Preschool Developmental Nursing Service
Information for parents and carers
We are a small team of specialist nurses and early years child development nurses who see preschool children with a range of neurodevelopmental needs, including developmental delay, autism spectrum condition, complex health conditions, and physical/medical concerns. We work as a team to offer additional support and information to families whose children have been referred to Longlands Child Development Centre.
We understand that having a child with complex and/or unmet health or developmental needs can cause anxiety and be overwhelming. There may be areas where you, as a parent or carer, feel you need specialist advice, support, and information. After your appointment with the paediatrician, we can offer a home visit to identify this need and welcome you to children’s services, enabling you to develop the confidence and skills to support your child and family through their life journey.
We will review your child’s current presentation and build a plan based on your understanding of your child’s needs. This involves speaking with other professionals to create an in-depth and person-centred plan. This may also involve seeing your child in different environments, such as the clinic and your own home.
As part of our service, we can offer specific interventions called “episodes of care” tailored to your particular need at that time.
After seeing you and your child in the home, we can then offer additional virtual input to help establish change in identified areas through our episodes of care pathways.
Pre-School Neurodevelopmental Nursing Team
What can we support you with?
- Support and advice: we can work with you to identify areas of support that you feel you may need. We can also signpost or refer you to other services that would be of benefit to you and your child. This includes preparing for childhood beyond the preschool service.
- Development: a developmental assessment is usually carried out in the clinic with the paediatrician, but at times this may be difficult. Therefore, we may sometimes carry this out in a different setting, such as your home or nursery.
- Sleep: we can offer support with sleep issues that your child may be having due to their additional needs.
- Toileting: we can offer toileting support for children with additional needs, ensuring that your child has the best start to toilet training by ensuring a healthy bowel and bladder.
- Behaviour: we can support you with challenging behaviour by offering some initial advice and, if appropriate, signposting or referring you to other services that are best equipped to support you.
How can you refer to us:
We can work with any preschool child who has been referred to the Child Development Centre. We will explain our service at your initial appointment. As part of your assessment, if we identify areas of unmet need, we can then allocate you a practitioner to complete an episode of care in the area of need.
If at this time no need is identified, we can accept re-referrals at any point by contacting the Child Development Centre on 01524 591671. You will be added to a weekly telephone clinic where staff can discuss your concerns and help you identify the most appropriate pathway of support. Alternatively, you can ask your paediatrician to refer your child to the service.
Date of Publication: 14/05/2024
Leaflet Code: PIL229/IND019
Review Date: 01/05/2027