The Designated Clinical Officer Service (DCO) in Lancashire and South Cumbria consist of a team of officers and specialist administrators that support the NHS response to statutory assessments and planning for children and young people with SEND aged 0-25 years.
The DCO service have a key role in working to source relevant health information for education, health and care needs assessments.
Children, young people and families should experience well co-ordinated assessment and planning leading to timely, well informed decisions. (SEND Code of Practice 2015).
We seek individual health advices from involved NHS health professionals involved in children and young people’s care.
At the point of requesting an assessment please ensure you provide the details of the involved NHS professionals. This will support our ability to secure and coordinate relevant health advice to inform the statutory assessment.
The DCO service are a point of contact for parents/carers, partner agencies and professionals to raise queries related to NHS health services and SEND when local solutions to resolve this have been exhausted.
DCO service contacts
DCO North (Lancaster and Morecambe, Fylde and Wyre, Blackpool):
Call: 01253 956168
Email: bfwh.
Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board are the responsible body that plan and organise local NHS services.
You can contact them via: LSC Integrated Care Board: Patient experience.
