Parents and Carers
Referrals to the school’s CAMHS clinician usually come from the school. However, parents or carers can talk to school staff about the possibility of being seen in school if they have concerns about their child or young person. Often parents and teachers are asked whether they would prefer to be seen at school or at the clinic. Some families prefer to not to see someone from CAMHS in the child’s school.
The person who makes the referrals is different in each school, but is usually the person responsible for pastoral care. This could be the Head, SENCo or Inclusion Manager in primary schools and Heads of Year or the Head of Behaviour or Inclusion in secondary schools.
Confidentiality
As with other teams in Islington CAMHS, everything you tell us or we write about you will remain private and confidential within your child’s NHS records. Just because your child or you are being seen in school does not mean that we will talk to school about everything we talk about.
If you are being seen in school it means that certain key people there will know that you are seeing someone from CAMHS. For example, the person responsible for referrals will know, as well as the school receptionist who will let you into the school.
Often it can be very helpful to share some of the information that we talk about with key people in school, like the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) or your child’s class teacher, but we would agree that with you first and only do so with your consent.
The only time that we would need to share information without your permission would be if we learned that you, your child or another child are at significant risk of harm. Even in this situation we would let you know what information we had shared.
The only time that we would need to share information without your permission would be if we learned that you, your child or another child are at significant risk of harm. Even in this situation we would let you know what information we had shared.
Last updated13 Aug 2018