Unfortunately, our waiting times for initial assessment with our service are significantly delayed. You will be contacted by telephone or letter when your child has been booked an appointment.
Please see the Community Paediatrics webpage for up-to-date waiting times, help and advice.
If at any point during your wait time you feel your child no longer requires an assessment or you obtain a private assessment please let us know as soon as possible.
Please let us know if you need an interpreter.
We can arrange for a professional interpreter to join your appointments but cannot allow a family member to interpret for you.
The majority of our questionnaires are available to access on our website under “Questionnaire links for children open to the service”. These are available to use for both schools and parent/guardians.
If we have asked you to complete questionnaires, you can download them from our website and send them back to our questionnaire email address: kentchft.qscommpaed@nhs.net.
If a clinician requires further questionnaires before your child's appointment, these will be sent to you/your child's school directly.
Some questionnaires are essential for screening, and we may need to request this information again closer to your child's appointment date.
If your child has changed school or you have changed email address, please let us know as soon as possible to avoid delays to your child's appointment.
Our clinics run in the mornings and afternoons. All clinics finish at 4pm.
We do have some Saturday clinics but these have very limited availability.
We ask that you give us as much notice as possible if you need to cancel an appointment, though we know that this will not always be possible.
Please be aware that after cancelling an appointment, there may be a significant wait for another because we have so many children waiting to be seen.
If two appointments are cancelled in a row this may result in your child being discharged from the service.
The turnaround for all medical reports at this time are between 12 to 18 weeks.
If you need your child's medical report urgently, please let us know at your appointment and we will do our best to help.
After an initial diagnosis you will be invited to attend a parent strategy group (parents only) where advice and support will be given with information about medication and things to consider.
You must attend this online session before we can prescribe medication for your child.
Your child's medical report will be sent to your doctor (GP) who will continue to prescribe medication under a shared care agreement.
Your child will be reviewed by the community paediatrician every three, six or nine months.
If you are concerned about the medication your child is taking you will be asked to see a paediatrician for a possible medication change, but it will be your doctor who will continue to prescribe. They will not be able to change medication or dose until you have been reviewed buy our team.
If you child has not been referred to the Community Paediatric Service then you will need to speak to your doctor or preferably your child’s school to be referred.
If you are worried/concerned about a prescription, medication or your child’s medical report, please call 0300 123 4087 to speak to the Medical Admin Team or email kentchft.cpmedicaladmin@nhs.net.
Please note we are not an emergency service. Please allow 72 hours for us to respond to calls and emails.
If you or your family need urgent medical attention then please call 999 or visit A&E immediately.
This is not a reason to see a paediatrician; it is a reason to go to A&E to be seen by CAMHS.
If you need immediate help you can you can contact NELFT (CYPMHS Children and Young Peoples Mental Health Service) on 0300 123 4496, 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
(Please note that from 6pm on weekdays and 12pm on Saturdays, all calls will be automatically diverted to the NELFT Mental Health Direct support lines which is a team of dedicated professionals waiting to take your call.)
If you are a patient or have been referred you can contact us to request an early appointment in writing. Please include your reasons for requesting an earlier appointment which will be passed to a clinician to review.
If you child is not given a specific diagnosis, the clinician will explore other issues to see if there is an underlying problem.
You may find find the advice on challenging behaviour from our Community Paediatric team helpful.
You can also contact Kent County Council www.kent.gov.uk/earlyhelp for Early Help and Preventative Services. If there is no support or treatment available from our service you will be discharged.