Services for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and
Disabilities
Blackburn with Darwen’s Local Offer
Lancashire’s Health Services
1.
Name of the service and what the service provides
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust – General Paediatrics
We provide care for children and young people up to 16 years of age.
Our core inpatient provision is located at the Royal Blackburn hospital, with 51 beds
(including 3 high dependency beds) and a Children’s Observation and Assessment Unit
(15 beds).
We have a daycase facility on ward 27 and a Children’s Minor Illness Unit at the Burnley
General Hospital site.
We have children’s outpatient provision across the catchment area, including Blackburn,
Burnley, Accrington, Clitheroe Pendle and Rossendale and some outreach clinics to the
boundaries of our catchment.
Our acute service also includes sub-specialist Children’s services for a range of complex
and chronic needs, including
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Cystic Fibrosis
Diabetes
Haematology
Nephrology
Cardiology
Complex needs
Allergy
Respiratory care
Neurodisability and developmental delay
Paediatric oncology (lower tier service only – level 1 POSCU)
Specialist Nurse-led services are provided in
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Paediatric Diabetes
Children’s Community Nursing
Paediatric Respiratory Care
Paediatric Epilepsy
Children’s Community Assisted Ventilation Services (Blackburn with Darwen only)
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2.
Safeguarding Children
Address and contact details and area covered
The Trust service website can be found at: www.elht.nhs.uk and this includes all our key
contact details by service area/department – search Paediatrics or Children’s.
Key contacts are provided below:
Children’s Ward – Blackburn Hospital – Tel 01254 732839 (side A), Tel 732765 (side B)
735900 (side C)
Children’s Observation & Assessment Unit, Blackburn Hospital – Tel 01254 732624
Children’s Minor Illness Unit, Burnley General Hospital – Tel 01282 804645
Children’s Daycase Unit – Ward 27, Burnley General Hospital – Tel 01282 804026
Children’s Outpatient Departments – Burnley – Tel 01282 804837/ Blackburn Tel 01254
731739
Children’s Diabetes Team – Tel 01254 732558
Children’s Respiratory Care Team – Tel 01254 732336
Children’s Community Nursing Team – Tel 01254 732843
Children’s Community Assisted Vent Team – Tel 01254 732981
Service Management Team – Tel 01282 803072
3.
The service is for
The service is available for children up to the age of 16 years and provides inpatient and
outpatient provision for the following;
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General illness /problems –acute or chronic
Cystic Fibrosis
Diabetes
Haematology
Rheumatology
Endocrinology
Nephrology
Cardiology
Complex needs
Allergy
Respiratory care
Neurodisability and developmental delay
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Paediatric oncology (lower tier service only – level 1 Paediatric Shared Care
Oncology Unit -POSCU)
The team works closely with other professionals and services and will refer the child or
young person to other appropriate services if they are unable to provide certain
interventions.
4.
Accessing the Service
Elective outpatient Care:
The outpatient service can be accessed by a process of referral through Choose and Book
from GPs. The outpatient service does not accept self-referrals.
The service can be accessed free of charge and waiting lists for initial appointments are
currently within 8 weeks.
Referrals other than from health need to be with an open and active Common Assessment
Framework (CAF) to ensure that early intervention and prevention has been addressed
before referral.
Emergency Care:
We provide a 24/7 service at the Royal Blackburn Hospital site for emergency care.
For emergency care, the service is accessed via ambulance, Emergency Department or
Urgent Care Centre referrals or urgent direct GP referral. Patients access our service
through either the Children’s Observation and Assessment Unit (COAU) at the Royal
Blackburn Hospital or the Children’s Minor Illness Unit (CMIU) at the Burnley General
Hospital Site for assessment and observation and then may be admitted to our Children’s
Ward.
Whilst patients attend the ED or UCCs, the Children’s Units are not ‘walk in’ and are
accessed as described above.
5.
Decision making processes used to determine who is eligible to receive a service.
