Barking & Dagenham, Havering, and Redbridge Children’s Autism Service
The BHR (Barking & Dagenham, Havering, and Redbridge) Children’s and Young People’s Autism Service sits within the wider neurodevelopmental service operating within Barking and Dagenham, Havering, and Redbridge Community Paediatrics and CAMHS teams. An integrated, multi-disciplinary team support young people and their families where there are suspected autistic traits to ensure timely, effective, and efficient diagnostic assessment, pre and post diagnostic support, necessary interventions and needs-led offers. Effective partnerships with the Local Authorities and education are crucial to early intervention and needs-based support. The multidisciplinary team that may be involved in the child’s care include Paediatricians, Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Nurses, and Specialist Nursery Nurses, supported by Autism Coordinators.
The service aims to deliver a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) compliant integrated multidisciplinary autism pathway from presentation of child through to stages of early help intervention, pre-diagnostic support, diagnostic assessment and investigation and post diagnostic support. We focus on providing high quality care underpinned by robust clinical governance processes. In 2024 the service established formal partnerships with the University of Cambridge Autism Research Centre to further drive development of evidence-based clinical strategies, innovative therapies, and improved diagnostic tools with the aim to advance medical knowledge, ultimately to support improved outcomes for children and their families. We aim to equip children, young people, and their families with strategies to support them to live fulfilled lives.
Page reviewed 01.12.25
Referral criteria
Children and young people can be referred via a single point of access (SPA) form, and screening process. Children and young people come to BHR Children and Young People’s Autism Service from their local GPs, Health Visitor, Education, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Social Care, Nursery, Universal Services, and tertiary providers. The service is available to children and young person who are registered with a GP in Barking and Dagenham, Havering, and Redbridge. All referrals will be triaged by an experienced NHS practitioner. As part of this, referrers may be contacted to gather more information to further understand the needs of the child or young person. The triaging practitioner may also signpost young people/families to services that are better suited to meeting their needs if an assessment for Autism is deemed not appropriate.