My Care Bridge - New referral process

My Care Bridge is the new process for referrals to children and young people’s autism and ADHD services in mid and south Essex.  Referrers, please use My Care Bridge for all new referrals. All new referrals will be expected to be processed via My Care Bridge by 1 October 2024.

Current waiting times for referral

We continue to receive a very high number of referrals for Autism and ADHD assessments. As a result of this it may take longer than usual for the referral to have a clinical review by one of our clinicians and an outcome of the referral shared with referrers and parents – we are working hard to ensure that outcomes are communicated  in a timely manner. 

There are currently also long waits for neurodevelopmental assessments – such as Autism and ADHD, due to the number of children being referred for this service. Each child’s assessment can require different activities to be carried out therefore waiting times can vary from patient to patient.  Our current average wait for completion of assessment is between 18 and 24 months. We are working very hard to reduce our waiting times as much as we possibly can.

How to refer

My Care Bridge is an easy to use and secure online portal and has been developed in collaboration with healthcare professionals, education professionals, and families and carers. It is available for children and young people who are aged up to 18 years old and are registered with a GP in mid and south Essex. This includes Chelmsford, Braintree, Maldon, Castle Point, Rochford, Southend, Basildon, Brentwood and Thurrock.

It is for new referrals only – current referrals will continue to follow existing administrative pathways.

Educational settings (including nurseries, schools, and colleges), GPs, health visitors, and other healthcare professionals can use the portal to make and track referrals.

Parents and carers will be sent a login when a referral has been made. They will be able to login to the portal to provide information for their child’s referral, track the referral and access a library of support available locally.

My Care Bridge been developed by the Mid and South Essex Community Collaborative, a partnership between Essex Partnership University Trust, North East London Foundation Trust and Provide Community.

To access the portal 

GPs, health visitors and other health professionals, visit the referral link for your local area:

Provide Community (Chelmsford, Braintree and Maldon): My Care Bridge portal
NELFT (Basildon, Brentwood and Thurrock): My Care Bridge portal
EPUT (Castle Point & Rochford and Southend): My Care Bridge portal

Educational settings

Please email the children and young people’s team in your area to be added to the portal:

NELFT (Basildon, Brentwood and Thurrock): childrensautismADHDassessment@nelft.nhs.uk 
Provide Community (Chelmsford, Braintree and Maldon): provide.cccpaediatrics@nhs.net 
EPUT (Castle Point & Rochford and Southend): epunft.Lighthouse.ASD@nhs.net or epunft.Lighthouse.ADHD@nhs.net 

Parents and carers

At present, we cannot accept referrals made by parents, carers, family members or young people themselves.

If you feel the child/ young person requires and Autism or ADHD assessment, we would encourage discussion with their education setting or GP about making a referral through MyCareBridge.

You will be emailed with access information when your referral is made by a GP, health visitor, or educational setting.

If you are having issues accessing the portal, please contact the service:

NELFT (Basildon, Brentwood and Thurrock): childrensautismADHDassessment@nelft.nhs.uk 
Provide Community (Chelmsford, Braintree and Maldon): provide.cccpaediatrics@nhs.net 
EPUT (Castle Point & Rochford and Southend): epunft.Lighthouse.ASD@nhs.net or epunft.Lighthouse.ADHD@nhs.net