Cheshire and Merseyside neurodevelopment pathway

New Cheshire and Merseyside neurodevelopment pathway, including the This is Me profiling tool to better support neurodivergent children and young people

Following valuable feedback from parents, families, and children and young people, we’re proud to launch a new neurodevelopmental pathway and vision for how Neurodiversity services across Cheshire and Merseyside can better support our neurodiverse children and young people.

Please see this video in which children and young people from Cheshire and Merseyside describe the new pathway:

Under the new pathway, families and young people will work with a practitioner (e.g. SENCO in school) to complete a This is Me neurodiversity profile as the first step so they can access earlier offers of help.

The profiling tool is already being rolled out in Wirral as early adopters, but we are working towards this being available to children and young people across Cheshire and Merseyside in 2025. It’s important to note that this isn’t a blanket approach across the region – we’ll continue to work with local teams to implement this pathway over the next 12 months.

When a family or a professional working with a child/young person identifies potential neurodiversity, they will work together to complete the This is Me profiling tool. This will be based on understanding and observing the child/young person in a variety of activities and contexts.

By moving to a needs-led approach that relies on our ability to profile neurodevelopmental differences and needs, we can provide a more personalised response, clear guidance on making relevant reasonable adjustments and access to earlier offers of help.

Schools/education settings will be supported by the NHS and Local Authorities to undertake training on the This is Me tool as part of the Partnerships for the Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS programme, which builds schools’ capacity to support the needs of neurodiverse children.

This vision is an important step forward, but it’s not the final one. Cheshire and Merseyside is on a journey to improve the experience of our neurodiverse children and young people, and while we’re proud to launch this vision, we know there is still plenty of work to be done.

Where do I go for help if I think my child may have neurodevelopmental needs (including Autism/ADHD)?

We believe that every child and young person’s needs are unique and the support provided to them should be tailored to their individual needs.

Not all children or young people need a diagnosis as their needs may be met through personalised support. Our approach prioritises understanding and addressing needs first, rather than focusing on the immediate pursuit of a formal assessment and diagnostic label. You can access resources, strategies and advice for each area of your child or young person’s needs with a range of resources that have been designed to support development and wellbeing at every stage.

Our goal is to empower families with the tools and information needed to make informed decisions and ensure every child and young person receives the support that is right for them.

The following resources are available for all children in C&M

Contact – UK Charity that supports families caring for children with additional needs

National Autistic Society – UK Charity supporting autistic people and their families

Resources Archive - ADHD Foundation: ADHD Foundation

Resources | Neurodiversity Celebration Week

For additional resources available to you locally, please click on the Local Authority area your child lives in:

In addition to using these resources, if you need further support, please speak to your child or young person’s school/college, health visitor or family practitioner for advice about completing the This is Me profiling tool.

What is the This is Me profiling tool?

‘This is Me’ is a new tool being rolled out in schools/education settings that looks at a child’s strengths and needs, focussing on neurodivergence. It will help everyone to understand a child’s differences and meet their needs at home and at school.

A neurodivergent child’s brain processes information in a different way to others. They may have sensory differences, difficulty sleeping or adapting to a change in routine. They could find it hard to sit still, make friends or say how they feel. All of these things can make school very challenging.

Working with schools, families and children, a trained professional will complete a ‘This is Me needs summary’ after observing the child and talking to them. This will not result in a diagnosis but will help the child to get the support they need.

The professional could be a teacher, special educational needs coordinator (SENCO), family liaison officer or another professional who works closely with your school and has been appropriately trained

The tool is not an assessment. It is a tool to guide a collaborative conversation between a parent, professional and young person (if appropriate) that creates a visual record. The tool focuses on 9 neurodevelopmental areas to understand the challenges faced, what is and is not working and what else could be tried

The 9 areas explored are:

Speech and language ability.
Energy levels.
Attention skills and impulse control (how we focus and how we stop ourselves from actions)
Emotion regulation skills (how we express and manage how we feel)
Motor skills (ability to make co-ordinated movements)
Sensory needs (response to sensory input e.g. sight/taste/sound)
Flexibility and adaptability
Empathising and systemising (how we respond and interact with others)
Cognitive abilities (how are brain processes and manages tasks)

We are working with Local Authorities so that you can access resources, strategies, and advice for each of the nine areas through your Local Authority Local Offer on their website. These are designed to be used with a 'This is Me needs summary' but you may find them useful even if you are not completing 'This is Me'.

It is important to consider other areas, such as sleep, nutrition, bladder and bowel control, mental health and trauma. These other areas will all form part of the conversation if needed.

The tool provides a holistic view of a child or young person's needs and helps to identify strategies or further sources of support to help manage those needs in different areas of a life, such as at home, at their early years setting, school or college, and in the community. The process of completing the profile is done with the family, and not for or to or by the family.

