Children and Young People’s ASD

A guide for clinicians

About this service.

The Children and Young People’s (CYP) ASD Service is commissioned by NHS Herefordshire & Worcestershire to support Primary Care in delivering safe, compliant assessments for children and young people.

This service is delivered by Vertis Health—Worcestershire’s GP Federation—and led by a multidisciplinary team of specialist clinicians, including two paediatricians and an advanced clinical practitioner with many years of experience in CYP services, working in close partnership with local practices.

Who can be referred to this service?

This service is suitable for patients who:

  • Are aged between 5 years and 17 years and 6 months old.

    • Children under the age of 6 may be eligible in exceptional circumstances. Please contact the team at Vertis Health for more information (details below)

  • Are registered with a Worcestershire GP

  • Are considered by their GP and/or school to potentially benefit from an assessment, diagnosis and treatment

  • Are not dependent on alcohol or other substances

  • Have not already had a negative assessment for ADHD and/or ASD in the last two years, unless new supporting information has become available.

Please note: This is for the CYP ASD service. Patients should be referred on eRS via the service Children’s & Young People’s Autism Assessment service Vertis Health - Y00459

How can I refer a patient into this service?

If you would like to refer a patient, you can do so via eRS. Please search for Children’s & Young People’s Autism Assessment service Vertis Health - Y00459

This is located under the speciality Neurology and the clinic type Cognitive Disorders.

The parent/carer of the patient and the school of the patient should have both provided you with a completed referral questionnaire. Please ensure both are attached to your referral on eRS.

We also maintain open communication lines via:

If you would like to reach out for more information on referrals, please do not hesitate to do so.

Comprehensive Assessments

Our clinicians are:

  • Specially trained in ASD diagnosis, treatment and prescribing

  • GP-led, ensuring local expertise and relevance

  • Supported by robust EMIS-based templates to standardise care and record outcomes into your patient records in real time

Each assessment includes:

  • Full clinical and psychosocial assessment

  • Behaviour and symptom discussion, including how these relate to and impact everyday life

  • Full developmental and psychiatric history

  • Review of contraindications and comorbidities

  • Clear documentation and outcome summary recorded directly into EMIS

Prescribing - what we do, and what we don’t

We do not currently prescribe medication in our Children and Young People’s services. However, we do have a medication pathway through the local NHS Health and Care Trust where we will refer directly into Community Paediatrics for patients who need medication.

If it is deemed appropriate during or after the assessment with the patient, we will refer the patient directly into Community Paediatrics, who will then take lead on prescribing any medications.

We are exploring our options for the future, working with the Trust and HWICB around prescribing within our CYP services, however this is not an option we currently provide.

Communication & Signposting

We believe in proactive and clear communication and signposting:

  • All reviews are recorded in your patient’s EMIS record

  • Urgent issues trigger an EMIS task to your practice

  • You’ll be notified if a patient disengages from the assessments pathway

  • Where new mental or physical health issues are identified, patients are signposted to a variety of local resources and services