How to refer to the Social Communication and Autism Spectrum Service

A child can be referred by Consultant Community Paediatricians or clinical professionals within the local Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) team with the backing of the CAMHS Lead Clinician or Consultant Psychiatrist. Where there are mental health challenges or risks, we will need to establish which local CAMHS team (or, alternatively, community or other paediatric team) will be responsible for the child’s ongoing care after our assessment.

Until the local team has approved the referral to our team and accepted responsibility for risk management we cannot accept the referral. For referrals from CAMHS, we require a named keyworker with whom to liaise if any risks are identified during our assessment.  As a Tier 4 assessment-only service we are unable to do case management including risk, ongoing monitoring, or treatment.

Referrals to our service must come from a community paediatric or local CAMHS service. Unfortunately we are not able to accept referrals from family doctors (GPs).

We require children and young people referred to our service to remain under the care of local CAMHS (or EWMHS) or local paediatric service for the duration of our assessment. For referrals from CAMHS, we require the name of a case manager who knows the child and with whom we can liaise throughout the assessment if needed. This is to ensure appropriate continuity of care and risk management. As a Tier 4 assessment-only service, we are not able to manage risk and therefore any identified risk will need to be supported and managed locally.

The Social Communication & Autism Spectrum Service is a second opinion diagnostic service.

If there is no doubt about the diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder, this Clinic is usually not appropriate.

Advice on providing appropriate treatment to children who have a well-established diagnosis is not within our remit, and so referrals requesting this type of help cannot be accepted.

The service accepts referrals of children age 5-16. In the case of 17 year olds, the team will consider the referral and make a decision on a case to case basis with liaison with the local CAMHS before transition to adult services.

The clinic is a national resource for children and young people with suspected autism who do not have an identified or suspected intellectual (learning) disability. Children with generalised developmental delay or intellectual disability will not normally be accepted but may be redirected to the Neurodevelopmental Assessment Service at GOS, with whom we work closely.

We normally only provide opinions concerning children who are in mainstream school or who could access a mainstream curriculum with appropriate accommodations for autism spectrum in place. We also see children with specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia, however the primary referral question for our team needs to relate to autism spectrum.

Children who are seen by our service may or may not have an Education Health and Care Plan.

We welcome non-English speaking patients and families who are eligible for NHS treatment. We will provide interpreters for the assessment appointments, but arranging these may take some time, and the assessment procedure may be longer. Several appointments are often needed to complete assessments where a patient and family does not speak English. Consequently, in these circumstances, waiting lists may be a little longer than average.

We are an NHS service and do not accept private referrals if the child is eligible for NHS treatment. If a private opinion is needed, the referrer should contact the International and Private Patients centre here at Great Ormond Street Hospital for advice on possible options

Children should be between their 5th and 17th birthday, with a previous history of specialist assessment by local CAMHS or neurodevelopmental paediatric team. Referrals of 17 year olds will be considered on a case by case basis. Either the existing specialist or the parent requests a second opinion.

The local specialist services must be willing to accept the child for implementation of treatment or management decisions following the referral, and should indicate their willingness to do so beforehand.

All children seen by this service are in mainstream (public or private) education, or have the potential to engage in mainstream education with autism-related supports in place, and most have intellectual abilities that are within the typical range. For children who have identified intellectual (learning) disability please refer to the Neurodevelopmental Assessment Clinic within the Neurodisability Service.

If you wish to discuss a case before deciding whether to refer, please contact:

Vester Adofo
Service Coordinator
Telephone number: 0207 405 9200 ext. 0446
Email:  gos-tr.neurodisabilityreferrals@nhs.net