Health and SEND

Support available for children and young people in Buckinghamshire with complex health needs, including therapies, care plans, and equipment services.

The service sees children and young people from birth to age 19 who live in Buckinghamshire or have a Buckinghamshire GP. They offer information, training, advice, assessment, and therapy. They have a range of ways to contact them and gain support, most of which can be accessed without a referral.

The service offers various therapies to support you if you have the following needs:

• speech, language and communication needs
• feeding and swallowing difficulties
• occupational performance needs that impact your daily participation in activities
• difficulties with movement which impact physical development, activity and ability to participate in play, learning and socialising

Most physical health services in Buckinghamshire for children, young people and adults are provided by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

Your GP or other health professional can work with you, your child and the school/setting to create an Individual Health Care Plan (IHCP) for the school to follow. This can be created if your child also has a medical condition that needs managing in school, such as:

• asthma
• epilepsy
• Type 1 Diabetes

The aim of the IHCP is to ensure:

The school/setting knows how to support your child effectively.

Provide clarity about what needs to be done, when and by whom.

To start writing an IHCP, you should speak to your child’s school special educational needs coordinator (SENCO).

Find out more about the support schools and councils must give children with medical conditions.

Some children and young people aged 0 to 17 have “primary health needs” that cannot be met by existing universal, targeted, or specialist health services.

To support these children and young people, the NHS works with the Local Authority to create a tailor-made package of care. This care happens over an extended period of time and is known as continuing care. To get a continuing care package, children must be assessed by a panel of experts.

Being diagnosed with a disease or condition does not automatically mean continuing care is needed.

The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB) is responsible for:

1. assessing children and adults to determine if they need a package of continuing care
2. arranging health services locally

Community Equipment that helps with independence and care is provided by the Integrated Community Equipment Service in Buckinghamshire. Equipment is provided for you to use at home to support independence and care. The equipment will be provided until your child outgrows it or no longer needs it.