Multidisciplinary working at the Brook on Broadwaters
Multidisciplinary/Multi-agency working is considered to be the most effective and therapeutic method of developing and empowering an individual in a holistic way. Here at The Brook, we have an established multidisciplinary team who work alongside us to enhance the skills of the pupils, staff and parents; help with access to the curriculum/ skills of daily living and support the school staff to safeguard the pupils.
The current Multidisciplinary team ( MDT ) is made up of therapists and social workers from different services these include:
Whittington Health NHS Children and Young People’s Service :
Lead for Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) and School Nursing – Laura Hills
School Nurse: Wendy Oudesman
Speech and Language Therapists: Natalie Jones and Cassandra Tang
Dietician: Amelia Fisher
Occupational Therapist: to be confirmed
Physiotherapist: Susannah Owen
Consultant Paediatrician: Dr Divya Sasikumar
Barnet Enfield and Haringey NHS trust (CAMHS-LD SERVICES)
Consultant Child Psychiatrist: Dr Joanne Kennedy
Clinical Psychologist: Dr Claire Wright
Local Education Authority
Social workers from Haringey Disabled Children’s Team
Educational Psychologists
Educational welfare Team
Independent Therapists and school provided assistants
Music Therapists: Ruth Hunston and Cheow Godfrey
Occupational Therapy assistant: Perry Aydin
Speech and Language Therapy assistant : to be confirmed
Each therapist has their role to play in the lives of our pupils. Some pupils will require intervention from all of these disciplines and others may only require support from 1 or 2. Some students receive input from services because it is named in their EHCP which will detail the amount of each service required, whilst others may receive support via referral from the school, GP, or other professional sources.
The Health professionals from Whittington Health follow a specific model of care to work with pupils in the school which means that even if your child does not directly receive support from a therapist they will benefit from the shared learning that happens between the school staff and the professionals.
Effective Working with the Team from Whittington Health follows the model below:
Universal All children benefit from universal work which includes training for staff and parents, development of the curriculum to include therapeutic principles e.g. the communication and literacy protocol. This level of intervention compliments quality first teaching and meets the therapeutic needs of some children. Targeted Some children require a targeted level of intervention which would include group work modelled by therapy staff and carried over by teaching staff, access to clinics including the feeding clinic and splinting clinic. Specialist A few children require a specialist level of multi-disciplinary intervention due to the specific and complex nature of their therapeutic need. These children include those with high-tech Alternative and Augmentative Communication needs, those with complex feeding difficulties and those with complex movement difficulties requiring hands on therapy. |  |
Regular meetings that support MDT working include:
- Fortnightly MDT meetings to discuss safeguarding and emotional wellbeing of pupils
- Termly meetings between Health professionals and the Head Teacher
- Attendance at parents’ coffee mornings and head teacher’s briefing
Safeguarding
The needs of the child are paramount and there must be close liaison and information sharing as appropriate between Education, Health, Therapy and social care colleagues in regard to children and young people where there is a safeguarding concern or where they are subject to a child protection plan.
If multi-disciplinary staff have a safeguarding concern this is passed on to the relevant Safeguarding Officer within the school. In regard to Health staff they will also follow Health policies and procedures related to escalating any concerns.
The multi-disciplinary team are always informed of any safeguarding concerns relevant to children/young people on their caseloads.
The following numbers are the appropriate way to contact the MDT team
MDT Office: 020 8885 8807
School Nurse: 020 88858806
