Glossary of Terms

Neuro-disability

In medical terms, Neuro-disability can be described as any restriction or lack of ability caused by injury, disease or disorder affecting the brain, spinal cord or muscles.

Developmental,sensory and physical disability

A mental, emotional, physical or sensory impairment that appears in infancy or childhood and involves a failure or delay in progressing through the normal developmental stages of childhood.

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.
A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she:

• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
• has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions

A disability is a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term (year or more) and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

Graduated approach

A model of action and intervention in early education settings, schools and colleges to help children and young people who have special educational needs.

The approach recognises that there is a continuum of special educational needs and that, where necessary, increasing specialist expertise should be brought to bear on the difficulties that a child or young person may be experiencing.

Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan)

An EHC plan details the education, health and social care support that is to be provided to a child or young person who has SEN or a disability.

It is drawn up by the local authority after an EHC needs assessment of the child or young person has determined that an EHC plan is necessary, and after consultation with relevant partner agencies.

Child Development Centre

A Child Development Centre is an assessment, treatment and support centre where specialist help is available for children in whom there are SIGNIFICANT developmental concerns. The Centre sees children under 5 years as at this age development can be assessed.

Many different professionals work together here, such as paediatricians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nursery nurses, play therapists and speech and language therapists from health, and educational professionals.

Child Health Surveillance

Child Health Surveillance consists of a series of scheduled health promotion contacts including child health and development checks and routine immunisations consistent with national guidelines and policy. Currently this is carried out by following 'The Healthy Child Programme'.

Newborn Hearing Screening Programme

The NHS Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP) offers all new parents the opportunity to have their baby's hearing screened within the first few weeks of life. It is a core service within the NHS in England and one of many routine health checks for babies. The test uses quick and simple methods to check the hearing of all newborns.

Partial booking system

In a partial booking system, the first letter sent asks for contact to be made with the department to arrange a specific date and time for the appointment and a confirmatory letter of the appointment date and time will be sent nearer the appointment time.

Failure to make contact following the first letter will result in the patient being discharged back to the referrer and any appointment slot being given to someone else.

Was not brought

Definition - when a child was not brought to a scheduled appointment and there has been no prior contact by the service user to explain the reason for the non attendance.

Early Help Assessment

A social care assessment of a child and his or her family, designed to identify needs at an early stage and enable suitable interventions to be put in place to support the family.

Designated Doctor for Child Protection

The Designated doctor takes a professional and strategic lead on all aspects of the health service contribution to safeguarding children.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

• protecting children from maltreatment
• preventing impairment of children’s health or development
• ensuring children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.

Unexpected child deaths

In instances of unexpected death in children and young people up to 18 years it is a legal requirement for Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) to have in place procedures to respond rapidly to the death. A multi-professional joint investigation is recommended with a rapid coordinated response reviewing the death in a systematic way.

What follows is a Child Death Review which may uncover ways of doing things differently that can help other children and families experiencing child death in the future and hopefully prevent further such child deaths.