Mental Health and Wellbeing

Early Years Response Team

The East Lothian Early Years Response Team (EYRT) is a multi-agency network designed to offer relevant and timely support for children with an identified need before they start school. Children who access this service will be deemed to have significant and complex additional support needs affecting their development. Recommended support will be identified using a staged intervention framework, in order to meet specific needs at the right time. Referrals for this service should be made through the Single Point of Access (SPA).

The EYRT panel has active representation from:

• Inclusion & Wellbeing Service (Education)

• Early Learning & Childcare (Additional Support Needs)

• Early Years Outreach

• Health Visiting

• Speech & Language Therapy

• School Nursing (Additional Support Needs)

• Occupational Therapy

With wider support links with the Community Learning Disabilities Nursing team (CLDN), Community Child Health (CCH), Early Years - Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (EY CAMHS) and the Educational Psychology Service (EPS).

The EYRT panel will review Requests for Assistance approximately every two months, and make recommendations for accessing the most appropriate intervention from the range of services available for that child at that time e.g. home play sessions, parenting programmes, support transitioning to an Early Learning & Childcare setting etc. The Early Years Response Team is the main referral pathway to access Education’s 0 – 3 Outreach Service including ‘Kidz Play’ (formerly KidZone).

Requests for Assistance forms are available above and should be submitted to cypspa@eastlothian.gov.uk

Who is Present at the SPA?

The group is chaired by the Mental Health and Wellbeing Coordinator and comprises representatives from CAMHS, Social Work, Mental Health Youth Workers (MHYW), MYPAS Counselling Service, representatives from the Neurodevelopmental Pathway team and Early Years Response team. The MHYWs present each child or young person from their area.

Where to refer: Single Point of Access or CAMHS?

In most situations we would expect that supports via the Single Point of Access should be put into place in the first instance. However, there are some situations where a referral direct to CAMHS will be appropriate. The Single Point of Access is not an emergency or urgent response service and the mailboxes are not checked on a daily basis. Please DO NOT send requests for assistance to the Single Point of Access where there are concerns that a child or young person may be at immediate risk.

A referral should be submitted directly to CAMHS for concerns involving:

• Children and young people who have already been well known to CAMHS, or who you think may still be an open case.

• Eating disorder.

• Concern about risk of suicide or serious self-harm.

• Any very unusual or worrying behaviours.

• Sexual abuse and other serious trauma

Only requests for neurodevelopmental assessment should be made through the SPA.  All other requests to Community Child Health, CAMHS, Speech and Language Therapy or Occupational Therapy should be made through the usual routes.

Contacting CAMHS

Please make use of the CAMHS telephone consultation service, if you wish to ask their advice about a child or young person. This is available Monday to Friday, 12:30-1.30 on 07580 788 090. If the line is busy please leave a message and a member of the team will get back to you. If you require to contact CAMHS out with these times, the office numbers are 0131 446 4880/4871/4872.

CAMHS referrals should be made using the same Request for Assistance form as the Single Point of Access. This is helpful because, should the decision from CAMHS be that support through the SPA is more appropriate, it can be passed directly over, without having to come back to you to do this. It may also be the case that in addition to CAMHS support, a service through SPA is also appropriate.