A sample featured service

East and North Hertfordshire Community Paediatrics provides specialist medical care for children and young people living in East and North Hertfordshire. A referral from a GP or another health professional is required.

We are a specialist medical team led by community paediatric doctors, working closely with many other services to provide joined‑up care.

Our team includes:

• Consultant Community Paediatricians
• Associate Specialist Doctors
• Specialist Nurses
• Specialist Health Visitors

We also work alongside:

• Acute paediatrics, Audiology, Ophthalmology, Clinical genetics and clinical neurophysiology.
• Therapists from Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, orthotics and nutrition and dietetics).

What we do:

We support children and young people who:

• Have long‑term or complex physical health needs
• Need regular medical monitoring
• Attend special education schools
• Are looked after (children who are cared for people outside of their family)

We also provide neurodevelopmental assessments up to 15 years 11 months old, including:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Developmental assessments for children under 5
• Other neurodevelopmental difficulties affecting a child’s function in school for example Developmental coordination disorder.

Please note:
We are only able to see children in a clinic setting who meet our referral criteria (add referral criteria link).

We do not provide cognitive assessments for school‑aged children as they should be performed by Educational Psychology only accessible through your child’s educational setting.

For children under 5 we are able to perform a standardised developmental assessment (this is not a cognitive assessment).

We work across East and North Hertfordshire and see children in a clinic setting. Clinics are held across Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City and Hertford and specific educational schools.

Clinic locations:

• Danstrete CDC, Stevenage
• Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• The New QEII Hospital, Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County hospital, Hertford

Special Education Schools:

Each of these schools has their own website.

• Lakeside, Welwyn Garden City
• Amwell View, Stansted Abbotts
• Greenside, Stevenage
• Lonsdale, Stevenage

When receiving support from the service, you will be in touch with the following colleagues:

• Administrators
  Skilled and friendly NHS staff who organise appointments and support the clinical team. They are often the first people you speak to.
• Specialist nurses
  Experienced in supporting children with neurodevelopmental and long‑term conditions.
• Paediatricians
  Doctors who carry out assessments, provide diagnoses and offer ongoing medical care.

Waiting times can vary depending on the who you are seeing and the reason why your child is seeing us.  The wait time is not the same for all referrals and referrals are always triaged on level of need.

Read more about local resources and support.

The causes of the delay

The delay for an appointment is due to a variety of different things including:

• UK wide increase in demand for assessments for autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Nationally, in September 2023, there were 91,729 open referrals for suspected autism in 0–17-year-olds in England — a 56% rise from 2022 and nearly 700% up since 2019
• UK wide shortage of community paediatricians
• Growing population

For a range of services available locally to support your child, young person and family, please read our information on resources and local support.

A  range of services are available locally to support children, young people and families. These include:

• National autistic society website
• Neurodiversity support hub
• Sensory resources
• Sleep resources
  • The Sleep Charity
  • Cerebra
  • Sleep Action
• Local organisations and charities
  • Space Herts
  • Angels Support Group

For information on services available to support young people in their transition into adult services please see the links below:

• Preparing for Adulthood:
  • National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi)
  • Hertfordshire’s Local Offer – (SEND local offer for 0-25 year olds)
• Council for Disabled Children
• National Child and Maternal Health Intelligence Network

Please note that Community Paediatrics can not accept responsibility for any external website links, as they are outside the control of East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust. However, should you experience any issues with the following links, please flag this with our communications team. Or, alternatively, you can fill in our ‘Is this page useful’ form at the bottom of the page.

ADHD and Autism

The Neurodiversity Support Hub 

The Neurodiversity Support Hub is an advice service offering support, signposting and guidance about a whole range of things relating to ADHD and Autism. The phones are answered by a team of parents and carers of neurodivergent children and young people. Your child doesn’t need a diagnosis for you to use this service. Website: Neurodiversity Support. You can call them on 01727 833963 (Open Monday to Friday 9am – 1pm, closed bank holidays) or you can email the support hub team direct.

The Toolbox

The toolbox from Mindler is a website for young people to access information and support about ADHD and autism. They offer resources like self-help tools, live streams and an anonymous text chat service (no formal diagnosis required).

ADDISS

National Attention Deficit Disorder Information and Support Service. Their website offers information and resources about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder for carers, young people and teachers.

ADD-vance

Provide specialist information, training and advice on Autism and ADHD as well as coaching, group support and training courses for families.

Aspergers4Herts

A website which signposts to services for children, teenagers and adults with autism. Includes a link to Spectrum Girls, a social group for high functioning autistic girls of all ages.

