Barnet Child Development Service provides assessments for children for whom there are significant concerns about their developmental progress and, for younger children, their behaviour.

The aim of the assessment is to help understand the child's abilities, to investigate possible causes of delays or difficulties, and to make recommendations on how to support the child and family.

See the Barnet Local Offer for more resources and links to the services supporting children and young people with neurodevelopmental needs and SEND. There you will find further information and referral pathways to:

• Barnet Integrated Clinical Services, for children with mild to moderate mental health needs
• community therapy services
• educational support services.

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusions

• children registered with a Barnet GP
• children up to the age of seven years old, where there is concern about their neuro-developmental progress
• older children with conditions of complex disability
• older children who present with unexplained learning disability (the team will exclude medical causes of learning disability, but is not able to provide detailed cognitive assessments; this would be the remit of an education psychologist)
• children who require a medical assessment as part of their education, health and care needs assessment.

Exclusions

• the team does not offer assessment for ADHD per se; in children aged less than five with these concerns, the team may offer an assessment to look at the possibility of a developmental delay or learning disability (not to diagnose ADHD), but if a child is reported to have age-appropriate development and no obvious cognitive delay, then:
  • children aged less than five: parents should be signposted to relevant parenting support course via links on the Barnet Local Offer website
  • children older than five: referrals should be issued to local CAMHS (referrers may wish to include the link to the leaflet of their newly launched ADHD assessment service, see Downloads)
• children for assessment of autism or ASD if they are seven or older (these referrals should be directed to CAMHS)
• children if their GP is not in Barnet, even if they reside in Barnet or attend a Barnet school, for reasons mentioned above.

How to Refer

Locations

Barnet Child Development Service