What is the North East London Learning Disabilities and Autism Keyworking Service?

The North East London Keyworking Service works with children and young people with learning disabilities and or autism, aged 0-25 years old who have complex needs.  

We work with those that are at risk of going into specialist hospital, for example mental health wards. This may be because they are not getting the right care and treatment outside of hospital.  

North East London NHS Foundation Trust provides this service in:

• Barking & Dagenham
• Havering
• Waltham Forest
• Redbridge
• City & Hackney
• Newham
• Tower Hamlets

The aim of the Keyworking Service is to ensure children, young people and their families’ voices are heard and represented. Getting them the right support from services at the right time will help improve their experiences and outcomes, reduce length of stay in hospital or avoid admission.

How will the Keyworking Service support me and my family?

The Keyworking Service will tailor the support it provides based on each child, young person and family’s needs.    

They will not replace any health and social care workers currently supporting you. They will work with the services already involved in your care and treatment to identify where additional support is most required. Their involvement will add value and not duplicate or disrupt existing support.  

The keyworking case managers may work directly with you and your family. They may work with services (social care, education, health etc) to join up care and treatment, meet any gaps. This is to make sure that the right health and social care decisions are being made for you.  

Examples of what they may do to help avoid admission or support an earlier discharge include:

• Advocating for you, and your family, to ensure your voices are heard, understood, and respected.
• Ensuring you have the right support from services at the right time.
• Supporting services to work with you in a joined-up way.
• Representing you when you may not feel confident or able to speak up for yourself.
• Giving you information and guidance in a way that will help improve the quality of life for both you and your family.
• Helping you to work with and have access to health, care, education and voluntary organisations.
• Building trust as someone that will be a consistent presence for the child or young person and family during any transition. For example, helping you with the transition into adulthood and adult services or between phases of education.

Our team is made up of people from a wide range of different background s including social care, health visiting, CAMHS and education. They have the knowledge and experience to be able to get the child or young person the support they need.  

How can I access the keyworking service for support?

To access keyworking support, children and young people must be on their local Dynamic Support Register. You can ask a professional working with you to refer you, or you can make a self-referral by contacting the dynamic support register holders. 

What is a dynamic support register?

A dynamic support register is a list of people with learning disabilities and autism who need support because they are at risk of going into hospital if they do not get the right care and treatment in the community. No one is added to the register without their consent.

More information is available at: 

Easy read version of the Dynamic Support Register and Care Education and Treatment Review PDF

Dynamic Support Register and Care and Treatment Review policy and guidance

What do I do if I don't want a keyworker?

It is your choice to work with a keyworking case manager or not. If you don’t want to work with a keyworking case manager right now, that is ok. You will still get support from all the other services that are currently working with you, and they may be able to direct you to other people or services that can offer further support. 

Can I change my mind in the future?

If you decide not to work with a keyworking case manager right now, but change your mind in the future, that is ok. Contact the dynamic support register holder or ask your health / social care worker. 

If you decide to work with a keyworking case manager now but in the future decide you don’t want to anymore, that is fine too. We can look at other ways to make sure you get the support you need.

How do we handle confidential information?

Anyone working within NELFT has a legal duty to keep information relating to Patients / Service Users and Carers strictly confidential. This is in compliance with the Data Protection Act.