Referral Portal
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Referral Portal

• HOW TO ACCESS THE SERVICE?

  To refer a child or young person please complete our online referral form within the portal by clicking on the link below. 

  https://referral.bedslutoncyphs.nhs.uk/index

  If you are unable to access the Referral Portal or SystmOne please contact the team via the Health HUB on 0300 555 0606 or ccs.bedsandlutonchildrenshealthhub@nhs.net  

• CREATE AN ACCOUNT

  First Time Login

  

  The address you will need to access the portal is https://referral.bedslutoncyphs.nhs.uk 

  Before accessing the referrers’ site, you will be prompted with a login box; from here you will be able to sign-up/sign-in to the site (please note you will only need to complete this information once, you should be automatically directed to the home page following sign-up): 

  Forgotten Password
  
  If you need to reset or change your password, you will need to leave the log in page and then log back in using the new password.

• REFERRAL CRITERIA

  We accept referrals from professionals who work with children, young people and their families.  Currently our referral portal is for referrals to our Bedfordshire and Luton Community Paediatrics Service.  We will be rolling this out to wider community health services in the future to enable professionals to refer to any of our specialist services in the same way and by the same route.

  We provide  non-acute paediatric medical assessments for children and young people with the following conditions:     

  • Complex developmental difficulties (affecting more than one area of development) or known developmental disorder (including genetic disorders with associated developmental problems)
  • Neuro-disability such as cerebral palsy or other motor disorders
  • Social communication difficulties and suspected autism spectrum disorder (children up to 13 years only)
  • Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for children aged 5 years and older
  • Significant Learning Difficulties identified by educational services, requiring medical investigation
  • Developmental Co-ordination Disorder for children over 5 years (following assessment by a physiotherapist and/or Occupational Therapist)
  • Education, Health and Care Plan medicals
  • Children with special needs at Special Schools
  • Safeguarding concerns, alleged neglect, physical, emotional (children over 2 years)
  • Adoption, Children in Care (CIC) medicals
  • Enuresis - Central Bedfordshire and Bedfordshire Borough
    • Nocturnal Enuresis (over 5 years and not improving with advice from 0-19 team)
    • Diurnal Enuresis (over age of 5 years)
    • Constipation and soiling
  • Enuresis - Luton, South Bedfordshire
    • Nocturnal Enuresis (over 5 years and not improving with advice from 0-19 team)
    • Encopresis and soiling
  • Continence for children with special educational needs (SEND) - aged 4-18 years.
  • Difficulties with sleep problems (associated with neurodevelopmental difficulties/disorder)
  • Referrals to other professionals/agencies made where appropriate

  We do not accept referrals for:

  • Selective mutism
  • Mental health problems, including anxiety disorders, depression, mood disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, suicidal tendency or self-harming
  • Eating disorders
  • Dyslexia
  • Tic disorders (unless associated with neurodevelopmental difficulties requiring assessment)
  • Growth problems (unless associated with neurodevelopmental difficulties/disorders)

• WHO CAN USE THE REFERRAL PORTAL?

  We accept referrals from health and education professionals known to the child and require as much information as possible about the child's developmental level and academic progress. Please note we only accept referrals from health or education professionals who are in Luton or Bedfordshire. 

  • For pre-school children, we would encourage the referral to be made by 0-19 universal service via SystmOne or the pre-school setting using our referral portal.
  • For children/young people in school or an education setting, we would request that the referral is made by the SENDCO using our referral portal.
  • For home educated children/young people, the referral can be made by the GP, other health professional, or home tutor who is working directly with the child or young person. GPs and other health professionals can refer in using SystmOne. Home tutors can refer in using the online referral portal.

  We would advise GPs and other health professionals to request that parents liaise with the education setting to make the referral to us where possible to do so. This ensures that the referral contains enough information on the child's development to be triaged accurately and efficiently. Where a child is being home educated, referrals from GPs and other health professionals would be appropriate.

  GPs and health colleagues should continue to refer to our services via SystmOne. 

  Please note, paper and email referrals will no longer be accepted after 31st December 2022.

