Occupational Therapy

The children and young people’s Occupational Therapy service specialises in working with children and young people from birth to 18 years. We support children and young people with physical, sensory, developmental, cognitive and social needs that affect their functional abilities and impact on their daily life.

Our service is available for children and young people who meet our criteria. Our services are delivered in clinics, family homes, preschool and school settings.

Support available:

  • Exeter, Mid and East Devon
  • Northern and Torridge
  • Okehampton
  • West Devon
  • South Hams excl. Dartmouth and Totnes
  • South Hams incl. Dartmouth and Totnes
  • Teignbridge

  • Exeter, Mid and East Devon
  • Northern and Torridge
  • Okehampton
  • West Devon
  • South Hams excl. Dartmouth and Totnes
  • South Hams incl. Dartmouth and Totnes
  • Teignbridge

  • Referral Criteria – Coordination
  • Referral Criteria – Dressing
  • Referral Criteria – Hand Skills
  • Referral Criteria – Occupational Therapy
  • Referral Criteria – Play
  • Referral Criteria – Toileting
  • Referral criteria – Using your senses

How can we help?

Before requesting help from us, if you think the child or young person has difficulties which we would be able to help with, please use the toolkits listed on the right. These toolkits will help you, and us, to establish your child or young person’s level of need and collect information which will be useful when we first see them.

Please follow the instructions in the toolkit, implement the strategies suggested within them and keep a record of the results as we will require you to submit this information to us if you find that you do need assistance from the Occupational Therapy Service.

We support children and young people with physical, sensory, developmental, cognitive and social needs that affect their functional abilities and impact on their daily life. We work in partnership with parents and other professionals with whom the child or young person has a relationship, recognising that they know the child best.

We will help to identify a child or young person’s difficulties in their daily life by assessing their needs and helping them be as independent as possible. Our staff work with children and young people through activities and play to help them set goals which will maximise their abilities and independence. We also assess for and provide equipment and adaptations to maximise independence.

Guidance and information

There are a number of tools and strategies that can be tried to help and support the child or young person before making a request for service to Children and Family Health Devon. You will need to submit evidence that the appropriate selection of toolkits and strategies has been completed according to need along with your formal request.

These include:

  • The strategies within the Early Years and School Years toolkits
  • A minimum of 2 full terms of Fun Fit

Fun Fit

The Fun Fit programme is aimed at children across the county of primary school age. Two members of staff in each primary school should be trained in using the programme to enhance children’s posture and coordination.

The programme especially helps children who struggle with their motor skills, i.e. problems with dressing, poor handwriting or cutlery skills, they bump into things a lot, or if they have low self esteem.

Before making a request please check the Request Criteria page to ensure that you have all the necessary evidence you will need to submit your request.

What happens once you have made a referral?

We will contact you or the parents/carer(s) if we require more information about the child or young person. Depending on the difficulties the child or young person is experiencing we may need to suggest the request is forwarded to another Occupational Therapy provider in Devon since Children and Family Health Devon is not the only provider.

We will usually only accept the request if the strategies in the toolkits above have been implemented and appropriate evidence supplied as part of the request. Please see the specific services/areas of need for details of exclusions to these requirements.

Once we have accepted a request for service, we aim to see the child or young person within 18 weeks however there may be variations to this timeline associated with urgency, prioritisation of risk, staffing resources and other factors. Whilst the child or young person is waiting, it would be of benefit for them and the parent/carer(s) to continue to implement the strategies in the toolkits and to keep a record of their progress so that this can be shared with us during the assessment.

What is the process?

Contacts

Children and Family Health Devon

Single Point of Access Team
1a Capital Court
Bittern Road
Sowton Industrial Estate
Exeter EX2 7FW

Email: TSDFT.DevonSPA@nhs.net

t: 0330 0245321