Children’s community physiotherapy services and specialist centres

Paediatric physiotherapy offers a variety of clinics within the service. Services include:

  • Child development team (CDT) mosaic 
  • Camden mainstream school service
  • Special schools
  • Outpatient and group physiotherapy

Child development team CDT (mosaic)

The child development team (CDT) is a multidisciplinary integrated service for babies and children under the age of five who are referred with complex needs. The child development team is made up of paediatricians, children's occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, dietician, a specialist health visitor, clinical psychologists, child psychotherapists, therapy assistant, and keyworkers.

Babies and children who are under the care of CDT are often involved with several of the healthcare professionals.

The CDT physiotherapists work closely with the baby/child, their family, the multidisciplinary team and caregivers including those in nursery to promote their individual physiotherapy programmes. This may include:

  • Providing home and nursery physiotherapy programmes and input when the child starts nursery
  • Providing mobility aids when necessary in home and nursery settings
  • Multidisciplinary reviews of progress
  • Coaching modelling sessions

For more information.

Camden Community and Mainstream School Service

Children's physiotherapists work in partnership with the child or young person, their family/carers, their teachers and other relevant school professionals, when required. The aim is to:

  • Provide assessment and intervention to promote safe mobility/positioning in the school environment
  • Advise about involvement in activities outside the classroom and promoting maximal involvement in physical education (PE) classes
  • Enable participation in leisure and play activities i.e. taking part in sports and games, using the playground equipment to develop a range of motor skills
  • Support with provision of equipment related to the child's mobility, when necessary
  • Provide targeted activities and physiotherapy exercise programmes to promote physical function

All Camden mainstream primary schools may request a referral to children's physiotherapy to provide support to the school through education and individual physiotherapy programmes or group physiotherapy, where needed.

Special school service

Swiss Cottage School in the London Borough of Camden provides education for learners with complex needs. Within Swiss Cottage School the physiotherapy team works closely with education, other therapists and medical staff for the children in the School.

Children who are referred to the service are assessed and may be offered a range of physiotherapy options including:

  • Individual physiotherapy programmes
  • Aquatic therapy
  • Group physiotherapy
  • Observation and advice in PE
  • Referral to orthotics
  • Assessment for equipment
  • Access to the wheelchair clinic when appropriate

In addition, physiotherapists are involved in the assessment of children with significant mobility difficulties providing individualised manual handling plans to promote safe handling and movement around the school.

Physiotherapists are also involved in the school child’s multidisciplinary annual reviews.

APCP Physiotherapy in schools – A guide for school and professionals

Outpatient and group physiotherapy

Individual physiotherapy

Children’s physiotherapists provide treatment to babies, children and young people in a variety of different clinic settings. Treatment may be provided as one-to-one physiotherapy working closely with parents/carers during the sessions and providing home physiotherapy/ exercise programmes.

Groups

The children’s physiotherapy service runs term-time groups and summer holiday groups. Physiotherapists will decide whether children and young people are best treated individually or in a group situation depending on their assessment findings.

Groups run in blocks of treatment and children need to attend all sessions to benefit from the treatment and to meet their physiotherapy goals. Parents/carers are expected to be involved in the group activities so that physiotherapy techniques can be practised and implemented at home.

Groups that may be offered within the service:

  • Pilates/core stability group
  • Strength and fitness group
  • Trampoline/rebound therapy group
  • Aquatic/hydrotherapy group
  • Gross motor skills group
  • Summer holiday motor skills group