Bedfordshire and Luton Children's Occupational Therapy Service

Occupational therapy can help children, learn, socialise have fun and be more independent. We want to improve opportunities for children to help them develop and thrive.

To help your child participate we may engage and participate at home or at school. We can teach new skills and techniques or recommend different ways of completing tasks. We'll also assess and provide suitable equipment. 

We can give advice to parents and teaching staff on strategies and approaches that may help if your child needs support in areas of daily life such as:

• eating a meal
• self care activities like washing, brushing their teeth or using the toilet
• playing with friends, playing sports or other hobbies
• school skills like writing or using scissors
• managing at school such as participating in lessons, moving around the classroom or school and seating including postural support and supportive seating

In our team we use a wide variety of intervention approaches. From extensive research we have found basing your child's intervention around an activity in a familiar environment really supports their learning.

This confirmed our belief that the best way to support children is to work together with their families.

Approaches to support you:

• Assess, advise and treatment where appropriate.
• Providing a variety of universal resources that are accessible to all people involved with your child or young person.
• Self led online learning videos available through website.
• Helping you build your confidence around what you can do. We see these approaches as a partnership. 
• Helping nurseries and school settings to follow advice, treatment programmes and strategies.

Occupational therapy improves health and well-being. We enable children and young people to participate in activities of daily living that are important to them. Various factors can make it difficult for people to engage in activities that others manage easily. How people manage daily activities (occupational performance) is a result of the interaction between:

• personal factors (such as their strength, coordination, sensory needs, motivation),
• the activity (e.g. getting dressed, brushing teeth) and
• the environment (physical, sensory, cultural, institutional).

Occupational therapy interventions can focus on any or all of these elements. This was developed from the World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) 2012.

For full details visit our service statement page

We do not offer services for home adaptations or equipment in the home. These are offered by the local authority's social care occupational therapy teams.

Bedfordshire Borough Council

Central Bedfordshire local offer

Luton local offer

• Administrators have specialist knowledge of the service and are usually the first people you have contact with when you call with queries. They support the clinical teams in a variety of ways, including arranging appointments and sending out reports.

• Children’s Occupational Therapists help children to participate, learn and develop independence in activities of daily living (such as eating, personal care and play). Our intervention is unique to each child’s needs. It can include teaching new skills and techniques, recommending different ways of completing tasks, adapting the environment or assessing for suitable equipment to support function. 

• Children's Occupational Therapy Assistants support the work of the children’s occupational therapists in many different ways. They assist in assessing and treating children and young people, ordering, checking and adjusting equipment such as specialist seating. They also carry out blocks of therapy.

The occupational therapy department has two core teams, North and South.

The North team cover Bedfordshire Borough and North Bedfordshire. They offer clinic appointments at the Child Development Centre, Kempston.

The South team cover Central Bedfordshire, South Bedfordshire and Luton. They offer clinic appointments are Redgrave Children and Young People's Centre in Luton.