Local Offer - General Providers- Questionnaire Template

To assist us to inform the local offer of services and to ensure your information is populated into the correct area within the local offer, we would be grateful if you could complete the table below as fully as possible, to include any service links to enable parents to search for information.

Name of Service: Continence Service

Completed by: Sarah Aungiers / Ruth Cooper

Name: Sarah Aungiers

Job title/Position: Continence Lead Nurse

Question / Prompt / Answer / Location on the webpage to populate
What does your service do? /
  • What is the key purpose of your service and how does it contribute to better outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disability and their families
  • What are the typical activities that you provide?
  • Do you have any limitations on the amount of time your service will support a child or young person?
  • Do you provide any ongoing support? If yes, what?
/ We are an adult Countywide Continence service providing care for adults of 19yrs and above both within clinics and Home Visits.
Part of this service is the management of the Continence Home Delivery Service which provides continence products to patients within their own home including care homes. This is a service which is provided to all ages from age of 4 years.
We are not a children’s service although we are required to spend time dealing with children’s continence product issues which may involve a joint visit to establish the needs of the child.
As above
Is the service universal, specialist, targeted? / It is a Specialist service with an open referral system to all adults over the age of 19 years
Where is your service located and what areas does it cover? /
  • Where are your main locations and do you work across the whole local authority area
  • Are there any differences in your offer in different parts of the local authority area
/ We are centrally based at Merrington House, Spennymoor but we hold clinics across the County and will see patients within their own homes again across the County
We provide a streamlined Continence service across County Durham and Darlington
Who does your service provide for? /
  • What types of need and age ranges do you cover?
  • What are the eligibility criteria to use your service?
  • Are there any types of disabilities that you do not provide?
/ Adults 19 years and over but as mentioned above we do provide Continence products to children from the age of 4years.
Open referral criteria for any adult with a bladder or bowel dysfunction although we do have exclusion criteria:
Conditions requiring treatment prior to Continence Service referral:
Haematuria / Suspected Neurological Diseases / Uncontrolled diabetes / Suspected urology or gynaecological condition
Acute anal sphincter injury / Visible prolapse / Enlarged prostate / Acute constipation / Suspected pelvic mass / Persistent bladder and / or urethral pain / Signs of gastrointestinal cancer / Acute disc prolapse
No we provide to all types of disability
How can I start using your service? /
  • I can make direct contact myself or would there need to be a referral from someone else and if so, who?
  • Do you charge for the service and if so, what are the costs?
  • Can I use my personal budget to pay for the service or to add to the service?
  • Are there any waiting lists and if so, how long are they?
/ People can self-refer although there is a referral form that Continence Admin staff complete when a patient does self-refer and also a form that Health care professionals complete when making a referral. Alternatively we do receive typed referral letters from GP’s etc.
There is no direct charge for the service but I understand we are part of a block contract
You could use personal budget to buy additional continence products if you are requiring additional pads per day. We also give patients information on purchasing neuro stim machines if they feel they have been of benefit after the loan period and want to continue using it.
We aim to see all our patients for Specialist input within 10 weeks or sooner. The waiting for continence products is aimed at a 4 week period
How are decisions made about who can use your service? /
  • How are these decisions made and who makes them?
  • How will I know the reasons behind their decisions?
  • How will you help me understand them?
/ We have an SLA in place that is agreed with Commissioners / Service Managers and clinical staff
How do you communicate with service users and how are they involved in decision making/planning? /
  • What are your usual methods of seeking the views of service users?
  • Do you use any specialist communication system e.g. signing?
  • What leaflets and information do you have?
  • How does the service communicate with parents carers whose first language is not English?
  • How will I know how well my child or young person is doing?
  • Do you offer any parent training or learning events?
/ We use patient feedback questionnaire data and also comment cards responses to listen to our patients as well as lessons learned from complaint management and incident reporting
We have access to interpreter services as required for Specialist Communication needs
We have a variety of service leaflets which we give out to patients on a daily basis are promoted with health care professionals in clinical practice
As above
N/A. However we do reply to referrers on discharge about the outcome of the care provided
N/A
Is your service fully accessible? /
  • Is the building fully wheelchair accessible?
  • Have there been improvements in the auditory and visual environment?
  • Are there disabled changing and toilet facilities?
  • Do you have a changing places facility?
  • What support is there for a child with additional needs in general areas e.g. waiting rooms?
  • How will my child or young person be able to access all of the activities of the service and how will you assist him or her to do so?
/ Yes all clinics are disabled accessible
N/A
Yes in clinic settings
N/A
N/A
N/A
What training is staff accessing or completed to support children and young people with SEND? /
  • This should include recent and future planned training and disability awareness?
  • Do you have any specialist staff in your setting, and what do they specialise in?
  • Do any other services work closely or in conjunction with your service?
/ N/A
N/A
N/A
Who can I contact for further information? /
  • Who would be my first point of contact if I want to discuss something about my child/young person?
  • Who else has a role in my child’s/young person’s support?
  • Who can I talk to if I am worried?
  • Who should I contact if I am considering whether my child/young person would benefit from the service?
/ School nurse or health visitor
As above
As above
As above

1