Chidlren's Occupational Therapy

Who are we?

The role of the occupational therapist is to enable children and young people to function to the best of their ability. Occupational Therapists provide advice for children whose ability to carry out functional skills is compromised.

People who work for the team have two main roles:

Occupational Therapists who carry out assessments and provide advice
Occupational Therapy Technical Instructors who provide support, training and delivery therapy programmes to school and parents, under the supervision of Occupational Therapists.

This service is provided for the whole of Shropshire county, including Telford and Wrekin residents.

Our services

Mainstream Schools

Children that attend mainstream school who have functional difficulties relating to self care, classroom activities and leisure that are having an impact on their ability to manage in their daily lives. These difficulties cannot be attributed to significant physical difficulty or general delay.

Physical Disabilities

The Physical Disabilities Team provide a service for children from 0-19 who have a diagnosis of physical disability and requiring functional assessment and advice. The team support children who may need rehabilitation following trauma, deteriorating conditions and children receiving palliative care.

Early Years

Children who are under school age who have identified difficulties with regard to how they function in everyday life. This team also provides input as required into the Multi-disciplinary Assessments at the Child Development Centres.

Learning Disabilities

We see children and young people who experience sensory processing and/or complex neurological difficulties affecting their ability to complete daily living tasks at home or school.

The Learning Disabilities Team in Shropshire offer advice and support for children and young people who attend the Bridge School, Severndale School, Haughton and Southall Schools.

The people we see

Our service is available for children aged between 0-18 (19 years in full time education) who are registered with a GP within either Shropshire or Telford and Wrekin geographical boundaries. The service is offered to all children and young people regardless of ethnic, cultural, spiritual, gender, and disability backgrounds.

New patients

We operate an an open referral system and accept referrals from parents, school or any other professional with parents consent for children between the ages of 0 to 18.

Please see referral form and guidelines in Patient Information section

Existing patients

Existing patients can contact us directly for help and support.We are able to discuss any difficulties up to one year after discharge, by telephone (01743 450800) or via email to our advice clinic (shropcom.OT4kids@nhs.net)

Services we do not offer

We do not provide equipment for home; adaptations of the home environment; assessment for dyslexia or services for adults.
We do not deal with referrals for wheelchairs. Please see link to Shropshire Wheelchair and Posture Services page.

What you should bring with you

Information will be sent to parents / carers before the first initial appointment about what is needed.

Frequently asked questions

How long will it be before my child is assessed?

Please see Waiting Time box in the right hand column

What happens at the assessment?

Following the assessment your child may be offered further contact and treatment. Examples of sessions offered can be found in the right hand column.

Can I refer my child myself?

Yes. We operate an open referral system. Please see the Referral Form and Guidelines in the Patient Information section.

How long will the assessment take?

We usually allocate 1.5 to 2 hours for the assessment. This gives us time to complete standardised assessments and discuss your concerns.

What happens if my child is discharged?

We can be contacted by telephone to discuss any concerns, please see the Contact Us box on the top right of this page. Alternatively send an e-mail to our advice clinic shropcom.OT4kids@nhs.net

If you do need to re-refer, please use the referral form in the Patient Information section.

Who can I contact regarding housing adaptations?

Adaptations to housing, or the loan of relevant equipment is dealt with by the Occupational Therapists on the Social Care Team. They can be contacted on the following numbers:

Telford - 01952 217100 / 459252
Shropshire - 0345 678 9044

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and our "Local Offer"

What is the Local Offer?

The local offer provides information for children and young people with special educational needs (SEND) and their parents or carers in a single place. You can find out more about information about this on our SEND reforms and Local Offers page.

Service Description

Occupational therapy is the assessment and treatment of a range of difficulties and diagnoses using specific, purposeful activity to prevent disability and promote independent function in all aspects of school, leisure and self-care activities.

