Continuing Care
An NHS continuing care package may be offered when a child or young person under 18 years of age has needs arising from disability, accident or illness that cannot be met by existing mainstream / universal, targeted or specialist services alone but require regular and planned complex intervention.
What is Children and Young People’s Continuing Care?
A Continuing Care package may be required when a child or young person has needs arising from disability, accident or illness that cannot be met by existing universal (mainstream) or specialist NHS services alone.
Some children and young people (up to their 18th birthday), may have very complex health needs. These may be the result of congenital conditions, long-term or life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, disability, or the after-effects of serious illness or injury.
These needs may be so complex, that they cannot be met by the services which are routinely available from GP practices, hospitals or those in the community commissioned (provided) by the NHS.
If additional health support is needed this is known as Children’s Continuing Care.
Continuing Care is not needed by children or young people whose needs can be met appropriately through existing services.
National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care
The National Framework for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care outlines the process for determining eligibility for Childrens Continuing Care.
The child or young person’s needs will be assessed against the agreed criteria as detailed in this Framework.
Children and young people’s continuing care national framework – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Referral Process
If you think your child should be assessed for NHS Continuing Care, talk to a Health or Social Care professional who works with them and if they think they are likely to be eligible they will refer them to us.
With your consent, they will complete a Continuing Care Referral Checklist. This is a pre-assessment screening tool to determine if a full assessment should be undertaken by NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care (Tameside).
If a Continuing Care Referral Checklist is completed you will receive a letter detailing the outcome of this referral.
Assessment
If the Child or Young Person screens in for a full assessment a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meeting will be held.
The Decision Support Tool (DST) document will be used as a framework for this meeting.
Within this meeting any evidence provided will be reviewed.
The family and the MDT will be asked to share any additional information regarding the child or young persons health needs.
The Nurse Assessor will make a recommendation as to whether or not the child or young person has a Continuing Care need.
Decision-making
The recommendation from the DST meeting is then presented at the CYP Individual Care and Treatment Panel by the Nurse Assessor.
Senior representatives from Health and Education will review the evidence and decide if the child or young person has a Continuing Care need.
You will receive a letter following this Panel meeting confirming the outcome of the Panel meeting.
Arrangement of Provision
If eligible, the Nurse Assessor will work closely with the child/young person and their family and the MDT to design a package of care to meet the identified health needs.
-When a child is eligible for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care, it is likely that a range of organisations will be involved, such as health, education and local authority children’s services. These different agencies, where applicable, will contribute to your child’s care package.
Children who are eligible for Continuing Care have complex needs and developing the right package of support in a safe way, can take time.
Those eligible for Children and Young People’s Continuing Care have a ‘right to have’ a Personal Health Budget (PHB). A PHB is an amount of money to support a child/young persons health and wellbeing needs, which is planned and agreed between the individual (or there representative), and the local NHS team. Further information regarding Personal Health Budgets can be found on this page.
Who to contact
Contact Name: Individualised Commissioning Team [NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care (Tameside)]
Telephone: 0161 342 5544
Transforming Care
Transforming care is a national programme led by NHS England which is all about improving health and care services so that more people with learning disabilities and/or autism can live in the community.
