areas of development such as gross and fine motor skills, attention and concentration; hand eye coordination and visual perception.

Our team can also support children with sensory and motor skill difficulties following a universal, targeted and specialist approach. This may include your child being provided with universal occupational therapy strategies in school when their needs are first identified. If support is still required, your child may be referred for more targeted and individualised support from the Wolverhampton Outreach or Early Years service. Additionally, if support is required following Universal and Targeted approaches, a referral can be made for more specialist intervention from the Occupational Therapy service.

Our service works very closely with education staff, including the Outreach service, to ensure interventions at all stages can be delivered effectively. This approach means children and young people are able to access support immediately on identification of their needs, with minimal disruption to their education.

Occupational Therapy intervention may also include assessing for aids and minor adaptations, or specialist equipment such as seating. The team can identify the best combination of activities and equipment for your child. Occupational therapists work closely with many other professionals including physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and education staff to achieve desired outcomes.

Occupational Therapy Intervention may vary greatly depending upon individual need and include:

Development of an individual programme to meet specific needs involving either 1:1 therapy or specialist group work.

  • Education and advice around exercises and positioning, including training other people who help you such as your family (parents, grandparents and brothers and sisters), your respite carer and your teachers to do your exercises and positioning with you if agreed.
  • Fine motor skills assessment and advice to support your everyday activities including dressing and using cutlery.
  • Assessment and advice about specialist equipment designed to improve your functional ability and mobility. Social Care (Independent Living Service) may provide some specialist equipment for you, and some will come from the Health Service. Therapists will make detailed assessment of your need and apply for funding from the correct provider. If an item is required and there is no funding available, your therapist will discuss with you further options that may be available.
  • Contribution to your Education Healthcare Plans, support you at Team Around the Child and other meetings and reports. A Therapist may act as your Keyworker. Occupational Therapists will share their findings with members of the wider team if you and your parents / carers give permission.
  • Signposting you and your family / carers to helpful activities and to other organisations, including referral to Mobility Services or Orthotics if needed.
  • Provide online resources for all Wolverhampton schools enabling them to identify appropriate activities which can be built into the school day to support movement, sensory and fine motor activities such as developing handwriting skills.

Our team

Our Occupational Therapists specialise in the treatment of children and young people. We follow local and national professional guidelines and have supportive management training and review structure. All staff are DBS checked and undertake on-going mandatory training and continuing professional development.

Every member of our team has an appraisal and continuing professional development according to service needs and changes. We work to the professional standard of the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) and professional bodies. Local governance arrangements involve monitoring of all incidents.

What will happen if you are referred to Occupational Therapy?

The referral will be triaged by a Qualified Occupational Therapist. If the referral is not accepted the referrer will be notified.

If the referral is accepted, you may receive a letter inviting you to contact us to arrange an appointment, or we may contact you directly to arrange an appointment.

Appointments may be face to face, or in some circumstances may be by phone or video-call. Appointments may be carried out in school or at home, or at the Gem Centre, depending on the area of need stated in the referral.

A child or young person under the age of 16 years needs parental consent for assessment to take place; please contact us if you have any questions regarding the process of who can give parental consent.

Once assessment is completed, the Occupational Therapist will discuss with the child or young person and parent/guardian and further input that is required, and may offer advice and provide information leaflets or specific therapy programmes.

How do you make decisions for therapy?

All decisions regarding therapy are made in consultation with the child and young person and their families/carers. Outcomes and goals are set with the child and young person. We work in episodes of care where we provide specialist input to empower the child and young person to become independent with managing their condition/needs.

How to give a compliment or make a complaint about the service?

Complete the patient satisfaction survey.

Contact The Gem Centre directly to access the most appropriate person.

Contact the Patient Advice and Liaison service (PALS) based at New Cross Hospital on Tel: 01902 695362 or 695368 or Email: rwh-tr.pals@nhs.net

Visit the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust website for more information.

For any complaints please
 email rwh-tr.complaints@nhs.net.

Who to contact

Contact Name
Children's Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Services - Occupational Therapy
Telephone
01902 446290 / 446302
E-mail
rwh-tr.childrenstherapyservices@nhs.net
Website
Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust

Where to go

Name
The Gem Centre
Address
Neachells Lane
Wednesfield
Wolverhampton
Postcode
WV11 3PG
Notes

We are flexible about where therapy sessions take place in order to best meet your needs and to use our resources wisely. The Gem Centre is fully accessible, and we do offer appointments at other venues, including your school or home. Members of our team work in special schools on a regular basis.

Time / Date Details

When is it on
The Service is open from 8.30am until 4.30pm Monday - Friday
Time of day
Morning
Afternoon

Other Details

Availability

Age Ranges
0-19
Referral required
Yes
Referral Details

We work as part of the multidisciplinary team who support children and young people from birth to 16 years of age, or up to 19 years of age if you are still in full-time education.

Our therapists have extensive knowledge and experience in recognising and managing a range of conditions which impact on physical and movement development

If you are registered with a GP in Wolverhampton you can access our service. 

If you attend school outside Wolverhampton, it might be better for you to have your therapy with the local team. For example, if you go to school in Walsall, the Walsall Therapy Team may work in that school already and it would be in your best interest to have your care given by the Walsall Therapy Team so that you are working with just one set of therapists. This also means that we make the best use of our direct therapy to provide services to Wolverhampton, without our therapists spending time driving long distances.

We transfer your care to a more local therapist if you and your family / carers move out of the Wolverhampton area. We will supply your new therapist with written information about your care and work with them for one handover session if that is needed. This helps you to have a smooth transfer of your care from one therapist to another. If this is not possible because you are moving far away, we will supply detailed written information to your new therapist and offer to discuss your care with them by telephone if needed.

We accept referrals from health professionals such as your Health Visitor or GP. The Gem Centre receives and allocates referrals into this service. Referrals need to be completed on the referral form which are available at our health centres.

Record Last Updated on: 03/10/2023

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