New Lancashire and South Cumbria Neurodevelopmental Diagnostic and Assessment Pathway

Following the inspection, a group of professionals, parent/carers, young people and volunteers have been contributing to the production of an assessment pathway that will be consistent across the Integrated Care System of Lancashire and South Cumbria. It is recognised that children and young people (CYP) present with needs and difficulties, rather than with a particular diagnosis, so it was agreed to develop a neurodevelopmental pathway that will offer support from the start and will result in a profile of a CYP’s needs and strengths. A key priority has been to involve CYP, their families and people from a variety of backgrounds and localities to co-produce the pathway.
 
Key features of the pathway are:

• Children and families are at the centre, supported by a Pathway Co-ordinator.
• Support is available at all stages from when needs are identified. 
• There is an initial open neurodevelopmental approach to holistically assess the CYP.
• Consistent assessments and tools will be used regardless of where the CYP lives.
• The assessment will result in a profile and then, with the young person and family, produce an action plan, regardless of diagnosis outcome.

Workshops have been taking place in each Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) with commissioners, providers, parents and relevant partner organisations to understand the services and gaps they have at present and the implementation plan they can put in place to reach a standard delivery of the model. ICP action plans have been developed to identify and address gaps.
 
Following the stakeholder workshops, smaller working groups have been involved in producing resources to support the implementation. These resources have now been circulated to the wider stakeholders, including:

• Referral forms, part A and part B (professional/parent carer)
• Referral form guidance
• Multi agency panel guidance
• Toolkit of assessments
• Action plan
• Guidance for action plan

Next steps:

• Start implementation from December 2019 (each ICP area will be responsible for agreeing this locally to ensure this happens).
• Products will be implemented for six months (from Dec 2019 to May 2020), after which they will be reviewed.
• A feedback process will be communicated with each ICP Lead.

Any changes will be agreed through the Lancashire and South Cumbria Neurodevelopmental Pathway Steering Group and final products will be distributed for implementation from July 2020.