Outpatient care- The child or young person will be eligible to receive the service if they are
aged 16 or below and upon triage our consultants identify that we can provide
assessment/care of their symptoms. All referrals are ‘triaged’ by the consultant team and
either appointed to the service or referred on to the most appropriate agency. The referring
practitioner is advised of outcome if the referral is not accepted, otherwise an appointment
will be arranged with family.
Emergency care – All presentations/referrals are triaged either on telephone or on
admission. Children attend our COAU or CMIU for initial triage, assessment and
observation. The COAU based at the Royal Blackburn Hospital is 24/7. The Burnley General
Hospital CMIU is open extended days, 7 days per week.
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6.
Methods of communication with service users/patients and how they are involved in
decision making/planning.
We provide copy letters of all our consultations to the GP and to the family/carer of a
child/young person attending the service.
The service encourages Children and Young People and their families and or carers to voice
their views about the service either directly to the practitioner involved in delivering their
care, contacting the Matron or Directorate manager or through East Lancashire Hospitals
PALS or the Trust’s formal complaints procedure.
Other methods of communication include:
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Suggestion box in the waiting room
Trust website and emails to the service
Service user information leaflets
Young people friendly materials and magazines in all waiting rooms.
Phone calls and meetings with families
CHI feedback forms
The service adopts a collaborative care planning approach. This approach allows the young
person and their family/carers to be actively participating in their treatment and care.
The use of bilingual interpreters as appropriate for families whose first language is not
English can be arranged, as can British sign language or other requests.
7.
Service Accessibility.
Services are provided in a variety of settings, both within the hospital sites and within the
community. This involves use of schools, health centres, children’s centres and young
people’s homes as well as a number of different venues that young people may request.
All the health and local authority provision used is wheelchair accessible and have disabled
toilet facilities.
For young people who present to A&E, they may be admitted to our children’s observation
and assessment units (one at Burnley General Hospital for minor illness and one at Royal
Blackburn Hospital for all), or may be admitted to the Children’s ward and for an appropriate
assessment and care to take place.
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8.
Workforce Skills and Training
The team carries out all mandatory training and have an annual personal development
review with identifies training needs.
The team have specialist training according to their role and national guidelines/standards.
9.
Contacts for further information
The first point of contact for the parent/carer or child/young person to discuss something
about their care would be to the practitioner involved in delivering their care. If the service
user has any urgent worries or urgent concerns, they are able to call the central teams on
numbers identified above.
Once referred, the appropriate team will consider whether the child or young person will
benefit from the service. The referrer will also be able to contact the service to discuss
whether the child or young would benefit from service support.
Health Visitors, School Nurses, GPs, other CAMHS teams and other professional therapies
will be involved in providing support for interventions for children and young people.
10.
Feedback
The service is keen to receive feedback about the service.
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Compliments: The service is happy to hear if you have been pleased and satisfied
with the service and treatment provided. We like to ‘Share to Care’ amongst our
teams too to roll out good practice. If you wish to send a compliment to any of the
staff or services please do so. It gives valuable feedback and acknowledges the
positive work that is carried out. You can send a card or letter or ask a member of
staff for a compliments form.
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Resolving problems: The service wants everyone to receive the highest standard of
care. If you feel this has not been achieved then let the service know. Your
comments and complaints can help the service to improve. Some problems can be
dealt with on the spot by the staff providing the care. Please contact the practitioner
involved in your care, or the service lead. Alternatively contact switchboard on 01254
263555 and ask to speak to the Matron or Directorate Manager for Children’s
Services.
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Making a complaint: If your problem cannot be settled informally by talking to a
member of staff then you may wish to make a complaint. Please remember that your
complaint will be treated in confidence, details will not be filed in your medical
records and it will not affect your treatment in any way. There are several ways for
you to make a complaint. You can ask the staff you see to provide you with a form to
complete or you can write, email or phone the PALs Service or the Complaints team.
This information is provided below:
PALs- Patient Advice & Liaison Service :Telephone 0800 587 2586 or email
PALS@elht.nhs.uk
Complaints Team : Telephone 01254 733700 or email complaints@elht.nhs.uk or
write to Customer Relations Team, Park View Offices, Royal Blackburn Hospital,
Haslingden Road, Blackburn BB2 3HH.
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