Children’s Occupational Therapy Team service changes

Occupational Therapy Duty Line

An Occupational Therapy Duty Line will open on 19 August. Parent carers and professionals can call the Duty Line with Occupational Therapy specific questions. Calls will be answered by a qualified Occupational Therapist.

For appointment queries, continue to contact the Lighthouse Child Development Centre on 0344 257 3952, option 1 then option 1.

• Duty Line number: 01702 372250
• Open Monday to Friday 12:30pm to 2:30pm

Sensory Awareness Toolkit

We are excited to introduce the Sensory Awareness Toolkit.

This is an interactive document produced by Highly Specialist Paediatric Occupational Therapists in Essex. It has been created for professionals and parent carers whose children and young people are experiencing sensory differences that are affecting their wellbeing and function.

The document contains very good basic information about sensory needs and strategies to use to address these. It also has a making sense of my senses page, which parents and teaching staff can easily use to create a personal plan for a child. It is a long document, but it can be dipped in and out of for information and things to try.

View the sensory awareness toolkit and information about sensory processing needs.

Sensory Question and Answer Sessions

Once the strategies from the toolkit have been tried for 8 weeks or more, we welcome parent carers to book onto an online sensory question and answer session. Sessions are run by our Occupational Therapists.

For bookings, please contact the Lighthouse appointment line: 0344 257 3952, option 1 then option 1.

Life Skills Workshop

For children and young people who are having difficulties gaining new life skills (such as tooth brushing, dressing, handwriting) we have launched an online Life Skills Workshop.

Workshops are run by our Occupational Therapists. They will give parents strategies to try at home, and support with setting goals for your child.

For bookings, please contact the Lighthouse appointment line: 0344 257 3952, option 1 then option 1.

‘Link Occupational Therapy model’

From September 2024 we are moving to a ‘link Occupational Therapy model’ . Schools in Southend, Castlepoint and Rochford will be allocated a named link Occupational Therapist who will act as the point of contact for the service.

Aims:

• to support better relationships and communication with schools
• to give advice and coaching to school staff about universal/targeted strategies that can be put in place without waiting for a referral to Occupational therapy (OT)
• to complete face to face assessments, when required, in the child's own environment, rather than an unfamiliar clinic setting
• a point of contact for SENCos to notify the service of requests for annual reviews, so that reports from the OT service are requested and provided before the meeting takes place
• a point of contact for SENCos to discuss functional concerns for children where they might be considering an EHCP assessment request
• discussion and support in cases where a formal referral to OT Service may be needed
• identification of training needs in the areas of Occupational Therapy for settings and signposting to the relevant training provider (if this cannot be provided by the EPUT Service)

Expected impact:

• schools are able to get advice and guidance more easily and quickly
• fewer school aged children needing to attend clinic based appointments
• fewer children's cases being closed to the service due to non-attendance at clinic-based appointments
• the service being notified of and able to provide reports for Education Health and Care Plan annual reviews more quickly
• better working relationships and less physical distance between the OT service and schools

Schools will be contacted by their assigned link OT in the Autumn Term to arrange an introductory discussion and plan for how they can support the setting.

Further information about the Children's Occupational Therapy Service.