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Children’s Occupational Therapy (OT) Service

The Royal Borough of Greenwich Children’s Occupational Therapy (OT) service works with children and young people (aged 0-18th birthday) who are permanent residents of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and have a long term physical and/or neurological condition that is affecting their ability to manage everyday activities at home.

The aim of the service is to support the child / young person and their caregivers to manage everyday activities at home as independently and safely as possible. To do this, OT recommendations might include changes to the way activities are done, specialist equipment and/or adaptations to the home environment.

Easy Read information

The Children’s Occupational Therapy service is based at the Woolwich Centre and works closely with a range of local authority, health and other partner services to support families.

The service can be contacted via telephone on the Children’s OT Duty line 020 8921 2982 or via e-mail on child-occupational-therapy@royalgreenwich.gov.uk

How to refer:

Referrals can be made to the service using the telephone or email contact. Each referral will be triaged and if necessary, prioritised. There may be a waiting time for an assessment and hence, it is important to provide relevant, accurate, comprehensive and up to date information both at the time of referral and whilst awaiting assessment.

Reason/s for referral may include:

  • Moving and handling concerns.
  • Access difficulties into and/or around the home, including to the child’s bedroom, living room, washing and toilet facilities.
  • Severe learning disabilities and/or significant challenging behaviour due to a disability that puts the child and/or caregivers/family at significant risk.

OT referral form - WORD/editable version under 'downloads'

Referrals can be e-mailed to the OT Duty e-mail address of child-occupational-therapy@royalgreenwich.gov.uk

What happens at a Social Care Children’s OT assessment:

To enable the service to identify the child / young person’s needs and abilities in everyday activities, the OT will complete an assessment with your child in their home. Areas of assessment will include, but are not limited to, getting in and out of the home and to essential rooms within the home, access to washing, toileting and bedroom facilities and moving and handling needs (lifting, manoeuvring and carrying the child / young person).

Recommendations may include:

  • Support to review and change the way a task is performed to promote safety and independence.
  • Provision of specialist equipment (on a loan basis to be returned to stores when no longer needed) to support safe access to activities of daily living, such as bathing and toileting. As the child grows and their needs change, it may be necessary to review, modify and/or replace equipment provided.
  • Minor adaptations, such as grab rails and stair rails.
  • Moving and handling equipment, adaptations and plans to support safe transfers.
  • Major adaptations to the home, such as ramps, lifts, door widenings and level access showers. For any adaptations, permission is needed from the property owner. Funding and ongoing maintenance of adaptations is dependent on who owns the property. OTs can refer necessary and appropriate adaptation recommendations to the Council’s Home Improvement Agency (HIA) for consideration to support provision of reasonable and feasible adaptations. This may include a Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) application.
  • Referrals to other appropriate services or agencies, where necessary.
  • Signposting to other services that may be better suited to meet the child’s needs.

 

What Social Care Children’s OT service is not responsible for:

  • Needs relating to overcrowding issues. Please contact the Housing Inclusion Service on 020 8921 2863 or housing-inclusion@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or the Access and Allocations Team on 020 8921 2941 or housing-allocations@royalgreenwich.gov.uk, if you are a Greenwich resident.
  • Needing to move to a more suitable property due to medical / disability needs. Please contact the Housing OT team on 020 8921 2614 or DHIT-Housing-OT@royalgreenwich.gov.uk, if you are a Greenwich resident.
  • Assessment and provision of specialist seating at home, sensory integration input and OT input into education settings. Please contact the Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust Children’s Occupational Therapy Service on 020 8836 8621 or oxl-tr.childrenstherapies@nhs.net, if you have a Greenwich GP.
  • Wheelchairs and specialist buggies. Please contact Greenwich Wheelchair Services on greenwich.wheelchairservice@nhs.net or 020 3045 5437, if you have a Greenwich GP.
  • Car mobility and safety advice and equipment. You can contact the Queen Elizabeth Foundation (QEF) Mobility Service for information and advice on www.qef.org.uk or 01372 841 100.
  • Specialist pressure relieving and tissue viability advice and equipment. Please contact your local community nursing team.
  • Mobility aids, such as walking frames and standing equipment. Please contact your local Physiotherapy service or GP Practice for onward referral.
  • Home safety aids and equipment that is readily available and not considered specialist.

Who to contact

Contact Name
Children's Occupational Therapy
Telephone
E-mail
child-occupational-therapy@royalgreenwich.gov.uk

Where to go

Name
The Woolwich Centre
Address
35 Wellington Street
London
Postcode
SE18 6HQ

Other Details

Availability

Referral required
Yes
Referral Details

Social Care Children’s Occupational Therapy: Duty – 020 8921 2982

child-occupational-therapy@royalgreenwich.gov.uk

For all referrals and enquires relating to this service.

There is a weekly duty meeting to respond to duty queries. Duty is monitored daily, but you may need to wait a few days for a response to your duty query.

Other notes

Associated services:

Disabled Children Social Work TeamCWDT.Duty@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or 020 8921 2599. Referrals to the Social Work service are taken through the MASH service on mash-referrals@royalgreenwich.gov.uk


Lift SectionServicing, maintenance, repairs of home ceiling track hoists and lifts – liftsection@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or 020 8854 8888.


Adaptations Disability & Home Improvement Team (DHIT):                DHIT.-Admin@royalgreenwich.gov.uk

- RBG Council properties: 020 8921 2614.

- Owner occupied / Privately Rented / Housing Association properties: 020 8921 2824.


Equipment Stores – Medequip: 020 8319 5680 or 0208 573 2871, woolwich@medequip-uk.com Equipment maintenance, servicing, repairs and collections can be requested directly with Medequip.


General RepairsFor Council properties – Contact the Repairs Team on 020 8921 8900 / 020 8854 8888. For Housing Association properties – Contact your Housing Association directly.


Housing Occupational Therapy TeamDHIT-Housing-OT@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or 020 8921 2614 / 2824. 


Housing Allocations Teamhousing-allocations@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or 020 8921 2941.


Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust Integrated Therapies Team

(OT, Physio, SLT): oxl-tr-childrenstherapies@nhs.net or 020 8836 8621.


TelecareTelecare@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or 020 8921 4444.


Royal Greenwich Children’s Sensory ServiceFor children with hearing / vision impairments - rory.mcdonnell@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or 020 8921 5215.