Referrals
What information is needed for a complex support referral?
A good referral gets you a straight answer quickly. A vague one gets you a generic quote, or a provider who accepts work they cannot actually deliver. This is what to include, what to hold back until a secure route is agreed, and why each part matters.
In short
- Providers need enough to answer three questions: can we deliver this safely, can we staff it in that area, and what would it cost.
- Outcomes and risk are the two sections most often missing — and the two that most affect the answer.
- Do not send full case files or court bundles at first contact. Send a summary.
- A partial postcode and an age band are usually enough for initial screening.
- If you do not know something, say so. 'Not yet assessed' is more useful than a guess.
What a provider is actually deciding
Understanding what happens to your referral makes it easier to write. On receipt, a provider is working out three things:
- Can we deliver this safely and lawfully? Does it fall within our service scope and regulatory position, and is the risk something we can manage with the model proposed?
- Can we actually staff it? The right practitioners, in that area, for those hours, with continuity.
- What would it cost? Which requires enough detail to design a package rather than guess.
Every item below exists to answer one of those. Anything that answers none of them can wait.
The referral checklist
1. Who is referring
- Your name and role
- Organisation and team
- Work email and phone
- Who else needs to be in the conversation, and who can authorise spend
2. What you need
- The service required — or a description if you are not sure what to call it
- Proposed staffing ratio, or a note asking the provider to advise
- Hours and coverage pattern, including waking nights or overnights
- Required start date, and whether it is fixed or indicative
- Expected duration, and whether step-down is anticipated
- Location — town or partial postcode is enough at this stage
3. The person being supported
- Age band — not date of birth
- Current situation and whether it is stable
- Current placement type, if any
- Education or activity commitments the support must fit around
- What has already been tried, and what helped
- The young person's own view, where known
4. Why support is needed
- What is happening now, in plain terms
- What the support needs to address
- What is likely to happen without it
5. Risk and safeguarding
- The specific risks, their triggers and how often they occur
- Anything that makes lone working inappropriate
- Safeguarding context relevant to screening
- Whether a risk assessment exists
6. Outcomes
- What the package needs to achieve
- How you would know it was working
- What would trigger review, increase or step-down
7. Practicalities
- Whether a plan is already in place
- Reporting you need, and how often
- Other agencies involved
- Anything affecting feasibility — access, transport, family circumstances
What not to send at first contact
Referral information about children is sensitive, and public web forms are not the right route for detailed records. Please do not send at initial referral:
- Full case files or chronologies
- Court bundles, orders or statements
- Medical or therapeutic reports
- Full names, dates of birth or case identifiers where a summary would do
- Addresses — a partial postcode is enough for a feasibility answer
- Photographs
- Third-party personal data that is not needed to screen the referral
If further records are required, we will agree an appropriate secure method for sharing them. Our referral form is deliberately built for summary-level information and does not accept file uploads.
The two sections most often missing
Intended outcomes
Referrals frequently describe the problem in detail and the desired outcome not at all. Without it a provider cannot design a package — only price hours.
Outcomes do not need to be sophisticated. "Maintain the current placement through to the end of the school year", "re-establish education attendance", "reduce missing episodes", "support a planned move without an emergency placement" are all usable. What matters is that someone could tell later whether it happened.
Specific risk
"High risk" tells a provider almost nothing. What helps:
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| "Challenging behaviour" | What the behaviour is, when it happens, what usually precedes it, what has helped |
| "High risk of going missing" | How often, for how long, where they tend to go, what the return process has been |
| "Aggressive" | Toward whom, in what circumstances, whether staff have been injured, what de-escalation has worked |
| "Complex needs" | Which needs, which are assessed, which are suspected, what provision is already in place |
This is not a request for more words. It is usually fewer words, but specific ones.
Timescales and what to expect
Be realistic and explicit about urgency, and distinguish between a genuine emergency and a preference. Providers plan differently for each.
On our side, after a referral is received we screen it against our current service scope and operating boundaries, then come back to you on whether we can accept it, and on the practitioner and supervision arrangements that would apply. We will confirm feasibility and mobilisation requirements following referral review — mobilisation depends on the ratio, the practitioner skills required and availability in that specific area, so we do not quote a standard timescale before reading the referral.
If we cannot deliver something safely and appropriately, we say so rather than accept it.
Questions we are asked
How much detail is too much for a first referral?
If a piece of information would not change whether a provider can deliver the package, it can wait. Age band rather than date of birth, partial postcode rather than address, a risk summary rather than a full chronology. Detailed records follow once a secure route is agreed.
What if we do not know some of the answers?
Say so. 'Not yet assessed' or 'unknown' is genuinely more useful than a guess, because it tells the provider what is uncertain. Uncertainty is workable; wrong information is not.
Can we send a referral before funding is agreed?
Yes, and it is often sensible — a feasibility answer and an indicative cost help you build the case. Just say that funding is not yet confirmed so nobody plans mobilisation around a date that cannot hold.
Do you accept referrals from solicitors and families?
For some services. Supported and supervised contact referrals are welcome from local authorities, and from solicitors and families where the arrangement is appropriate. Commissioned support packages are generally commissioned by local authorities and other organisations.
What happens if you cannot take the referral?
We tell you, and we try to be specific about why — scope, regulatory position, or practitioner availability in that area. That is more useful than a delayed maybe.