Healthcare services in Portsmouth for children 5 and under

In Portsmouth the majority of our healthcare services are provided by Solent NHS Trust.

Solent Child and Family services see children, young people and their families from 0-19 years (up to 25 years for young people with special educational needs or disability). They visit children and young people in their homes and the community e.g. family hub, school or college. Staff within their specialist services will often see children and young people at their clinics.

Solent NHS provide:

• Health Visiting services for children under five
• Specialist Health Visiting Teams such as the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP)
• School Nursing and Public Health Nursing (PHN) Services for children and young people aged 5-19 years
• Children’s therapies including Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and Psychological Services
• Community Children’s Medical Service who receive referrals from doctors, schools and hospitals
• Children’s Community Nursing services including support when your child is unwell and special packages of care for children with additional needs
• Looked After Children’s service – children who are placed in care
  Safeguarding and Child Protection Services

Click here to visit the Solent NHS website

Specialist Health visitors for Children with Disabilities

These are specialist Health Visitors who have limited caseloads of children with additional needs and offer the families specialist support.

They work very closely with specialist services and also act as a resource for their colleagues.
In Portsmouth we have Specialist Health Visitors for Children with Disabilities who work within the health visiting teams.

Their acceptance criteria is for babies and children with a condition that is likely to result in long term disability and developmental delay likely to require additional support within an educational setting.

These specialist health visitors will continue to support families through to the end of year R if required to enable a smooth transition into school. Referrals to this service is through professionals involved with the family; for example Paediatrician, Therapists, Portage and Early Years Advisors.

These health visitors also offer specialist advice and Training to their colleagues so that other children and families may benefit from specialist interventions.

Specialist health visitors also undertake specialist sleep management training, additional child development and bereavement training.

Children’s Therapy Services

The Children’s Therapy Service team works closely together to support children and young people who need specialist help from one or more of our therapy services. These include Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy.

Click here to visit the Children’s Therapy services website to find out more, including how your child can be referred for support.