"Unable to access Midlands Psychology"

Thank you for your comment regarding your son's referral to our service.

Midlands Psychology is commissioned by the NHS to provide autism service in South Staffordshire. We receive a high number of referrals and commissioners expect us to return those referrals that have not met our referral criteria to ensure that we are seeing those children who are most appropriately placed in our service. We share parents’ frustrations regarding returned referrals and have raised our own concerns about inappropriate referrals which we have bought to Commissioners’ attention. It is unfortunate that complaints about returned referrals often get directed to Midlands Psychology and not to the professionals whose responsibility it is to provide an appropriate referral.

There is a clear and transparent referral pathway in place to ensure that specialist resources are used most effectively. Midlands Psychology is a Tier 3 service. We are not a screening service; we rely on colleagues in Tier 1 and Tier 2 services to undertake an initial assessment and provide us with their evaluation of the child, demonstrating a clear rational for assessment.

It is also important that children undergo an initial assessment by these services in order to ensure that they are seen by the most appropriate service to meet their needs. Otherwise, undergoing what can sometimes be a lengthy assessment, with the wrong service, only delays their access to other more appropriate service.

We work closely with referrers to help ensure that referrals are appropriate. Our referral criteria are available on our website for parents and professionals to see as we want make our referral process as easy as possible for families. We are also available to talk though potential referrals with referrers to advise them on information to support their referral or to suggest an alternative service if we do not feel autism assessment is the most appropriate first step.

We advise parents who have had similar experiences to contact their referrer in the first instance to ensure that the necessary information is provided to our service. It seems that in this case this did not happen. We are sorry to hear that you have had this experience.