Our Occupational Therapy services are provided across the whole of Shropshire county, including Telford and Wrekin residents. We have teams providing care in the following areas of specialty:

Mainstream Schools
Physical Disabilities
Early Years
Learning Disabilities

Full details for each of these specialty areas is provided in the "Our services" section above.

Waiting times for appointments may vary. You can find out more about our waiting times by using our waiting time calculator in the right-hand column.

What do you provide to children and young people with an additional need and or disability 0-25yrs?

We provide a client centred occupational therapy service to children and young with an additional needs or disability in the following groups

Pre-school children
RTA / Trauma / Hospital discharge
Children referred for CDC assessment
Children undergoing statutory assessment
Children with severe / specific learning difficulties and / or complex needs attending special schools in Telford (Bridge, Haughton, Southall) and Shropshire (Severndale, Shrewsbury)
Children with and young people with a physical, disability who are experiencing functional difficulties and who are integrated into mainstream school settings
Children requiring specialist Development Coordination Disorder Assessment (DCD)
Children with development coordination difficulties
Children with sensory processing difficulties affecting motor and functional performance.

We work in partnership with the child, parent, family and carers, professionals and voluntary organisations to provide interventions that maximise the individual potential of each child personally, functionally, academically and socially.

The amount, frequency and type of therapy assessments and interventions are based on each child’s strengths difficulties and needs.

The need for ongoing intervention is regularly reviewed with the parents, child or young person.

We regularly evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the service through processes of user feedback, and outcome measures.

Do we provide support for parents and carers?

Although assessment and intervention is focused on the child’s needs, support is provided for the child’s parents or carers to help them to understand their child’s condition, to enable them develop and use strategies and skills to support their child, and to be at the centre of their child’s care.

Who can use our service? Age? Disability?

Our service is available for children aged between 0-18 years (19 years if in full time education) who are registered to a GP within either Shropshire or Telford and Wrekin geographical boundaries. The service is offered to all children and young people regardless of ethnic, cultural, spiritual, gender and disability backgrounds.

How to access our service (inc. referral routes)

We operate an open referral system. We accept referrals from parents, school or any other professional with parents’ consent for children between the ages of 0 to 18.

We ask that all referrals are made using our referral form which is available from our administration teams or can be downloaded from our website.

Existing patients can contact us directly for help and support. We are able to discuss any difficulties up to one year after discharge, by telephone (01743 450800) or via email to our advice clinic ( shropcom.OT4kids.nhs.net )

When and where is our service available?

The service is currently open 8.30-5.00 Mondays- Fridays except Bank Holidays. Our Main Bases are listed in our "Contact us" section of this page (right-hand column).

Clinics are held across the different venues on different days of the week; a full list of these clinic spaces is shown in the "Where are we?" section of this page (right-hand column).

Our Occupational therapists work in schools and various community settings. Parents may be asked to travel to clinics or schools for appointments. They may visit children, young people and their carers/families at home to monitor their progress or provide interventions.

How can families contact the service?

Families can contact the service to ask for advice or find out more about what we provide by contacting our Advice Clinic:

Tel: 01743 450 800
Email: shropcom.OT4kids@nhs.net

Interpreters are available for assessments of children and young people if either they or their main carers do not speak English or if they use other means of communication such as signing.

Feedback and Complaints

The service receives feedback from parents, partners and children and young people in the following ways:

audit of feedback questionnaires following treatment sessions
care planning and goal setting review
sharing and learning from informal comments, complaints and compliments.

Wherever possible, complaints are dealt with verbally and locally with clinical staff, clinical leads and managers. If you have any questions of concerns talk with your child’s Occupational Therapist.

Shropshire Community Health Trust has a dedicated Patient Liaison Service (PALS) and a Complaints Manager who are both available to be contacted for support. A link for further details about these services may be found in the relevant section below.

For external agencies: is the service free or charged?

Currently support for individual children is free. Charges may be made for training.

Is the service accredited? If so, by whom?

Care Quality Commission

How can families complain if they are not happy with the service?

All complaints are handled by our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) and Complaints teams.