Overview
Community Paediatrics is based in three localities: John Mitchell Place, Newry, Childrens Centre, Lurgan and Victoria House, Tower Hill site, Armagh. Outpatient clinics take place mainly on these 3 sites but there are outlying clinics for some specialist services in Dungannon, South Tyrone Hospital, Acorn Centre Armagh (ASD Clinic) and CDC in Newry.
A Multidisciplinary Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnostic Clinic is based in the Acorn Centre in Armagh and the post holder may with experience be able to contribute to these clinical assessments if agreed as part of their job plan.
The Trust has developed an ADHD service which is multidisciplinary and the successful candidate will contribute to this service.
SHSCT has adopted the regional emotional health and welfare model and created a single point of entry triage meeting twice a week to help families and referrers to navigate the complex MDT pathways most relevant to the child’s needs. The post holder will attend one of these per month.
The Trust has invested recently in the formation of integrated care teams in each locality which are PAMS personnel and part of their role is to provide a support service for children with complex disabilities discharged from hospital and also to provide an integrated multidisciplinary assessment service at initial referral to Community Paediatrics. The post holders will be expected to work closely with this service.
Community Paediatricians contribute to the assessment and management of children with safeguarding issues as part of the multidisciplinary team. Community Paediatricians are expected to attend Child Protection Case Conferences and provide reports to Social Services as required.
Dr Hughes is the Named Doctor for safeguarding for the SHSCT.
Dr Zeinab Abdelrahim is the medical advisor to the adoption panel.
There are five Special Schools located in the SHSCT area who admit children with a range of problems including Autism and severe and complex disability. There are several children with very complex disabilities who require high levels of medical and community nursing input. There are also a range of specialised Learning Support Centres for children with Learning Difficulties, Speech and Language Disorders and Autistic Spectrum Disorders attached to mainstream primary schools. Over 1000 children across the SHSCT area have statements of their Special Educational Needs and many of these pupils are supported in mainstream schools. There are 5 special schools in the Southern trust and they all have a community paediatric clinic on site.
Community Paediatricians are involved with the identification and assessment of children with Special Educational Needs. They also contribute to the Statementing process in line with Trust Guidelines and liaise with the Southern Education and Library Board as appropriate.
SHSCT community paeds has 2 advanced nurse practitioners who support the team and do their own clinics for ADHD, melatonin and education clinics.
A Childrens Community Nursing service provides support to children at home with a wide range of disability and work closely with the Paediatric teams.
A number of Nurse Led Clinics are within the Trust including a Behavioural Support Service and an Enuretic Service.
The area Child Development Clinic is based in the Childrens Centre in Lurgan and outreaches throughout the trust. Good links are maintained with the Child Development Clinic and Community Paediatrics. There are close links between the Paediatric Community Service, acute Paediatrics and CAMHS.
Partial booking has been implemented for new patients which has improved attendance.
The trust will be adopting the Encompass electronic record in May 2025 and going paperless after this. This will free up admin time and improve many aspects of patient care.
The Childrens and Young Peoples Directorate completed an ambitious plan to further develop & enhance Paediatric services in Craigavon and Daisy Hill, which included a new children’s wards on both sites and the centralisation of all elective Paediatric Surgical and ENT services in Daisy Hill Hospital. The infrastructure for this project has been completed with a new build Paediatric ward on the Craigavon site and a newly refurbished children’s ward on the 6th floor of Daisy Hill hospital.
Future Plans for the Department
There are plans to develop Integrated Care and Treatment Centers across the SHSCT and it is hoped to build specific facilities within or linked to these centers to enhance multi-disciplinary working to improve services for children with disabilities. There is an advanced plan to build such a center in the Newry area and Community Paediatrics in John Mitchell Place are expected to relocate to that site.
A lot of work is going on to improve and shorten the patient and family journeys through different assessment pathways including ASD, ADHD and DCD.
DUTIES
Development Assessment
* Assess children referred by Consultant Paediatricians, General Practitioners, Health Visitors, education psychologists and AHP’s because of concerns about their developmental progress.
* Assessment and review of children with possible ASD in conjunction with the ASD assessment service.
Behavioural Paediatrics
* Assessment and review of children with possible ADHD in conjunction with the multidisciplinary team.
* Liaison with colleagues in CAMHs and Tier 2 Primary Mental Health for children with other behavioural difficulties.
School Health And Educational Medicine
* Undertake selective review of children with special education needs.
* Assess children with special educational needs in accordance with the 1996 Education Act and Code of Practice and to contribute to the Statementing process in line with Trust Guidelines.
* Liaise with the Southern Education and Library Board and provide advice on home tuition, classroom assistants, home-school transport and Educational Welfare Officer reports as appropriate.
* Assist in the development and maintenance of Module V of the Child Health Surveillance System.
Child Protection
* Participate in child protection case conferences.
* To adhere to the Regional Child Protection Procedures.
Special Interests
The post holders should or be prepared to develop a special interest such as Developmental Assessment, Autistic Spectrum Disorders and/or Behavioural Paediatrics including ADHD.
Health Promotion
To participate in relevant Health Promotion activities as agreed with the line manager.
Supervision
* The post holders work under the supervision of a Consultant Paediatrician or Associate Specialist within each locality.
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