Lighthouse Child Development Centre - Ratings and reviews
Reviews
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Review titled Absolutely dread
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 08 February 2024
My son was referred by the health visitor when he was 4 after a very rough year of struggling and working alongside his school and supporting families we found out he had been discharged and no one was notified, I had to call 4 times, 3 times I was told they didn’t receive a referral the 4th time I was told it was an open close case he was not accepted and discharged. After a long line of issues he was re referred by the school. I completed the form and sent via email. I have called multiple times and emailed over the last 8 months to be told he is on the waiting list and you should receive an appointment by April/may. A few days ago I received a letter to say because I didn’t complete all the forms he has now been discharged once again and we have to start the process from the beginning. Why are they not supporting families that’s are struggling with these situations, why did it take over 8 months to say you and the school missed one of the multiple forms. I struggle badly with my own mental health and with a nearly 7 year old that is constantly kicking off and not sleeping. No one helps you! No one supports you with where to turn and who will help you… I’m so lost and worried about how the next year is going to go… just don’t know what to do or who to turn to
Visited February 2024
Review titled Lighthouse Child Development Centre
Replied on 15 March 2024
Please see as follows the response from our Assistant Director of Community Specialist Children’s Health Services in South East Essex. We are so sorry to learn of both yours and your son’s experience. We would like to draw your attention to the offer in the response to send your referral directly to the Single Point of Access for the attention of the Assistant Director of Children’s Services. We are very sorry that you were not contacted in a timely manner to remind you of the outstanding paperwork required to help the multidisciplinary team to review your referral to the ADHD pathway service. We apologise for the distress you may have experienced. For your realisation the referral to the service has consequently been declined due to lack of information. We are sorry we did not make contact to inform you from the outset that we required more information. We continue to improve our communication systems, including advanced notice to our parents/carers asking them to contact us to enquire if all paperwork has been received. This has undoubtedly, helped with parent/carers/clinicians in gathering all necessary information to make decisions about the referrals. Please do not hesitate to send your referral for the attention of the Assistant Director of Children’s Services via the Single Point of Access epunft.seechs.singlepointofaccess@nhs.net
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Review titled Dreadful service
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 15 January 2024
Today I have waited 2 hours for a promised telephone appointment. Managed to speak to team members who assured me we would receive a call. No call came. When tried to call again from 4:30 “all staff busy taking others calls” which obviously means “won’t answer now as you will be cross with us”. Disgusting service and ironic it was from the ADHD team who seem to expect my son with ADHD to be able to wait to speak to the doctor!
Visited January 2024
Review titled Lighthouse Child Development Centre
Replied on 07 March 2024
Dear Reviewer, My name is Jenny Hedges, I am the Patient Experience Reporting and Training Coordinator, I work within Patient Experience Team at Essex Partnership University Trust (EPUT). We value all our patients experience and would like to sincerely apologise not to have been able to respond to your call. Sometimes, due to the high volume of calls we receive an automated system informs callers that all lines are busy. I am very sorry that you could not get through and would appreciate it if you could call the team back to enable them to offer you the support that you need. Alternatively, you can email myself and I can request the team to contact you. My email details are jennyhedges@nhs.net Jenny Hedges (Patient Experience & Training Coordinator)
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Review titled Such bad experiences and ridiculous waiting times
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 13 July 2023
I have two children under the lighthouse one being 7 and one 10, my sons been seen since he was 2 and was rejected for asd as not stereotypical since then his just had an adhd assessment two years of waiting and now they tell me his scored high for asd which he was already rejected for so I'm back to the waiting list again. My daughter is due to start secondary school and school think she asd want her seen for diagnosis so she can have correct support but the waiting time is 18-24 mths whilst I appreciate the service is under pressure it's extremely frustrating that our children suffer and don't get the relevant help whilst we wait in due course. This has caused my daughter to have extreme bad mental health issues and I just feel the system is letting down so many children who are left vunerable
Visited July 2023
Review titled Lighthouse Child Development Centre
Replied on 08 August 2023
Thank you for posting a review of our service. We can see from your comments that you are frustrated with your experience and we would like to rectify this. We do have long waiting times, but unfortunately this is not uncommon for these types of diagnostic serviced within the NHS at the present time. We are working very hard to reduce these times and have put new ways of working into place to try to combat this. However, it is still early days and they will take time to embed. We would ask that you please contact the Lighthouse Centre either by telephone 0344 257 3952 or by email to: epunft.lighthouse.reception@nhs.net with your son and daughters' full names, date of birth and address and the Manager will look into their care. Please address your enquiry to the Centre Manager.
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Review titled Absolutely awful service!
Rated 1 star out of 5
by Anonymous - Posted on 16 December 2022
Waited over a year to to have my child’s seen by the service. During this time they lost my referral and had to go back to my gp and get them to resend the referral with the original date on as they refused to take responsibility for the lost of the referral and blamed myself and gp. When finally we get in they was rude and just advised they will send questionnaire. When sent them back they advised me they would be in touch. Two weeks later they never rang, email or anything. I had to ring them to find out as they never responded back to my emails. They advised they would call me the next day and never just text me a letter that was written 11 days ago! Needless to say they never saw my son and just discharged him from the service. When I asked to discuss why was discharged advised me that I they was lucky that they took my call and told me that after 20 minutes of discussion that, that was enough and had to go. Awful service need serious looking into!
Visited December 2022
Review titled Lighthouse Child Development Centre
Replied on 21 December 2022
Thank you for your comments regarding the Lighthouse Centre. We are very sorry this has been your experience with the referral for your child. In March 2022, the Lighthouse Centre changed provider from Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSE FT) to Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT). EPUT Lighthouse Child Development Centre relied on information being forwarded from MSE FT which has caused delay in patient’s historical data being transferred. Since this time we have been working with two systems (hospital system and our system) and can assure parents that no child’s data has been lost. We can also assure parents that all children’s data will migrated into our current system by the end of January 2023. We have improved our referral system so that each child is placed within the correct pathway to reflect their anticipated health needs are assessed by an appropriate clinician, in a timely manner. Our service has been under unprecedented pressure this year and we are in the process of recruiting more staff to answer the 100 plus enquires we receive each day. This will make a demonstrable difference to our ability to appropriately respond to enquiries, but we are very conscious that this has been a frustrating experience for parents and carers and we are working hard to resolve this. As part of the new service, we now have dedicated teams who triage and review referrals and questionnaires into the centre for concerns such as ADHD and ASD. When questionnaires are returned the information is discussed within a multidisciplinary meeting and a collective decision is made after reviewing the referral information as well as from parent/carer and school. All neurodevelopmental conditions are assessed against the NICE guidelines which our new processes follow to make a great improvement and offer a better quality service to our children and young people accessing services. If the referral information does not meet the criteria the parent / carer will be informed of this decision and signposted to relevant services for support. We can also assure parents/carers that we risk assess all children’s and young people health needs to safeguard their wellbeing. We work with our local Parent, Carers and Family Partnership Network to ensure we meet the expectations of parents and co-produce any changes to our provision. Thus ensuring we can keep improving our service with their invaluable support and feedback. This information is kept updated on our website. Parents and carers are encouraged to feedback to us via the link: https://www.iwantgreatcare.org/trusts/essex-partnership-university-trust Code: 5082)