Paediatrics - Community | Dorset County Hospital

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Updated 3 October 2023

This page is primarily aimed at health, education and social care professionals as it hosts information about the referral process and referral forms.

It may expand its role in the future to provide more information to the general public, although it is expected that in general, the Dorset Family Information Directory will host information that is relevant to service users.

Referrals

We are part of the Pan-Dorset Development and Behaviour Pathway and you can read more about this on the Dorset Council website here.

The links below give the details including the expectations prior to a referral being considered. It is expected that the guidance in these documents are followed prior to considering a referral for neurodevelopmental assessment.

The completed referral form should be scanned and emailed to paedneuro@dchft.nhs.uk
This email address is monitored regularly for incoming referrals. However if necessary we can still accept paper referrals, addressed to:

Consultant Community Paediatrician
Developmental and Behavioural Pathway Referral
The Children’s Centre
Damers Road
Dorchester
Dorset
DT1 2LB

However, we ask that the paper route is used only if it is not possible to scan-in and email the referral to us.

As far as the actual referral process into paediatrics for neurodevelopmental assessment goes, please use the referral forms below:

Pre-school Community Paediatric referral form (GPs have access to the Health Visitor system so it is not necessary for a separate notification to the GP from the Health Visitor)
School Age Community Paediatric referral form (the referrer should also ensure that the patient’s GP is notified – usually by sending the GP a copy of the referral form)

It is possible that there may be a small number of situations which do not neatly fit into this and it may be more appropriate for the GP to make the referral instead. Referrers should contact the department for advise if unsure.

Referrals for ASD/Asperger assessments for young adults aged 18 years and above should be sent to the Pan-Dorset Community Adult Asperger Service.
If the young adult has a learning disability then it is normally expected that the Adult Learning Disability Service would do the assessment in the first instance.

To request a statutory paediatric medical report in relation to the Education Health and Social Care (EHC) Plan please use the email address below. This is only for paediatric reports. For reports from other specialists, please request them the usual way. Inappropriate requests will be deleted or returned to the sender. Email encryption is already set-up for email communication between the main Dorset agencies (check with your IT department if you are not sure).

Single point of access email address: Janice.Robbins@dchft.nhs.uk

Questionnaires
It may be helpful to include further information in the form of questionnaires. Some of the commonly used ones are:

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (parent, teacher and self-complete versions; please use double-sided version)
School feedback form (we usually print this on pink paper or yellow)
School contribution to ASD assessment (MMA questionnaire - updated Feb 2020)

There are other questionnaires we use, not all can be provided here, and these will be issued as necessary.