We provide specialist support to children and young people up to the age of 18 with a moderate to severe Learning Disability who have a GP in Blackpool.

Our assessments are carried out by qualified professionals, and we are a needs led service meaning that we plan our interventions around each individual child or young person and their parent/caregiver.

Here is a more in-depth look at some of the things we offer:

Initial Holistic Assessments are carried out by a care coordinator, covering all aspects of the child’s life such as their health, emotional wellbeing, behaviour, sleep, communication, personal and social development.

We will create individualised plan of care in collaboration with the family. They will identify the most appropriate level of care from the current skill mix of the team. The care coordinator will continue to offer supervision and direction to the person carrying out the intervention.

This includes behavioural interventions for a child or young person where behaviour may be challenging but is in keeping with the child’s age, development and disability.

Functional assessment is a systematic process utilising multiple tools, methods and respondents over differing contexts in order to provide a believable demonstration of behavioural function.

Such an assessment will lead to the development of a behaviour support plan, based on the principles of good practice in line with Positive Behaviour Support (PBS).

The functional assessment will help to identify the reasons for a person’s behaviour and used to create a clear and structured plan of action. A behaviour support plan will include proactive strategies to prevent challenging behaviours, to teach new skills and reactive strategies to minimise restrictions if it does occur.

The case manager is the designated person responsible for coordinating the behaviour support plan and ensuring that it is reviewed. Continuous parenting advice and support is also offered. The team also provided bespoke visual resource which complement and facilitate the success of many interventions. Resources include visual timetables, stories, reward schemes etc.

We provide one to one non-judgemental drop-in session once a week at Aiming Higher for parents and carers of children with a learning disability. This may be a one-off chat, advice on accessing resources, community support and/or support to access services. The service is accessible by telephone as well as face to face, it is confidential, and you do not require a referral to attend.

Drop in runs every Friday 9:30 – 12:00
Aiming Higher
231-233 Church Street, FY1 3PB

The importance of multi-agency transition-planning for young people is highlighted as essential to providing high quality transition services. The Children and Young Peoples Learning Disability Team will have transparent and comprehensible good practice protocols for the management of young people’s health during the transfer to adult services. Underpinned by the following principles:

  • Be nurse led
  • Be underpinned by good communication
  • Have a commitment to a period of transition where both services will be involved as appropriate to the severity or complexity of the young person’s needs
  • The involvement of both services should be underpinned by the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005

The team provide a free, engaging course for parents and carers of children and young people who have an evidenced diagnosis of a learning disability and are accessing the service. The course aims to understand the caregivers first-hand experience, encourage peer support, appreciate the strengths of the family and understand behaviours shown by the child and provide evidence-based strategies.

The sessions will be face to face and will run for one morning a week for 6 weeks (with breaks for school holidays). The content of the course will include communication, sensory needs, Well-being, Problem solving for toileting and sleep with a theme of behavioural support throughout. Following this a booster session will be offered to continue support after the course.

The programme is designed to promote emotional and social competence and to prevent, reduce and treat aggression and emotional difficulties in young people. The sessions are delivered over 2 hours a week for 14 weeks and cover a range of topics including behaviour that challenges, routines, ignore, time out to calm down, rewards and praise. Parents and carers of the child or young person will be invited by letter to attend.

Interventions can be offered to support the child within via attend anywhere, the school and/or home environment. We also offer appointments via video call, where appropriate, you can attend your consultation online via a video call. Video calling is as convenient as a phone call, with the added value of face-to-face communication. It can save you time and money, and brings your care closer to home.

Access our waiting room for your pre-booked appointment.

Note: The information from attend anywhere is not stored beyond the length of the video call.

For the referral to be screened by the team, lead professionals need to ensure they have attached any relevant supporting documentation/evidence including SNAP IV forms, School assessment forms (including learning levels), relevant social care assessments, Paediatric Clinic letters and EHCPs. Referrals that do not contain the necessary information will be returned to source.