Information for Professionals

If you are a Community Child Health professional (Paediatrician, Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Therapist, Special Needs Health Visitor etc.) or a Social Worker in the CHAD team, you can refer a child to our service using our referral form which can be found here: CFP-Referral Form.

We welcome discussion about making a referral if you feel it would be helpful. We can talk through the various options of intervention we offer. You can contact us by phone on

02920 536 733

Single Point of Access

Our referrals go through the Single Point Of Access (SPOA) process, so once you have filled in the referral form, please email to the address at the bottom of the form. Referrals that come through to us from SPOA are then discussed by at least two Clinical Psychologists in the team to determine whether we are the most appropriate service to meet the family’s needs. If we agree we are, the referral will be accepted and placed on our waiting list for an initial consultation. If we feel that the family’s needs might be better met by another service, a letter will be sent explaining our decision.

Before You Refer To Us

If you are thinking about referring a family to our service, please consider the following information:

The Community Family Psychology Service offers support to the families of children with a neurodevelopmental condition; this typically includes a significant Intellectual Disability, Autism Spectrum Disorder, or genetic syndrome that impacts on their development
The children we support are likely to have significant cognitive difficulties including poor verbal & non-verbal skills, expressive and receptive language difficulties, poor memory, & poor processing speed.
The children we support are also likely to have significant adaptive behavioural difficulties that might include difficulties with mobility, washing, dressing, eating, using information technology, money, transport etc.
The children we support typically experience challenges across settings. For difficulties occurring in a school setting alone, then Educational Psychology or the ASD Outreach team (for mainstream schools) may be more appropriate.
We are not a mental health or crisis service and are not able to offer out-of-hours or urgent support. For individuals with a neurodevelopmental diagnosis (such as ASD or Down Syndrome) who are ‘higher functioning’, typically in a ‘mainstream’ schooling environment and experience co-existing mental health difficulties (i.e. low mood, anxiety, trauma, self-harm, suicidal ideation), we would encourage an assessment with the specialist multi-disciplinary mental health services in the first instance. Our service can provide consultation to professionals in Primary Mental Health or CAMHS should they feel a co-existing neurodevelopmental condition is complicating the support they routinely offer. In such instances we can discuss reasonable adaptations that may facilitate recommended treatment for mental health difficulties.