Sheffield Children’s Hospital have introduced a patient-held communication and health passport. The passport enables staff to better understand your child’s support and communication needs. It covers things like reasonable adjustments, communication preferences, medication, help with eating or drinking, sensory needs, likes and dislikes, and much more.

You can download the passport as a PDF file. Once you have completed the document on your computer, you can print it off and take it along to appointments. You can also get it added to your child’s hospital record by emailing the PDF file to scn-tr.autism-ld@nhs.net

If your child has a diagnosis of autism or a learning disability, you can ask the hospital to add an alert to your child’s hospital record, so that staff can see straight away that your child may need extra support. To request this, please email scn-tr.autism-ld@nhs.net or call 0114 2717594. (The hospital is currently looking into an alert for other disabilities, but this is not yet set up).

If you have concerns about how your child will cope with a planned hospital visit or medical procedure, you should contact the hospital well before the appointment so that reasonable adjustments can be put in place. This could include measurers such as desensitisation programmes, familiarisation visits, access to quiet rooms, fidget and sensory toys, easy read versions of documents, or changes to appointment times.

• If your child has a diagnosis of autism or a learning disability, contact the Learning Disability and Autism Lead Nurse, Joanne Bowers, on 07584 345848 or email scn-tr.autism-ld@nhs.net
• If your child has other needs, contact PALS on 0114 2717594 or email scn-tr.pals@nhs.net

If you are already at the hospital and your child is struggling, ask the reception or nursing staff for help. They may be able to find you a quiet place to wait in or issue you with a bleep so that you can leave the waiting area and come back for your child’s appointment. Some departments also have play specialists who can support and distract your child.

For more information about reasonable adjustments at the Sheffield Children’s Hospital, please click here.