Community learning disability service in County Durham for children and young people

North End House
42 North End
Durham
County Durham
DH1 4LW

Tel: 0191 594 5770

Open 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday

Acley Centre
Carers Way
Newton Aycliffe
County Durham
DL5 4PE

Tel: 01325 529520

Open 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday

Who we are

Our service is dedicated to supporting children, young people and their families with a learning disability.

Our team is made up of a range of trained professionals, from different backgrounds, specialties, and life experiences. We work closely together to provide the best possible care for every child/young person and family in our service.

Our team includes:

• Specialist community nurses and support workers – Our nurses are highly trained in working with people with a learning disability. They may be the first professionals you meet from our team. They deliver treatments and support you to complete assessments.
• Psychiatrist – Our psychiatrists provide help and support around the assessment and treatment of medical issues. This could be around certain physical and mental health issues or medication.
• Psychologist – Our psychologists provide a range of assessments, such as assessing whether someone may have a learning disability. They also provide treatments using “talking therapies”.
• Speech and language therapist – Our speech and language therapists are specialists in speech and communication. They complete assessments and develop treatment plans to improve communication.

What we do

People with a learning disability may require extra support in their everyday activities, such as when they’re at school or socialising. They might also need help to carry out household chores or when managing money.

We work with children and young people and their families and carers to understand the difficulties and challenges they face. Together we agree the most appropriate treatment and support to help children and young people to reach their full potential and manage any difficult behaviours.

How do we do this?

When a child or young person is referred to our service, we’ll arrange a meeting to discuss your child’s needs. This may be followed by a range of assessments to understand the difficulties and challenges that the child or young person is experiencing. These assessments can help to identify if they have a learning disability, a mental health problem, or a problem with managing their behaviour.

After completing an assessment, we’ll discuss whether our service can help or if another service is required.

If we can help, we can provide a range of treatments and approaches, depending on what the problem is. For example, we can help develop plans and guidance to help better manage difficult behaviours.

If we’re not the best service to meets your needs, we’ll help direct you to the service that does.

Our commitment to you

All staff will be respectful and compassionate in communicating with you.

We aim to respond as quickly as we can to new referrals or any queries we receive.

We’ll work collaboratively with children, their families and any other services involved in their care.

We aim to include everyone’s “voice” in co-producing any treatment plans.

We’ll write to you and can share any written reports or assessments, we’re happy to explain and discuss what they may mean.

Keeping everyone safe is of paramount importance to us. We’ll ensure we’ve a cohesive comprehensive safety summary and plan, and this will be carried out together.

When our help is no longer needed, we’ll discharge you, but you can always be re-referred back to the service.

How to refer to our service

Anyone can refer to our service, with the consent of the child or young person where possible. We have a single point of access (SPA) team who may go through a questionnaire with you. This is to find out more information on the difficulties you want help with and to be able to direct you to the best service for you. The SPA team can be reached on Tel: 0300 123 9296.