The National Autistic Society

The leading UK charity for people with autism and their families. The National Autistic Society provide reliable information and support.

Space
Space provide support groups with regular professional speakers for families of children with autism and ADHD. It also runs workshops and seminars. Social events for the whole family and has a lending library.

Sleep Hygiene Guide
Please find below a guide for parents on sleep and how we can help improve it, as well as an interactive PowerPoint puzzle that you can go through with your child to learn more about sleep together.

• Sleep guide for parents
• Parent puzzle on sleep

Other neurodevelopmental problems and disabilities

Cerebra
Provides help and information for children with neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and intellectual disability. Offers a free library with an extensive collection of books, parent guides and advice from professionals in their sleep service.

Contact A Family
This website provides advice, information and support for the families of disabled children. Both common and rare conditions are covered with links to support groups.

Dyspraxia Foundation
Information and links to local support groups.

Epilepsy Action
Provides information on many aspects of living with epilepsy. Offers a confidential helpline, written resources and emotional support.

The FASD Trust
Information and support for families and professionals for those with foetal alcohol syndrome disorders.

HemiHelp
a UK-based charity for people with hemiplegia and their families.

Mencap
Support group and services for learning disabled children and their families.

Muscular Dystrophy UK
Information and support for people with muscular dystrophy.

Nerve Tumours UK (formerly The Neuro Foundation)
Information and support for those affected by Neurofibromatosis.

Scope
Information and support for families who have a child cerebral palsy.

Tourettes Action
Provides support to those affected by Tourette syndrome and their families, offers telephone helpline service and information.

Unique
The rare chromosome disorder support group with free guides on specific chromosome disorders

Support for families and carers including parenting advice

Carers in Herts
Provides information, advice and support to carers in Hertfordshire along with links to support groups and carer’s assessments.

Family Lives
Family Lives is a national charity providing help and support in all aspects of family life, including parenting courses.

Families in Focus
Support Groups and parenting courses for parents caring for children with Autism, ADHD, PDA, Cerebral Palsy, Downs Syndrome, Learning Difficulties, Additional Needs and or Chronic Illness

KIDS Hubs
The HUBs offer information and support for parents and carers of disabled children and young people aged 0-19 in Hertfordshire, including help finding activities and signposting specialist services. Offers a toy library and access to software to develop social stories.

Health visiting service

See what your area’s health visiting team offers

School Nursing

The school nursing service is part of the Hertfordshire Family Centre service. The service brings children’s centres, health visiting and school nursing together.

Support for Special Educational Needs

IPSEA (Independent Parental Special Educational Advice)
Free and independent legally based advice and support on education provision for children with special educational needs and disability.

Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)
The SENDIASS provide impartial information, advice and support service funded by Hertfordshire County Council for parents, carers, young people (0-25) and professionals.

The Local Offer (Hertfordshire)

The Local Offer lets parents and young people know what special educational needs and disabilities services are available in Hertfordshire, and who can access them.

Children’s community nursing

Provide specialist nursing care and support for children in your home or other community settings with aims to reduce the need for hospital admission.

Support for Mental health

MindEd
Free educational resource on children and young people’s mental health for families and professionals

Young Minds
Information and support for young people and their parents at risk of or living with a mental health problem. Offers a free confidential online and telephone support service for parents/ carers and many links for young people.

CAMHS / Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Information and access to mental health self-help resources, useful tools, and a safe space to explore.

The Children’s Wellbeing practitioner service

The Children’s Wellbeing Practitioner Service provides early intervention emotional wellbeing and mental health support to children and young people aged 5-19 who would benefit from early intervention, low intensity support. 

Step 2

Step2 provides early intervention children and young people mental health service (CYPMHS) for Children and young (aged 0–19-year-olds) and must be registered with a GP in Hertfordshire.

PALMS

PALMS is a specialist mental health service who provide support to children or young people aged 0-18, who have an intellectual disability and/or are autistic and their families

Support for weight

• Eating Disorder support (First Steps ED)
• Beat eating disorders
• Weight and exercise support: BeeZee Bodies

Support for toileting

Toileting support

• ERIC website

Continence Service

A nurse led team and provide clinical assessment, treatment and support for children and young people who have bladder and/or bowel dysfunction, where first line intervention (Tier 1 from health visitors and/or school nurses, GPs) has not resolved the referring problem.

Medicines advice

Medicines for Children – Provide practical and reliable advice about giving medicine to your child.

Therapists

• Children’s Speech and Language Therapy
• Children’s Occupational Therapy
• Children’s Physiotherapy
• Nutrition and dietetics