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Who we are

The Wandsworth Children’s Social Services Occupational Therapy (CSS OT) service is a statutory service for children and young people (aged 0-17 years) with a disability or long term condition, living in Wandsworth Borough Council.

The aim of the service is to support a child or young person and their carers to manage everyday tasks.  To do this we may recommend changes to the way that the task is done or adaptations to the environment.

The CSS OT service is based at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton, working closely with the Children’s Community Occupational Therapists also based there.

We can be contacted by telephoning 0208 725 3632, or email cssot.referrals@stgeorges.nhs.uk

How to refer

The CSSOT is a self-referral service.

To be eligible, the child or young person has to have a long term physical, and/or neurological condition that is hampering their ability to manage independently within their home environment.  This may include:

  • Moving and handling concerns (from being lifted and carried).
  • Access issues into or around the home, including the child’s bedroom, toilet, washing facilities, or the garden.
  • Postural management; identifying need for help with seating at home.
  • Severe learning disabilities and / or challenging behaviour at home that puts the child and/or their care giver at high risk of injury or is having an effect on meeting siblings’ essential needs (and development).

All referrals are screened, and must be completed in full.

What happens at an assessment?

To enable us to identify a child or young person’s needs and abilities in all activities of daily living (ADL), a CSS OT will conduct an assessment with your child at home. The assessments are carried out through clinical observations, seating assessment, equipment demonstrations and discussion.  Areas of assessment will include, but not be limited to; getting in, out and around the home, bed, bath, and chair, how the child washes or is facilitated to wash and dress; and eating and drinking.  Dependent on outcome of initial assessment, further assessment may be required, to ascertain how to best meet some of the identified needs.

Recommendations may include:

  • Support to review and change the way that a task is performed, including advice and teaching alternative ways of doing things to increase independence
  • Provision of equipment, to enable safe access to bathing or toileting facilities – including bath-boards, bath seats and bath steps, and commode chairs.
  • Provision of complex and/or specialist equipment, to facilitate activities of daily living – including washing, play and toileting.
  • Minor adaptations – including grab rails or mop-stick style stair rails
  • Offering advice on managing mobility and transfers safely, including the completion of manual handling risk assessments, care plans and demonstrations, this may include the recommendation of hoisting equipment or adaptations to install this.
  • Recommending housing adaptations which may include ramps, step lifts, stair lifts, through-floor lifts, door widening, ceiling track hoists, and level access showers. For adaptations to be undertaken, permission of the property owner is required. Funding and the on-going maintenance of such works will be dependent on who owns the property.
  • Referring to the Richmond and Wandsworth Home Improvement Agency (HIA) to facilitate the ‘necessary and appropriate’ and ‘reasonable and practicable’adaptations to the property, this may include the management of the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG).
  • Referring to other appropriate agencies when necessary, including Social Work Teams, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, and other therapeutic services.
  • Signposting to other services that may be better suited to meeting your child’s needs.

Please be aware that specialist equipment is provided on a loans basis – for as long as it’s needed and the young person is living in Wandsworth.   We ask that we are contacted when such items are no longer in use so that these items can be collected and reused. 

What we don’t do

The Children’s Social Services Occupational Therapy team do not assess for the following:

  • Needs relating to housing overcrowding issues. You will need to contact the Wandsworth Housing department for this specific need.
  • Home safety aids or equipment that are readily available and non- specialist.

Additional services and relevant information

As you will no doubt be aware, due the current situation with Covid-19 and in line with Government advice, we are all adapting the way we work with our families to ensure we work in a safe way for the protection of all. We can confirm that we are still operating and delivering therapy support however possible, as long as it is safe and appropriate to do so.

We recognise that families will still need help and advice during this difficult time and while we endeavour to answer individual queries during this time, we request that families do contact the cssot.referrals@stgeorges.nhs.uk inbox which is being monitored by a member of the team. Non-urgent queries will be recorded but may not receive an immediate response.

In order to reduce unnecessary contact and follow government social distancing guidance, we have put together a list of a few useful resources which you can find below:

  • In case your query is urgent, or a piece of CSSOT issued equipment has ceased working contact the Social Services OT team via email on: cssot.referrals@stgeorges.nhs.uk
  • If you need to contact the 0-25 team you can do so by emailing: 0-25DisabilityTeamDuty@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk or calling the duty number on : 0208 871 7192  /  07947 321 047
  • If you are concerned that a sling is not safe to use, you are advised to stop using it and to use a backup or school issued sling. Check all slings before use. If you do not have a backup sling then please email us on: cssot.referrals@stgeorges.nhs.uk
  • If you have a Care and Independence sling and require assistance with how to hoist from bed to chair, including wheelchairs using the GAIR sling then please see the attached video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1TKVJmokUo
  • For ceiling track hoist or through floor lift repairs, please contact your housing association or the manufacturer directly, contact details should be located on the hoist or lift.
  • If your query is around a pending adaption or repair of a recent installation please contact the Richmond and Wandsworth Home Improvement agency on: 0208 487 5185 or email them on HIAMAR@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk
  • Mobile hoist or equipment repairs can now be requested directly through Medequip – please contact 0207 231 6816 or email Medequip on: mandela@medequip-uk.comMedequip website https://www.medequip-uk.com/contact/south-london
  • Broken bathing equipment will not be treated as urgent and you will be advised to strip wash in the interim.
  • If your hospital bed requires repair, please contact the prescriber.  If you are unsure who this was, and the bed has a ‘Medequip’ sticker on it, you may be able to contact Medequip on 0207 231 6816 for this information.
  • Medequip Emergency Out-of-hours can be contacted on Tel No: 0208 573 2871 or email them on: mandela@medequip-uk.com – Medequip website https://www.medequipuk.com/contact/south-london
  • If you have a Geberit AquaClean Care wash dry toilet and requires assistance with how to use the device, please see the attached toilet demonstration video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AlV5GYeg1M&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop
  • If you have a Jiraffe HTS (Rifton) toilet chair and require assistance with adjustments then please see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zhFPPRyGz0
  • If you experience any issues with your R82 Xpanda seating system then please contact the Occupational Therapy office via email: cssot.referrals@stgeorges.nhs.uk to let us know and we will endeavour to contact you to inform you of next steps. Alternatively, you may wish to contact the manufacturer directly and you can do so via telephone on: 0121 561 2222 or email: uk.enquiries@R82.com
  • For any information regarding Coronavirus and patients and visitors to George’s hospital then please use the website link attached: https://www.stgeorges.nhs.uk/newsitem/coronavirus/