Support for children and young people with special educational
needs in Haringey – our ‘local offer’
Haringey Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Generic Team
What our service does
Haringey Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Generic Team is one of four CAMHS
teams within Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust. The other Haringey CAMHS teams in
the Trust are the CAMHS-LD team, the Adolescent Outreach Team, and the Health and Emotional
Well-being Team. There are similar information sheets about each of the 3 other teams.
Haringey CAMHS (Generic Team) is a multi-disciplinary out-patient service which provides
assessments and treatments for children and young people aged 0-17 who are experiencing serious
mental health problems or marked emotional and behavioural problems which are complex and
enduring and have a significant impact on the child or young person’s functioning.
We provide: urgent and routine assessments, consultations, and short, medium term and longer
term interventions.
We offer a comprehensive range of treatments, singly and in combination, including: Family
Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy, Parent-Infant
Psychotherapy, Specialist Speech and Language Therapy, Parent Consultation, Art Therapy,
Medication, Bereavement Groups, Group and Individual Parenting Programmes, Video Interaction
Guidance.
Children and young people are seen in various locations: most commonly at our clinic, and
sometimes at home or school.
We work in collaboration with the children and young people attending our service, and also with
their parents and carers, and aim to provide an accessible, accountable and flexible service. Our
work often involves close liaison with colleagues in other services in order to create and deliver
integrated interagency care plans.
We also provide CAMHS ACCESS, which is a single point of referral for children and young people
with mental health problems. Referrals are reviewed each working day and distributed among the
four CAMHS teams in Haringey and to colleagues at the Tavistock Clinic, Open Door (voluntary sector
psychotherapy service) and Insight Platform (young people’s drug and alcohol service).
Where the service is located and the areas it covers
Haringey CAMHS (Generic Team) is based in 2 locations:

Burgoyne Road CAMHS, 58 Burgoyne Road, London N4 1AE
CAMHS ACCESS enquiries about new referrals: telephone: 0208 342 5934, fax: 0208 342
5927
General enquiries: telephone 0208 342 5900, fax: 0208 342 5939

CAMHS, H Block, St Ann’s Hospital, St Ann’s Road, London N15 3TH
General enquiries: telephone: 0208 642 6467, fax 0208 442 6737
The service is provided for all children and young people in Haringey who meet our eligibility criteria
as described below.
Who our service provides for
Age group:
Children and young people aged 0-17 can attend Haringey CAMHS (Generic Team). Children aged 02 where there are concerns about emotional and behavioural problems or parent-infant relationship
issues are initially seen by the Parent Infant Psychology Service (PIPS) team who can then involve
Haringey CAMHS (Generic Team) if necessary, as agreed on a case by case basis.
Presenting problems:
This service sees children and young people with a wide range of mental health problems, including
depression, anxiety, suicidal preoccupations or ruminations, self-harm, psychotic symptoms, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, severe behaviour problems and conduct
disorder, complicated bereavement, and ADHD.
We screen young people aged 12 and older with possible autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and
where necessary refer them onwards to Great Ormond Street Hospital for diagnostic assessment.
Children aged 11 and under have ASD diagnostic assessments at the Haringey Child Development
Centre.
Many of the children and young people we see have special educational needs, learning disabilities
or autistic spectrum diagnoses but these problems and conditions do not automatically confer
eligibility for this service unless the children and young people are additionally experiencing mental
health problems of sufficient severity and pervasiveness to meet the threshold for Haringey CAMHS.
Threshold:
Children and young people with mental health problems and emotional and behavioural problems
meet the threshold for Haringey CAMHS (Generic team) when their functioning is at least
moderately disturbed in more than one setting, or severely disturbed in one setting.
Specific groups:
Haringey CAMHS (Generic Team) is not currently commissioned to provide treatment for London
Borough of Haringey Looked After Children and Young People. These children and young people are
referred by their social worker to receive a psychological health screen and up to six face-to-face
sessions from the First Step team at the Tavistock and Portman Clinic. If further treatment is
considered necessary, the First Step Team will refer on to the locality CAMHS team. For London
Borough of Haringey Looked After Children resident in Haringey, the First Step team will arrange
further treatment at the Tavistock Clinic via a CAMHS ACCESS referral.
Children with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia are assessed and supported through their
schools with educational psychology assistance. CAMHS is not able to provide assessments for
dyslexia.
Child Protection:
Where the information in a referral suggests that there are child protection issues which need to be
assessed, we will ask the referrer to contact the First Response team as a first step, and to re-refer to
CAMHS once social care services have assessed and addressed any immediate child protection risks.
