Brookfields School feedback report
Download (PDF 556.83 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Halton attended a parents coffee morning at Brookfield school on 9 October 2024 to to talk with parents and listen to their experiences of local services.
Key themes in the feedback received:
- Long waits for CAMHS
- CAMHS doesn't offer creative therapies
- Families report speech and language therapies are not meeting children's needs, with delays of over a year for assessments and poor follow-up.
- Families note the removal of funding for Augmentative and Alternative Communication Devices.
- Families have difficulty accessing social care, with reduced overnight provision and a shortage of personal assistants.
- Families struggle with the direct payment system.
- Families report a two-year wait for ADHD assessments. Parents describe poor communication with the centre, including unreturned calls and lost autism assessments. There are only 2 Neurodevelopment Nurses and 2 new Neurodevelopment Assistants, insufficient for Halton’s population.
- Parents reported long waiting times for sleep clinic assessments, which are required to obtain melatonin.
- Wheelchair services can only be accessed through physiotherapy, causing long wait times. Lack of wheelchairs is a safety issue, especially for children with additional needs.
- GP surgeries, A&E, and Urgent Treatment Centres are not accommodating to children with special needs, causing further distress.