Support available while waiting for your appointment

Your child’s health visitor can support with any worries about your baby’s or young child's development (0-5 years). Talk to your health visitor, even if it is some time since the last regular visit. Click here for more information about Health Visitors

For school age children your school nursing service supports the health and wellbeing of all school aged children from 5 to 19 years old, and up to 25 years for young people with SEND. Click here for more information about School Nursing

If your child has been referred to the Child Development Centre for a Multi-Disciplinary assessment click here for a webpage which gives useful information about what to expect.

Social prescribing is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing. Visit the following links:

Social prescribing - Shropshire Council (for children aged 11 and above) 
Social Prescribing - Telford Mind
 

The Speech and Language Therapy Advice Line is available to parents and carers of children not known to the service, waiting for support or currently on caseloads. School staff or other professionals can also seek support about a child with parental permission. 

Speech and Language Therapy Advice Line number: 01743 450800 (option 4)

Talk Boost and ELSEC (Early Language Support for Every Child) are initiatives that support children with speech, language and communication needs in schools and early years settings. For more information visit the Speech & language therapy website.

A range of organisations are available to support children and families across Shropshire and Telford who have speech, language and communication needs. Visit the Support for Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) page on this website for more information.
 

The Children’s Occupational Therapy Service’s website has lots of useful information, signposting and ideas of ways to help develop functional skills, fine and gross motor skills, and support sensory processing differences – both at home and in the educational setting.

Families can contact the OT Advice Line to ask for advice or find out more by calling 01743 450 800 or emailing shropcom.OT4kids@nhs.net 

Your health visitor or school nursing team can support with concerns about your child’s physical needs and make referrals to the appropriate health care professional if needed. 
 

Professionals already in your child’s life such as teachers, GP, or counsellors are available for you or child to talk to. They may suggest a referral to other services.

Every school and educational setting in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin should have a designated lead for Mental Health. The designated mental health lead can be contacted for advice and help about supporting a child in school. Ask your school who your Mental Health lead is. 

Alongside this your school nursing team is available to support the health and wellbeing of all school aged children from 5 to 19 years old, and up to 25 years for young people with SEND. Click here for more infomation about School Nursing

BeeU provides emotional wellbeing and mental health services for children and young people (ages 0 to 25) in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. They work in partnership with some schools in the region as part of the Mental Health in Schools and Colleges programme. For more information, e-mail:

• the Shropshire Team (shropshiremhst@mpft.nhs.uk) or 
• the Telford and Wrekin Team (telfordmhst@mpft.nhs.uk)

Visit the BeeU :: Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust website to find information about 

• Getting Help – information about a number of services children, young people and families can directly access.
• Getting More Help - how professionals can refer children, young people and families for assessment and treatment when more help is needed.
• Getting Risk Support – if there is an immediate concern

Social prescribing is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.

Social prescribing - Shropshire Council (for children aged 11 and above) 
Social Prescribing - Telford Mind

There are a range of local support providers that you and your child can access, the majority of which do not require your child to have a diagnosis. 

Visit the neurodiversity pages on this website for more information about local support services and national organisations and useful websites

The Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) Programme (Shropshire and Telford) and Neurodiversity Practitioners (Shropshire) are initiatives that support children with neurodivergent needs in education settings. For more information click here to visit the webpage for PINS and click here for Neurodiversity Practitioners 

Social prescribing is an approach that connects people to activities, groups, and services in their community to meet the practical, social and emotional needs that affect their health and wellbeing.

Social prescribing - Shropshire Council (for children aged 11 and above) 
Social Prescribing - Telford Mind

Your child’s health visitor can support with any worries about your young child’s behaviour (0-5 years). Talk to your health visitor, even if it is some time since the last regular visit. Click here for more information about Health Visitors

For school age children your school nursing team supports the health and wellbeing of all school aged children from 5 to 19 years old, and up to 25 years for young people with SEND. Click here for more information about the School Nursing service.

Shropshire Council and Telford and Wrekin Council offer Early Help Services which bring agencies that work with children, young people and families together to make sure you get the right support at the right time. For more information contact:

Early help (Shropshire) 
Family Connect  (Telford & Wrekin)

Shropshire Council’s Parenting Team offers help and support to parents and carers with children with SEND, to raise healthy, well-rounded children in a loving and stable environment. No formal diagnosis needs to be in place to access any of their services which include an advice, line, parenting courses, sleep workshops and 1to1 support. Click here for more information about Shropshire's Parenting Team.

You can also find links to organisations that offer topic-based support (behaviour, sleep, toileting) on this website on the Neurodiversity national organisations and useful website page. Diagnosis is not needed and many support across a range of SEND needs.

Preparing for adulthood (PfA) content on this website is currently under development. In the meantime please visit the following webpages for local area information about PfA:  

Shropshire 

• Shropshire Council Preparing for Adulthood
• PACC Preparation for Adulthood Navigators (Shropshire) 

Telford

• Telford & Wrekin Preparing for Adulthood
• PODS Preparation for Adulthood Navigators (Telford & Wrekin) 

Parent Carer Forums (PCF) are representative local groups of parent carers of children and young people with disabilities who work alongside local authorities, education, health and other service providers to ensure the services they plan, commission, deliver and monitor meet the needs of children and families. Visit the website of our two local PCFs to find out more.

PACC - Parent Carer Council Shropshire 
PODS - Parents Opening Doors Telford

Support from other parent carers has always been recognised as important for SEND families. Across Shropshire and Telford there are a number of parent carer run support groups, where parent carers can chat with each other, and share experiences and information. The Council Local Offer websites have listings of local groups for a variety of SEND needs.

SEND support groups | Shropshire 
Parent Carer Zone | Telford