  We can provide training, help and support to professionals inside and outside of the NHS in how to make referrals, or if you are unable to access the Referral Portal or SystmOne please contact the team via the HealthHUB on 0300 555 0606, email:  ccs.bedsandlutonchildrenshealthhub@nhs.net  or check out our short instruction video.

  If you are a parent seeking a referral for your child, please speak with your GP, Health Visitor, School or other professionals supporting your child.

• FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  Q. Can the application be saved part way through and then revisited to further edit and add information? 

  A. You can start the online referral form, logout and come back to the same online referral form later if required.

  

  Q. Is there a way of getting a copy of what has been input?

  A. Once the online referral form has been completed and submitted you have the option to download a copy of the form which can be printed / saved to file.

  

  Q. If parent voice is required, do they have a separate log-in or will we (school) need to capture that on paper and input?/ Is there a way parents can have access to the referral school does on the portal so they can input their own details?

  A. The online referral portal is for professional use only.  We provide specialist services requiring a professional referral. We would be unable to effectively triage a parent referral due to needing education/early years information such as school reports etc. Where this is not possible/appropriate, referral can be made via GP or other health professional e.g. health visitor. Without a holistic and comprehensive view of the child at point of referral there would be further delays to the process which we of course want to avoid.  

  Q. What information does school need to have with them before they start the form.

  A. The portal referral form contains the same information as the email/paper form. Please have a look at this page for a list of all of the essential info you will need before starting the referral. 

  Q. Are there any prompt sheets for those finding the portal confusing?

  A. There is an instruction guide and video explaining how to use the portal here: https://vimeo.com/753859770/5f3b3f8853 

  Q. Queries have been left with the Health hub and I am waiting on a response – is there an expected turnaround time?

  A. Turnaround time should be up to 72 hours. We would encourage people to email the health hub with their queries, and queries will be responded to.  

  Q. What do the status boxes mean?

  A. Draft Referrals - This status box shows how many referrals you have in draft and not yet submitted to CCS Community Services

  Submitted Referrals -This status box shows how many referrals have been submitted to CCS Community Services

  Completed Referrals – This status box shows how many of your submitted referrals have been actioned by CCS Community Services for processing

  

• HOW WILL I HEAR BACK, AND WHEN?

  Once a professional has submitted the referral they will receive an automated email to confirm the referral. 

  Parents/carers of the child, whose emails have been included with the referral, will also receive an email notification to let them know that a referral has been submitted, along with information on where to obtain help whilst they are waiting to hear back.

  Whilst waiting to hear the outcome of a referral or assessment, support and interventions for the child/young person to help them to achieve positive outcomes should be implemented on a needs-led basis and not on the basis of a diagnosis.

  For further support on this please contact your SENDCO, education psychologist, local authority schools improvement advisor or early help team, and see our Diagnosis Support Pack which includes helpful information for families and practitioners. 

• WHO ARE WE?

  The Referral Portal administrators are part of Bedfordshire and Luton Community Paediatrics, as provided by Bedfordshire and Luton Children's Community Health Services.

  We are made up of a team of skilled administrators who register and facilitate referrals for children and young people to the service(s) that will best meet the needs of the child. 

  The admin team work with clinical colleagues across our children’s services to ensure every referral receives an outcome; whether that is access to a service, signposting to another service outside of our offer, or advice on how to support the child and their family. 

  Our Community Paediatrics teams based in Bedfordshire and Luton work closely together, and we have links with outside agencies, i.e. CAMHS, Early Intervention Teams, Rapid Response Teams and Safeguarding teams which allow us to escalate high risk referrals for immediate assessment where required.  We also work with our Universal 0-19 Health Services and School Nursing Teams which allows us to work freely with colleagues in their services.

  In addition to this we work closely with our colleagues in Luton, Central Beds and Beds Borough councils to improve pathways for families who might not meet the threshold for our specialist services but who may benefit from lower level interventions and support.  Our aim is to ensure that every referral receives an outcome. 

  We accept referrals from professionals who work with children, young people and their families.  Currently our referral portal is limited to Community Paediatrics, but in the future the portal will enable professionals to refer to any of our specialist services in the same way and by the same route. 

• DATA PROTECTION AND INFORMATION GOVERNANCE

  Click here for further guidance regarding Data Protection and Information Governance.