The Nottingham Community Paediatric Team

The Nottingham Community Paediatric Team is a group of specialist doctors and nurses from Nottingham Children’s Hospital who are experts in different medical and developmental conditions that children may have, such as learning disabilities, ADHD, and Autism. We hold clinics in Health Centres around Nottingham where we see children and help them with their health.

These clinics are held in the Children’s Development Centre (Nottingham City Hospital), Beeston, Bulwell, Carlton, Clifton, Hyson Green, Keyworth, Kimberley, Radford, St Ann’s, Stapleford, Strelley and West Bridgford. We also have special clinics for children with conditions like Down Syndrome, Rett syndrome, hearing problems, and difficulty in communication. Sometimes, we have appointments with other doctors who specialise in bones, brain, or genetics, and these appointments happen at the Children’s Development Centre at Nottingham City Hospital or Queen’s Medical Centre.

Our team also visits Specialist Schools to review children with complex medical and learning needs in their education environment.

When young people reach 14 years old, we start planning for adulthood and start to move their medical care to adult services who can provide ongoing support for their health needs. This may involve clinics with Paediatric and Adult specialist teams.

Where we are

We facilitate clinics across Nottinghamshire and your child will be offered an appointment nearest to your address. At times we offer appointments at a different clinic to support your child being seen sooner. If that happens, we can talk about follow-up options during your first appointment.

To find out where we are based in an AccessAble format, click on the links below:

What we do

The Community Paediatric team see the following children:

 - Children who have developmental concerns.

 - Children with complex disabilities like cerebral palsy.

 - Children with learning disabilities and worries about genetic conditions or specific syndromes.

 - Children with brain injuries, those born very early, or with hearing/vision problems who need assessment or ongoing help.

- Children with general medical issues like concerns about growth, possible seizures, and more.

- Children who need evaluation for conditions like ADHD or Autism.

Referrals:

We cannot accept referrals directly from parents, caregivers, or teachers. Referrals to our clinics must come from your family doctor (GP).

Referrals for possible neurodevelopmental conditions might be directed to other teams like the Behavioural and Emotional Mental Health Team in Nottingham City or the Neurobehavioral team in Nottinghamshire, as they are equipped to provide support and gather important information for assessments.

We work within a multi-disciplinary team to link with services such as:

 - Speech and language therapy

- Occupational therapy (OT)

- Physical therapy (Physio)

- Orthotics

- Dietitians

- Whole Life Disability Team

- Phlebotomy (for blood tests)

- Early Years services

- Family support services

- CAMHs (Child and Adolescent Mental Health services)

- Continence services

- Healthy Family team and Public Health Nurses

- Education services

The availability of these services may vary slightly depending on your local area. You can find more information on local services at ASKLiON | Ask Lion - Nottingham City Directory or Nottshelpyourself.

Information about your visit / what to expect at a community paediatric clinic

When you arrive at the clinic, the receptionist will show you where the waiting area is for you and your child to wait.

A Clinic Support Worker will check who has parental responsibility and make sure we have the right contact details, school information, and GP details. They will measure your child’s weight, height, and, if needed, blood pressure and head size. We would appreciate if you could arrive 10 minutes early to allow time for this. If someone other than a parent brings the child to the appointment, they must have written consent from the parent unless there are special circumstances.

Please know that your child may be seen by any member of the paediatric team (Doctor, Nurse Specialist, or Advanced Clinical Practitioner) and a student may be there too. The Doctor or Nurse Specialist will listen to your main concerns and try to help as best they can. They will ask questions about your child's medical history, social background, strengths, and difficulties. If more information or tests are needed, they will explain this to you and may suggest helpful resources. They want to work together with you to support your child. Please tell us how we can support and communicate in a way that is best for your child.

If further tests are needed, they will be arranged, and you will be informed about how and when they will take place.

Your first appointment will be about 40 minutes long. Follow-up appointments are usually 20 minutes. We do our best to see your child at their scheduled time, but sometimes there may be delays. Thank you for your patience if this happens. If you need to change or cannot make your appointment, please contact the Community Paediatrics Hub as soon as possible.

You can also request a telephone consultation or inform us of any reasonable adjustments.

If your contact details or address change, please let us know.

After each appointment, you will receive a summary letter. This letter can be used as evidence to support applications, such as for Disability Living Allowance.

Resources

Community Paediatrics Resources

Contact us

Community Paediatrics Hub Number:

0115 8404848 (available from 8:30 am to 15:00 pm Monday to Friday)

This number is for patients with active follow-up with Community Paediatrics services.

Please call if you need to reschedule your appointment, switch to a telephone appointment, or require reasonable adjustments for your child's appointment. Please note that same-day responses from our clinical team are not always possible and that as we do not provide an emergency service, urgent health concerns should be raised with the GP or other appropriate service.

In Case of Urgent Health Concerns:

If you have an urgent health concern, please seek advice from your GP, call 111 for non-emergencies, or go to A&E if you are worried that your child is very unwell.

General enquiry form

Non-Melatonin Precription Request — We can only issue medications prescribed by Community Paediatrics. We are unable to action any requests for prescriptions issued from different department specialties or through the GP.

Melatonin Prescription Requests

Precriptions

You can now submit an online Community Paediatric general enquiry or prescription request using the links below. Please be aware that daily limits may be applied during busy periods and in some circumstances the forms may have to be closed and re-opened the following day. 

The Community Hub phone line 01158 404848 will remain open 8.30am – 15.00pm daily. If you wish to submit an online enquiry or prescription request, please ensure you have up to date patient details available, including hospital or NHS number and select the correct link below depending on the request.

Please be advised we are not able to offer an emergency/on call service. Message requests may take several days to action during busy periods.