Children and Young People (11-17) Specialist Autism Assessment and Diagnosis Service, and Neurodevelopment Disorder Referral Backlog Screening in Suffolk (excluding Waveney)

The Service is to be provided for children and young people between the ages of 11 up to 18th birthday who have been identified as requiring an ASD assessment by a professional referral i.e., GP, School, SENCo.

Service description and care pathway

The service is for Children and Young People aged 11- 17 who require an autism assessment following primary care pre assessment screening and referral.

• The service will provide a comprehensive needs led Autism assessment and diagnosis where indicated followed by a report and signposting for support for patients.
• Empower the patient and family to understand their needs. This will include VCSE and SEN needs identified and recommendations i.e., psycho- educational advice given about the identified need and how the family can start to get the need supported.
• A multi-disciplinary needs led assessment based on review of EHCP, educational psychology assessment, other professional reports i.e., OT/SLT. Gaining information from the school environment. Meet with parent and child to complete assessment while considering differential diagnosis.
• For patient identified as autistic provide the diagnosis and identify the unmet needs and recommend how these can be supported.
• Patients identified with additional needs i.e., mental health or other neurodevelopmental presenting difficulties to complete an onward referral and/or signposting as appropriate.
• For patients who are not diagnosed with autism signpost to resources to for their unmet needs identified in assessment such as making recommendations for the family and/or school to consider.
• Utilise evidence-based assessment tools and an approach that is grounded in evidence based best practice for the YP being assessed.
• To ensure communication is in place with the CYP, their family the GP and referrer where appropriate

Location of service delivered

The location of the service will be Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds with the provision of suitable clinical space provided by the provider of the service. This will include space to store essential materials and equipment, 2 clinic rooms per site with the capacity for 2 service users and 2 clinicians per room.

Service delivery hours of operation

The service will operate at least Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm with weekend flexibility to meet user’s needs.

Standards and guidance

The service will comply with all relevant national standards and recommendations as detailed in.

• The Autism Act 2009
• National Strategy for autistic children, young people, and adults, 2021
• Autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: recognition, referral, and diagnosis Clinical guideline [CG128] Published: 28 September 2011 Last updated: 20 December 2017
• NICE guideline [NG197] Shared decision-making learning package, June 2021
• NHS England national framework to deliver improved

Service description and care pathway

The service is for Children and Young People aged 0- 18yrs who have been referred for a NDD assessment following primary care pre assessment screening and referral.

• The service will provide a clinical review of patient referral information and comprehensive screening of referrals based on ICD-11 criteria to identify if ASD or ADHD or both are indicated to be assessed. Clinically appropriate patients considering other developmental/differential factors that may be influencing current need will then be passed to an assessment service.
• Empower the patient and family to understand their needs via the outcome letter. This will include VCSE and SEN needs identified and recommendations i.e., psycho- educational advice given about the identified need and how the family can start to get the need supported if ASD or ADHD not identified.
• Screening based on review of referral form and supporting information ie EHCP, educational psychology assessment, other professional reports i.e., OT/SLT. Contact with school/ parent and child / referrer if further information required to make the assessment while considering differential diagnosis.
• Children and young people identified with additional needs i.e. mental health, learning difficulties or other neurodevelopmental presenting difficulties to complete an onward referral and/or signposting as appropriate.
• For patients who are not identified as requiring ASD/ADHD assessment signpost to resources for their unmet needs identified in assessment such as making recommendations for the family and/or school to consider.
• To identify if the CYP is requiring an ASD or ADHD or both assessments. To provide a clinical rationale as to which assessment is needed. If both are needed, to identify which presentation is most prominent and should happen first. To inform the referrer, copy to GP and family, and NSFT of the screening outcome (including rationale for assessment or why an assessment is not indicated).
• To signpost to other services such as educational support or assessment, mental health support, family-based support when this is indicated, for both those accepted and not accepted for an assessment.
• To alert the local authority, referrer, family and NSFT to any identified safeguarding concerns. To take responsibility for making any safeguarding referrals to the Suffolk County Council. To clearly document all processes followed, copied to NSFT and GP.
• To use professionally registered clinicians knowledgeable and experienced in the presentation of social communication, learning/educational, mental health, systemic/familial and sensory needs of people with and without NDD.
• For screening clinicians to routinely have access to appropriate supervision and wider discussion with other clinicians when needed.
• The service will follow the highest standards of data protection and data governance to ensure data confidentiality and security.
• Utilise evidence-based screening tools
• To ensure communication is in place with the CYP, their family, the GP and referrer where appropriate.
• The service will have the capacity to screen 1800 referrals within 12 weeks of start of contract

Location of service delivered.

The location of the service will be Suffolk with the provision of suitable space provided by the provider of the service (OR a virtual offer) and will operate at least Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.00pm with weekend flexibility to meet user’s needs.

Standards and guidance

The service will comply with all relevant national standards and recommendations as detailed in the service specification. Additional information: To respond to this opportunity please click here: www.delta-esourcing.com/respond/5G9AE7B5HC ↗