The Barnet community paediatric service is based at Edgware Community Hospital and sees children and young people for assessments of developmental issues or impairments and those with complex disabilities if they have a Barnet-based GP. 

Among the conditions we assess are:

  • global developmental delay (when a child takes longer to reach certain development milestones than other children their age) or learning disability
  • suspected autism
  • children with Down’s syndrome or other genetic conditions affecting development
  • cerebral palsy and other complex motor/neurodisability disorders including syndromes, neuromuscular, neurometabolic and neurogenetic conditions
  • safeguarding concerns, including looked after children and child protection issues
  • medical advice for education, health and care plans

Our team of paediatricians plan the most appropriate care, providing diagnoses, treatments and further investigations or referrals to our multidisciplinary team of community and hospital colleagues (therapists, specialist teachers, social worker).

Referrals can be made by parents or other multidisciplinary agencies using our multi-agency referral form on the Barnet Local Offer website.

Please complete the generic form, the parent questionnaire and the school observation form, which are all available on the website above, and return to rf-tr.childdevreferrals@nhs.net.

The assessment will involve:

  • gathering as much health-related information as possible from other health providers or professionals, for example local hospitals, schools or therapies
  • listening to parental concerns
  • finding out pregnancy details, early developmental information, past medical history
  • examining your child
  • requesting appropriate investigations
  • formulating a diagnostic conclusion

Your first appointment will last approximately 90 minutes. Please bring snacks and drinks for your child. 

Please do not bring other children to the appointment and do remember to bring your child’s red book and any other documentation you feel will be useful. 

Review appointments usually last for 45 minutes.

We want to hear about your experience, as your feedback is important to us. We will use this to celebrate what we are doing well and where we could improve.