Children's Complex Care

About our service

The Children’s Complex Care team provides home based specialist care and support to children and young people with life limiting and/or long term complex conditions.

 

The service is city-wide and provides care for children and young people aged 0 to 18 years, registered with a Birmingham GP and who meet the children’s continuing care eligibility criteria.

 

Care can be provided in a child’s own home, at school and to access community activities, dependent on the home care package agreed.

 

A home care package can provide day care, night care, school care package or combination of hours.

 

 

Who delivers the service?

The service is delivered by a clinical team of skilled Senior Nurses, Staff Nurses and Healthcare Assistants who have experience in caring for children, young people with complex healthcare needs.

 

The care packages are delivered by trained and competent Healthcare Assistants and each child has a named nurse who will be responsible for overseeing the care package to include assessing, planning, implementing, evaluating and coordinating your child’s care. Student nurses or trainee nursing associates may accompany staff at times.

 

 

How do we help?

We provide skilled, evidence based care to help children, young people and their families/carers with some of the following needs:

• Complex Health Needs
• Specialist dressings
• Airway management such as care of Tracheostomy, oxygen therapy, suctioning of airways
• Long term ventilation
• Nutritional care for feeding via gastrostomy and nasogastric tube
• End of Life Care
• Neuro - Rehabilitation packages
• Complex challenging behaviour secondary to developmental disabilities (e.g. Learning disability and/or Autism)

 

 

Aims of the service:

• To deliver individual, high quality care that meets the healthcare and supportive needs of children and young people with complex conditions.
• To work collaboratively and in partnership with children, young people and their families/carers in the developing child focused health care plan.
• To act as an advocate to ensure the voice of the child, young person and their families/carers is always heard in collaboration with other health and social care professionals.

 

 

How can a referral to the team be made?

Referrals for a continuing care package can be made by a range of professionals including GPs, Community Children’s Nurses/Palliative Care team, School Nurses, Social Workers and other Healthcare Professionals to the continuing care commissioners for assessment. Referrals cannot be made directly to the Children’s Complex Care team.

 

 

What is continuing care?

Some children and young people have long-term needs that are so complex that they cannot be met by existing universal or specialist services usually offered by GPs, hospitals and other care providers.

 

These children and young people are assessed for continuing care packages which means they are given extra specialist support, in addition to the care that they already receive. It is likely that a range of organisations will be involved such as health, education and social care children’s services. These different agencies will contribute to a Child’s/Young Persons care package. The process for arranging continuing care is led by Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board.

 

Children and Young People's Continuing Care information leaflet

 

Children’s Complex Care team are commissioned to provide the health care component of the care package.

 

 

How do I access continuing care support?

Anyone can access our service, providing they meet the eligibility criteria. Children are assessed using the National Framework for Children and Young People's Continuing Care which can be found on the GOV.UK website.

If you would like more information on eligibility criteria, please contact us using the phone numbers in the right hand side of this page.

 

 

Personal health budgets (PHB)

A personal health budget is provided by the NHS to parents and carers who look after children with complex needs. It allows NHS money to be used flexibly, giving families more control over funding, to better meet their child's health and well-being needs.

 

Who do we work with?

Children’s Complex Care team work closely with Community Children’s Nurses, Palliative Care Team, Hospital Services, Community Paediatricians, GPs School Nurses/Special School Nurses, Children’s Services and Medical Devices Coordinator In addition we work in partnership with other agencies from the statutory, private and voluntary sectors.

 

 

When is the service available?

The team provide care packages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  A typical day or school package will be 8.00 am - 4.00, night care 9.00 pm - 8:00 am. Some children may have shorter call visits of 1-4 hours dependent on their circumstances. Hours may vary according to assessed need and family requirements.

 

The Registered Nurse team provide an On Call Service for children, young people and their families that require emergency advice out of normal office hours, 365 days a year.

 

 

Leaving the Service (Transition to Adult Services)

Continuing Care for children and young people stops when a child/young person reaches 18 years. For people over the age of 18 with severe and complex health needs support may be provided through NHS Continuing Healthcare for Adults. This is organised differently to continuing care for children and young people and there is a different assessment process. If your young person is likely to require continuing care into adulthood this should be identified with you when your young person is 14 years. At 16/17 years your young person should be referred for initial assessment with Adult Continuing Care. This should be a multi-disciplinary assessment and a decision made at 17 years about future care.