If the child/young person can be involved in completing the tool it can be an empowering process for them to learn about their needs and develop strategies to help themselves.

If a child is waiting for an assessment for autism or ADHD, they will not lose their place on the waiting list by taking part in ‘This is Me’.

When ‘This is Me’ has been introduced in a school, it will be the only method of referral for an autism or ADHD assessment. This means a child will get access to support long before they have an assessment, which may not be needed once the support is in place.

Neurodiversity profiling tool training for practitioners will last in the region of 3 hours. There is no cost and includes all the necessary resources are provided.

Getting More Help

The actions, strategies and reasonable adjustments identified from the “This is Me” profiling should be trialled for a sustained period of over 12 weeks. This helps to ensure children and young people access the right help, as soon as possible, and any remaining difficulties can be explored with the knowledge that this support is in place.

If you are still struggling after this sustained support, a request for a consultation with our multi-disciplinary consultation team to access further support can be made. Requests for consultations must be made by a professional and they must enclose details of the completed profiling tool, details of what has been tried, what has worked well, and what further support they or you feel is required.

Practitioners and profilers are required to follow 4 steps.

Complete the profile with the family, identify the high impact areas and implement and record strategies adjustments and any specific interventions that are agreed and put in place in a plan.
Each plan will have a minimum 12-week implementation period which should be reviewed to reflect on what has worked well, and whether there are ongoing gaps in understanding how to support the child.
If the plan is having a positive impact and the child and young person is thriving and learning, a consultation could be accessed at a later date or may not be needed at all.
If there are ongoing concerns or gaps, the practitioner supporting the family and child can request a consultation.

The information required for the consultation to take place will be a summary of the profile findings, the strategies and adjustments that have been introduced at home and school, how successful these were, and what further support the family and practitioner feel is required

Consultation could take the form of a:

telephone or remote or video call discussion with specialist neurodevelopmental clinicians
face-to-face appointment or visit which may lead to more specialist advice and support for a particular need, or consideration of placement on the diagnostic waiting list.

If a diagnostic assessment is recommended the Neurodevelopmental Assessment Team will explore autism and/or ADHD, and as part of those assessments will also explore the following where appropriate:

learning, sensory and coordination difficulties
foetal alcohol spectrum disorder
other neurodevelopmental conditions

The best way to help children, young people, and their families to better understand their needs, and ensure that any adjustments or early help support is in place, is through completion of the profiling tool as a first step. This approach enables the people who know the child to work in collaboration and try out strategies over time to see if this helps meet their need.

We do acknowledge that some children and young people will need to access a specialist diagnostic assessment. By following our new pathway, we will ensure the right children and young people can access this.

What is a Multi-disciplinary Assessment Team?

A multi-disciplinary assessment team consists of:

psychiatrists
clinical psychologists
speech and language therapists
occupational therapists
paediatricians and nurses
neurodevelopmental practitioners

Children and young people who have a mixed picture of difficulties or complex presentations are assessed through this team. The team carry out assessments to explore whether your child may have autism. During that assessment (if required) they will also assess for;

other neurodevelopmental conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
language or coordination disorders
whether the difficulties may be because of other factors, such as their learning levels or life experiences

We want children and young people to access the support they need, whether they have a formal diagnosis or not. We are currently working with our education and healthcare partners to ensure this early help and support offer is as comprehensive and timely as possible. There is an expectation that all schools and settings make provision for all learners identified as having special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) regardless of whether they have a diagnosis of a specific condition.

Diagnostic assessment – what to expect

There is currently a waiting list for diagnostic assessments but the resources and support provided through the profiling tool will support your child / young person families whilst they are waiting.

Before the assessment appointment we will send forms to parents or guardians, and the child's school. These forms are a vital part of the child's assessment, as the most useful assessment information can come from the people who know the child or young person best, in their everyday environments and activities.

The forms will ask questions about the parents or guardians' own life and experiences, and their family history. It is important that we have this information before the appointment as we cannot complete our assessment without it. If the child is home-schooled, please talk to us about this and we will try and gather further information from another person who knows them instead.

Once we have received your forms, we will send an appointment letter. During the appointment, you and your child will meet with different professionals. One will spend some time with the parent or guardian to gather any further history information about concerns, the child's development, and their current presentation. Another will spend time with the child finding out all about them and carrying out assessments which are talking or play-based depending on their age.

Following your appointment, we will let you know if we need to do any additional assessments, such as observing your child in school.

We will then discuss our assessments in our multi-disciplinary team meeting. We will contact you to inform you of the outcome.

Even if a child does not receive a diagnosis, we will always try to provide you with advice and support or strategies to help you and your child based on what we have learned through the assessment. We may signpost you to other services who may be able to offer the help that you need where relevant.