NHS North East and North Cumbria ICB has partnered with three adoption agencies in their region to secure funding for a new specialist team, focused on providing earlier support to families with adopted children.
Nearly £1 million has been awarded in funding from the Department of Education for the ICB, Adopt North East, Adopt Coast to Coast and Adoption Tees Valley.
The funding is to support a range of services for adopted children, young people and their families, in the hopes of strengthening links with local health services.
The newly created team will include three social workers, two clinical psychologists and two occupational/speech and language therapists along with a service manager. They will work with children aged four to 11 and their families who request support with behaviours that may indicate neurodiversity, attachment and trauma issues; which have resulted in difficulties around education, peer relations and the adoptive home; and which are likely to escalate in severity and complexity without intervention.
The health professionals will work together to increase understanding of the support a child and their family may require. It is hoped that their contributions will speed up the assessment progress.
The ICB states that the project is “designed to reduce the impact of problems on children, by addressing them quicker and stopping them from escalating.”
David Purdue, executive chief nurse at the ICB, commented: “From psychological support to help with speech and language, this new team can help with school, health and social care to ensure our most vulnerable children have the best possible start in life.”
