We are a community-based specialist physiotherapy service from Alder Hey and we see children who have a Liverpool GP.
We work with children and young people from birth up to 18 years of age (sometimes up to 19 years in special cases) with long-term neurological/neuromuscular problems and developmental delays.
We see children and young people in lots of different community settings including children’s centres, nurseries, mainstream schools, special schools and at home.
Services we offer
Birth to 5 years (Pre-School) Team
We are a team of highly specialist physiotherapists who see babies and children from birth up to five years of age. We offer appointments in clinics across Liverpool to enable local appointments for families.
Working together is an important aspect of our role, as we are often one of the first professionals involved with families. We support parents/carers to work with their local children’s centre, get registered at the centre, and liaise with the children’s centre staff, to support them to attend various sessions.
To support the family, we will work with other health professionals involved with the child’s care and attend joint appointments with the Community Paediatricians.
We attend Early Help Assessment Tool (EHAT) meetings and provide formal reports for Education and Health Care Plans (EHCP) when requested. Some of the team are key workers to families and this is an extension of our role, working across health, education, and social care.
Primary Team
Our focus is to support a child’s physical development whilst helping them to integrate into school and support parents and school staff through this process. Joint goal setting will take place with the child, parents/carers and school staff.
We attend school reviews and provide feedback as required. We will also provide feedback towards the Early Help Assessment Tool (EHAT) as well as attend Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) meetings whilst providing formal reports for these.
Our physiotherapists are able to support the Physical Education programmes in special schools and provide advice where necessary in mainstream schools.
Secondary Team
Our focus is to prepare the young person in our care towards self-management and independence in the community. Joint goal setting with the young person, parents/carers and other professionals is done to support this and focus our input on improving skills and health outcomes.
We attend school reviews and provide feedback as required. We also support the young person and their families as they enter the systems of Personal Independent Payments and Education, Health, and Care Plans into adulthood. For those under our care, we provide formal reports to support their ongoing needs as required.
Our physiotherapists aim to support young people to remain active in activities and sports of their choice. This may take place through supported community gym sessions, providing information on local activities that have disability access and awareness.
Complex Respiratory Team
We are a team of community-based respiratory physiotherapists who see Liverpool children from birth up to 19 years of age with complex neuro disability and respiratory symptoms.
A physiotherapist or consultant may refer children to our service and we assess and treat them in any location (nursery/school, home, respite).
Long-term strategies are put into place in order to manage these day-to-day respiratory symptoms and also help prevent recurrent hospital visits. Advanced practice skills can be offered as a part of the service e.g. non-medical prescribing.
The team works closely with the community multi-disciplinary team, school staff and other Alder Hey services in order to provide the best care for our children and young people.
Motor Co-ordination Service
We work with children and young people who struggle with their gross motor skills (large body movements which use the arms, legs, hands, feet, and trunk such as jumping, hopping and skipping).
These children are assessed and treated in clinics, at school and in group-based situations.
Our team works with local authority services such as Occupational Therapy, as well as with mainstream schools, to help facilitate improved skills and long-lasting confidence in the children under our service.
Meet the team
Contact Community Physiotherapy Liverpool
There are a number of ways you can contact the team. The address for the Community Physiotherapy Liverpool service is:
1st floor Kilby House
Therapies Office
Liverpool Innovations Park
Liverpool
L7 9NJ
The office hours for the team are between 8:30am and 4:30pm Monday to Friday.
You can also contact the team via telephone at 0151 607 2700 or send an email to [email protected].
How to refer to Community Physiotherapy Liverpool
We accept referrals from:
- GPs
- Health visitors
- SEN link workers / SENCOs
- Paediatricians and other health professionals involved
- We also accept self-referrals from parents
Our email address for referrals is [email protected] and we will accept referrals from parents via telephone on 0151 607 2700.
All referrals are triaged by our specialist physiotherapists. If a referral has not been accepted, the referrer will be contacted.
If we accept a referral, we will aim to offer an appointment for assessment with a physiotherapist within 18 weeks.