ASD support from the Integrated Neurodevelopmental Team (INDT)

If you think your child might Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), you can get support from the Integrated Neurodevelopmental Team (INDT).  

The service provide assessments to diagnose young people presenting with social communication and interaction difficulties.
The team is multi-disciplinary and made up of:

• community paediatricians
• speech and language therapists
• clinical psychologists
• a consultant psychiatrist 

Who can be referred
A GP or school can refer child aged 0 to 18 who are registered with a Greenwich GP. They must refer the child to the Community Paediatrician or SALT team in the first instance. 

If a child is known to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) or the ADHD service, these teams can also refer them for an ASD assessment.

For a referral to be accepted, the referrer must provide evidence that a child or young person displays behaviours consistent with possible ASD. These include:

• qualitative difficulties in their social communication skills
• qualitative difficulties in their social interaction skills
• repetitive and rigid behaviour
• atypical development of play

They must show these behaviours in more than one setting. 
Once a child is referred, the team will: 

1. review information gathered from the referrer and school (if in school)
2. decide if further assessment is needed
3. decide what type of an assessment is need 
4. decide what professionals should be involved depending on the child or young persons needs

What happens during diagnostic assessments
Diagnostic assessments follow the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for ASD assessments.

For a diagnostic assessment:

1. the team will complete a detailed diagnostic interview with parents or carers
2. the team will complete an observational assessment with the child or young person. These might be remote or face to face depending on the child or young persons needs.
3. after the assessment, a clinician will discuss the outcome with the family
4. if the child does have autism, the family will be signposted to services and will be referred to other health or social care services if needed

Your child will usually continue to get the same level of support from the speech and language therapy service as before their assessment or diagnosis. 

Speech and language therapists work with children based on the impact the child’s communication difficulties are having on their daily life. This is likely to stay the same with or without a new diagnosis.
Children and young people are discharged when the assessment is completed.