We want children and young people to have the best possible start in life. We are working together to reduce inequalities (this means reducing the differences in health, care and life chances based on where people live or social circumstances) and looking at how we can improve outcomes for our most vulnerable children, including those with additional needs, disabilities and illnesses.

Community services

Services in the community for children and young people are run by Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust. This includes health visitors, school nurses, children’s physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and children’s complex care. Find out more about the services here.

Hospital care

If your child is seriously ill or requires hospital based care for surgery, paediatric services are mainly provided at The Children’s Centre run by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

For some specialist conditions children may be treated in other hospitals further away from home such as Birmingham or Bristol.

Mental health

For information on children and young people’s mental health services, see here.

Special educational needs and disability (SEND)

We work with Gloucestershire County Council and other partners to improve support and care for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Everyone aged 0 to 25 with SEND who needs extra support will have a single plan setting out all the help they will receive from education, health and social care and who is responsible for each part of the plan.

This means that individuals and families will be more involved in identifying the support they need to get the most out of life, whether that’s from school, college, health services or the county council.

The leaflet, My Child has additional needs, what does this mean and what can I do? gives information for parents and carers about what we call the ‘graduated pathway’ which enables the right level of support to be provided when needed.

More information about SEND can be found on the Gloucestershire County Council website here.

Children in Care

The Children in Care service promote and look after the health of children in care.

More information

Caring for children and young people on the NHS.uk website.