Early years services

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Healthcare services can be confusing....

Our website - CLCH Children's Health Matters is for parents and expectant parents to find information about the services available for children and families in the local area. You will also find helpful resources tailored to your child as they grow and develop.

You can also find out how to contact our staff directly if you have a concern about your child's health.

On this page you can find out about early years services available to you in the local area. More information can be found on your boroughs Local Offer pages. 

A Local Offer gives children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities, and their family’s information about what support services the local authority think will be available in their local area. 

Merton Local Offer

If you're concerned about yourself or your child and they are under the age of 5 please contact your CLCH health visiting team. We are available to help and support in many different ways and can support you to access other services in the local community. You can also speak to other professionals you and your child are working with. 

For school age children and young people please contact your school nurse.

Merton 0-19 Integrated Single Point of Access (SPA):

All pre-school children have a health visitor. If your child has additional health or developmental needs your health visiting team are here to support you. 

Examples of what may be offered: 

  • Additional visits 
  • Referrals to specialist and community services
  • Growth monitoring
  • Parenting advice and support
  • Toilet training advice and support

You can find your health visiting teams contact details on our website. 

See New parent pack for parents and carers of a baby with Down Syndrome. This contains information about additional health checks your baby may need and inserts for your baby's red book. You can ask your health visitor for a growth chart for babies with Down Syndrome.

If your baby has been in the neonatal unit speak to your health visitor before they come home, this will help them to support you and your baby once home.

If there are any planning meetings it's helpful for your health visitor to be invited to these to make the transition home smoother for you and your baby.

Children’s centre are places where families with children under 5 years can go to meet other parents and carers in their community. They are welcoming places where you can go if you need some extra support. Their teams are experts in helping you find the support you need.

Each children’s centre is slightly different but you will often find groups and activities, midwife and health visiting appointments, baby clinics, infant feeding support and parenting courses. Many children’s centre’s also offer specialist groups for children with additional developmental needs. 

You can find your local children’s centre on your local authority website there is a link to this page on the Local resources section of our website.

Portage is a specialist service for young children and their families with additional needs and recognised disabilities. Portage works in partnerships with parents and carers to build on the child’s existing abilities and foster the child’s development. 

Portage is provided by your Local Authority and is part of The Local Offer – You can find out more about your Local Offer here.

If you are worried about your child’s nutrition, feeding or growth you can speak to your health visitor, school nurse or GP to find out if your child needs to be referred to a paediatric dietitian.

At CLCH we are the providers of children's dietetic services for children registered with a GP in Barnet, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Merton. If you do not have a GP in one of these areas, you can be referred to your local service. 

Children’s Dietitians specialise in children’s nutrition providing support for children with food allergy and intolerance, coeliac disease, complex obesity, dysphagia, enteral feeding, gastroenterology, faltering growth and malnutrition, restricted diets, special needs, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies. 

If you are worried about your child’s speech, language and communication skills you can speak to your health visiting team or GP to find out if your child needs to be referred to see a speech and language therapist.

At CLCH we are the providers of Early Years Speech and Language Therapy services for children registered with a GP in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Merton. If you do not have a GP in one of these areas, you can be referred to your local service through your health visiting team or GP. 

Speech and language therapists work with a child’s parents or carers to support them to develop the skills and confidence to know how to interact and help their child during activities and routines at home (bath time, meal times, playing, shopping etc.).  They also work with those people in the community who have contact with a child e.g. Children's Centre and Nursery staff; to give them training and  support to help children with speech, language and communication needs, and to promote the importance of good communication skills.  

Some children will need support from a speech and language therapist with eating and drinking difficulties e.g. chewing, difficulties progressing through textures, or signs your child may have difficulty swallowing (e.g. coughing when drinking, recurrent chest infections).

If you are worried about your child’s movement skills you can speak to your health visiting team or GP to find out if your child needs further assessment or to be referred to see a physiotherapist. 

At CLCH we are the providers of  Physiotherapy services in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and for the borough of Merton. If you do not have a GP in one of these areas, your child can be referred to your local team. 

Children’s Physiotherapists are trained in the assessment and treatment of babies, children and young people. Their expertise is in assessment and treatment of movement difficulties that may be from a short term condition e.g. following a fracture, or due to a long term illness or disability e.g. cerebral palsy.

Children’s Physiotherapists use a range of approaches which are tailored to the child’s individual needs including their age. They work in partnership with parents and carers ensuring that they receive advice, intervention and support that will support them to help their child to achieve his/her movement potential.

If you are worried about your child’s daily living skills (e.g. dressing, using cutlery, completing jigsaws, riding a bike, using school tools) you can speak to your health visiting team or GP to find out if your child needs further assessment or to be referred to see an Occupational Therapist. 
 
At CLCH we are the providers of Occupational Therapy services in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Merton. If you do not have a GP in one of these areas, your child should be referred to your local service.

Our Occupational Therapists are highly skilled in the assessment and treatment of children & young people aged 0-19. Occupational Therapists are experts in the area of daily living skills and our particular interest lies in supporting children to do the daily tasks that they need and want to do (e.g. playing with friends, going to school, developing independence in self help tasks).

Occupational Therapists use a holistic approach and consider different factors such as movement skills, sensory skills, regulation and attention when assessing and developing strategies and therapy plans.

Our Occupational Therapists use a range of approaches which are tailored to the child or young person's individual needs, and work in partnership with parents and carers, as well as other professionals known to the child or young person.

For information on what to expect from your Occupational Therapy input please the Occupational Therapy for Children webpage. 

Providing feedback on our services

It is important for us to hear what you think of our services so that we know what we are doing well and where we need to make improvements. Whether you wish to pay us a compliment, raise a concern or make a formal complaint, our patient advice and liaison service (PALS) team are here to help and all feedback given will be kept confidential.

You can find out more about how to provide feedback here.

If you would like to complete a patient story please speak to the team CLCH health team. Patient stories are a chance for you to share more information about your experiences of being cared for by our services. We collect patient stories in multiple different ways including videos, written stories, pictures and conversations with you that we then type. 

Contacting our PALS team

  • Telephone: 0800 368 0412
  • Email: clchpals@nhs.net
  • Post: PALS team, Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, 5-7 Parsons Green, London, SW6 4UL

Providing feedback on this website

We want this website to be helpful to you and your family and welcome feedback on how we can improve it. If you spot anything that's incorrect, confusing or have suggestions for how we can make it better please email us on clcht.health.matters@nhs.net this mailbox will be checked weekly and should not be used for urgent or clinical requests.

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