Children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities may have different and sometimes complex health needs. This can mean that they receive help from a range of different health professionals and services.

Most health services in England are provided free by the National Health Service (NHS) to those who need them. In Worcestershire NHS services are part of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care System. An integrated care system (ICS) is when all organisations involved in health and care work together in different, more joined-up ways. The focus is on providing care in a way that benefits patients. These health services include, amongst others, family doctors, mental health staff, community teams and hospitals which are predominantly delivered by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, and the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

The pages below will give you information about the different services available in Worcestershire.

Easy Health is a useful website with over 400 resources for helping to explain health conditions and procedures in an easy read format. You must register to access the guides and videos, but it’s completely free and easy to do Easy Health.

Learning Disability Register, if your child or young person has a learning disability you can ask for them to be added to the Learning Disability Register at your doctor’s surgery. Anyone of any age, and any level of learning disability can join the register, even if they live independently and have little or no support. You can read more about it on the Learning Disability Matters website, Annual Health Checks & GP Learning Disability Registers and NHS England have produced a document with guidance about the register for parent carers: learning disability register parent carer guidance.pdf (england.nhs.uk).

By being on the Learning Disability Register they will get extra support when they visit the doctors and could receive an annual health check (Mencap guide) once they are 14 years old. Mencap have guides and information on their website here: Everything you need to know about the learning disability register | Mencap.

Download: Worcestershire GP SEND Handbook 2024 (PDF)