Agenda item

[To receive a report from, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, on the transition arrangements from Children’s to Adults’ health services]. 

The Consultant Paediatrician at Newcross Hospital presented a report on the transition from children’s’ to adults’ services for young people.  At Newcross there were some areas where there was very good practice, such as the Diabetes Transition Service and the Epilepsy Transition Service.  They were looking at introducing a Trust wide strategy for transition which was based on NICE Guidance along with some of the relevant legislation.  It was being developed with support from adults’ and children’s services in collaboration with parents.  Transition was important to achieving good outcomes.  She gave a presentation, the slides of which, containing the information she relayed to the Panel, were sent out with the agenda.  As part of the changes they were piloting the concept of health passports which contained substantial information on the young person.

A Councillor relayed to the Panel his own personal experience of having a child who had been receiving treatment from the National Health Service and had transitioned from children to adult services.  It had been a challenging and difficult time for the family. 

The Consultant Paediatrician at Newcross Hospital raised the importance of adult services liaising with the GP of someone who had transitioned to adult services of which the health professionals had no personal knowledge.  A Councillor commented that he had personal experience of GPs not being as helpful as perhaps they could have been, his experience had been mixed.

The Director for Adult Services stressed the importance of a system wide strategy as many organisations were involved in a person’s life.  He was cautious of the NHS Trust having their own standalone transition strategy and wanted to ensure that the processes and systems could work collectively as effectively as possible.  He was keen to ensure that the Trust were supported in their work by the wider sector, citing special educational needs as an example.  The Consultant Paediatrician at Newcross Hospital responded that there was a special educational needs and disability health workstream which had representation from many partners.  More generally there was also the Centre Partnership Board which was looking at the work being done to prepare children for adult services.  She was keen to ensure that the strategy worked in synergy with other partners.

A Panel Member asked if it was an absolute requirement that when a person reached 18 that they had to transfer to adult services.  The Consultant Paediatrician responded that some people over the age of 18 were kept in children’s clinics if they were still at school.  The reason why a person normally transitioned to an adult ward at 18 was because at that age you were legally classed as an adult with different rights to a child. 

A Member of the Panel asked how much weight was put on a person’s opinion if they were under the age of 18 and in particular if their wishes were different to those of their parents.  The Consultant Paediatrician responded that they did take into account the child’s opinion and it was vitally important to engage them.   A child had legal rights to decline consent in certain situations.