Cheshire and Merseyside neurodevelopment pathway

Welcome to the webpages for the new Cheshire and Merseyside neurodevelopment pathway, including the Knowing ME profiling tool, to better support neurodivergent children, young people and their families.

Following valuable feedback from parents, families, and children and young people, we’re proud to launch a new neurodevelopment 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 Knowing ME neurodiversity profile as the first step so they can access earlier offers of help. 

The rollout of the profiling tool started in Wirral and St Helens as early adopters, and we are working hard towards this being available to children and young people across Cheshire and Merseyside. 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 Knowing 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 Knowing 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.