How a young person can start using the service
Children and young people can be referred to Haringey CAMHS by any professional involved with the
child, for example, the GP, Social Worker, or SENCO. For referrals from schools, we ask that the
SENCO or Head teacher countersign any CAMHS referral to ensure that they are aware it is being
made.
A CAMHS ACCESS referral form will need to be completed: this form can be obtained by phoning
0208 342 5934. It is important that the form is completed fully so that we can make an informed
judgement about the most suitable service to offer and prioritise for urgency and risk.
Self-referrals are not currently accepted by CAMHS ACCESS, although one of the CAMHS ACCESS
partners, Open Door, will accept self-referrals of young people age 12+, who can contact them
directly.
Although all of the children and most of the young people who come to CAMHS will be seen with the
knowledge and involvement of their parents and carers, older or more mature adolescents who
want to be seen without their parents or carers being aware can also come to CAMHS. However
where there are potential risks we may need to involve parents, carers or others as part of a safety
plan.
How decisions are made about eligibility for our service
Referrals are reviewed by CAMHS clinicians each working day. Sometimes additional information
needs to be sought from the referrer or the family. We use written eligibility criteria to help decide
whether the referral meets the threshold for CAMHS, and we decide to which of the CAMHS ACCESS
partners we should allocate the referral.
If a referral is not eligible for one of the CAMHS ACCESS services we inform the referrer, the GP and
the family / young person by letter, and where possible we will make suggestions for alternative
sources of help.
If the referral is passed on to one of the CAMHS ACCESS partner teams (The Adolescent Outreach
Team, The CAMHS-LD Team, the Health and Emotional Well-being team, The Tavistock Clinic, Open
Door and Insight Platform), we inform the family / young person, referrer and GP by letter, and
provide contact details for the service to which we have referred.
If the referral is accepted for the Haringey CAMHS (Generic team), we have recently introduced a
new system where an initial appointment is booked at the time that the referral is accepted. This will
be within 12 weeks of the referral being received, and may be much earlier depending on the
urgency of the problem and the availability of appointments.
How accessible our service is
We are in keeping with the DDA – and are an accessible service that in most cases brings the team to
the child rather than the child to us.
If the parent and child do need to come to a clinic we have disabled parking at the hospital, and
most clinics are on the ground floor. Usually we prefer to see children in school or home rather than
at the hospital so their routine is not disrupted. We tend to see parents during school hours as most
of them need to be available at home for school bus pick up and drop off.
We offer telephone appointments and reviews and parents can phone and leave messages with
prompt responses to messages. Urgent issues are addressed a soon as clinician is available. We also
need to be accessible to school health and staff that are also managing challenging behaviour during
the day at school and they can contact us by mobile, email and via the clinic reception.
Training our staff have had in supporting children and young people with
special educational needs and disabilities
Although Haringey CAMHS (Generic Team) is not a team specifically for children and young people
with special educational needs and disabilities, many of the children and young people attending our
service will have additional needs. Staff working at CAMHS have plenty of experience in working
with children and young people who have special educational needs and disabilities and will have
addressed these issues as part of their professional trainings. Some staff also have additional
experience and training with this client group from previous professions.
Haringey CAMHS (Generic Team) comprises clinical psychologists, child & adolescent
psychotherapists, family therapists, child and adolescent psychiatrists, speech and language
therapists, art therapists, and others. All of the team have post-graduate professional qualifications,
several at doctorate level. All are registered with the relevant professional bodies.
All staff have regular continuing professional development training in safeguarding, health and
safety, risk assessment, information governance etc.
In addition to its experienced and well-qualified clinical staff, Haringey CAMHS (Generic Team) hosts
senior trainees in psychiatry, clinical psychology, child & adolescent psychotherapy, educational
psychotherapy, family therapy, speech and language therapy and art therapy.
Who a service user should contact if they want to raise a concern or complain
about something
A service user who wishes to raise a concern or complain about something can contact
Fidelis Chibwe, Interim Team Manager, Haringey CAMHS
Email: Fidelis.Chibwe@beh-mht.nhs.uk
Telephone: 0208 342 5900
Who a parent carer/young person can contact for further information
For general information about referring to Haringey CAMHS, contact Mark Carter, CAMHS ACCESS
Coordinator.
Email: Mark.Carter@beh-mht.nhs.uk
Telephone: 0208 342 5900
To discuss a potential referral, contact the Duty Clinician on 0208 342 5900.