School Aged Neurodevelopment Pathway for Autism. 

The School Age Autism Diagnostic Pathway is managed by Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching NHS Trust and is overseen by the Neurodevelopment Pathway Manager.

The service is delivered across the Wigan Borough for children and young people who are aged from 4 to16 years old. 

The Pathway required each of the following 4 stages to be completed and takes approximately 2 years from referral to Panel outcome. 

Referral & Consent

Children can be referred to the pathway by G.Ps, Paediatricians, Education settings, CAMHS & Specialist Health Services. The referrals can be sent to the pathway via email or post using the details below. Once the referral has been triaged, we will request consent from the child's parent/carer to commence the pathway. 

School Aged Autism referral form. 

Various pieces of information will be requested to form part of the Diagnostic Panel discussion. This may include:

• Parent Cambridge Questionnaire and Views to be completed by parent/carer. 
• School Cambridge Questionnaire and School Summary of Need to be completed by the school/education setting.
• Voice of the Child form, to be completed where possible by the child or young person.

Once the documents have been returned, they will be reviewed by the Pathway Team to determine the next steps. 

Post Diagnosis

After the panel decision is agreed, parents/carers will receive an outcome letter including all reports that contributed to the decision making. 

If the outcome was yes to diagnosis, then the child or young person’s family will be invited to a post diagnostic session with the Neurodevelopment Pathway Co-Ordinator, these are held across the borough and give families the opportunity to link up and network together. The Neurodevelopment Pathway Co-Ordinator will share a presentation at the session, focusing on what is Autism Spectrum Condition, the difficulties some children and young people may face and how to support them as a family including lots of information sharing on local community groups, strategies and advice.

For the families who cannot make a post diagnosis session, the outcome letter contains a QR code which will take the family to a WWL website which will contain all the post-diagnostic support resources shared during the session.

If the panel decision was no to diagnosis, there is a 12-month period for a re-discussion if agreed by the Pathway Manager that this is required. 

If the panel decision was inconclusive, the panel discussion will be defered, allowing for further evidence to be gathered. The outcome letter will share what further information is required and the pathway will request this information on behalf of the child or young person. Once the required information is received the child or young person will be allocated another panel date where the case will be re discussed with the additional information obtained.

The service also facilitates various specialist topic training throughout the year, which runs online and is accessible via the Local Offer or Eventbrite. All families at any stage of the assessment process are welcome to attend the range of topics available.