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Accessibility Statement
Kirklees Local Offer

Children's Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy helps to restore movement and function when someone is affected by injury, illness or disability. It can also help to reduce your risk of injury or illness in the future.

Physiotherapists often work as part of a multidisciplinary team in various areas of medicine and settings, including:

  • Hospitals
  • Community health centres or clinics
  • Some GP surgeries
  • Some sports teams, clubs, charities and workplaces
  • Some physiotherapists can also offer home visits.

What physiotherapists do?

Physiotherapists consider the body as a whole, rather than just focusing on the individual aspects of an injury or illness.

Some of the main approaches used by physiotherapists include:

  • education and advice – physiotherapists can give general advice about things that can affect your daily lives, such as posture and correct lifting or carrying techniques to help prevent injuries.
  • movement, tailored exercise and physical activity advice – exercises may be recommended to improve your general health and mobility, and to strengthen specific parts of your body
  • manual therapy – where the physiotherapist uses their hands to help relieve pain and stiffness, and to encourage better movement of the body
    There are other techniques that may sometimes be used, such as exercises carried out in water (hydrotherapy or aquatic therapy) or acupuncture.

When is physiotherapy used?

Physiotherapy can be helpful for people of all ages with a wide range of health conditions, including problems affecting the:

  • bones, joints and soft tissue
  • brain or nervous system
  • heart and circulation
  • lungs and breathing

Physiotherapy can improve your physical activity while helping you to prevent further injuries.

Within Kirklees, Children's Physio services are provided differently depending upon where you live:

If you live in North Kirklees, this service is provided by Locala

If you live in South Kirklees, this service is provided by Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHT).

The physiotherapy team assess and treat a wide range of conditions in children and young people age 0-16, we work with children and families to support the child’s mobility, encourage their independence, support post injury or pain to return to activities. We offer support to children who have complex needs who may need specialist equipment to help support their posture and participation during the day. 

We work with children in the north Kirklees area (WF12-17, BD19, BD12 -Batley, Cleckheaton, Dewsbury, Liversedge, Heckmondwike, Ravensthorpe and Mirfield).  

We provide support with:  

We assess a child’s ability to physically get around their environment (school, nursery, home), support with gross motor development and returning to activity following pain/injury. We offer exercise/stretching programmes, advice for parent's/carers and school, we assess for equipment such as walking aids & standing frames.  

We work closely with other professionals including, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, educational staff, orthodontics and other outside agencies.  

How to access what we do? 

Parent's/carers can self-refer, we also accept referrals from GPs, consultants, education and all other health professionals. Referral's should be made through Community Health & Social Care Hub or online.  

We have staff based in the Child Development Centre (CDC) on the site of Dewsbury and District Hospital. We will often contact you by telephone or video initially, we may see children at the Child Development Centre, at home or in the education setting (North Kirklees) as is appropriate.  

Once the referral has been accepted a letter will be sent as acknowledgement. When you are due to be seen you will receive a letter for an appointment at the child development centre or phone/virtual contact. Unfortunately we do not provide transport. The venue is wheelchair accessible, including a disabled toilet (you may need to ask for the access to the toilet). We do not have a changing places toilet but are planning to have a similar set up in the near future with hoisting. We do have a mobile hoist and can support changing in a clinic room. 

It is beneficial for parent's/carers to attend the appointments so that we can gain a full understanding of early development and the problems and the impact on the child.  Also to help support the child with the advice and support given. 

We work Monday to Friday 8-5, we do not cover weekends or bank holiday. 

Phone (Community Health & Social Care Hub): 0300 304 5555. 

Referrals can be made online at the Local Children's Physio website (opens in a new window) 

Transition into the adult service 

Where a young person requires ongoing support as they move into adulthood, the Physiotherapist will liaise with the adult team to make the move as smooth as possible for the young person and their family. This may be a move to one of the following teams, as is appropriate: 

Locala adult Physiotherapy Team (opens in new window) 

SWYT Learning Disabilities Team (opens in new window) 

We are a team of qualified Physiotherapists and Therapy Assistants who provide a child centred, family orientated approach. We work with children who have a physical disability or a condition that has an impact on development and functional daily activities at home or at school.

We enable the child to reach their maximum developmental potential and gain independence by linking closely with families and other professionals.

What we do
We work in a variety of ways depending on the needs of the child. Our input may include any of the following:

  • working with parents, carers and families to manage their child’s condition
  • providing specialist clinical assessments
  • assessing specialist equipment needs at home and in school
  • training others to carry out specific interventions
  • providing postural management and treatment programmes
  • providing specialist advice to families and schools
  • assessing and providing specialist footwear and splints
  • providing therapy either individually or in groups
  • advising, training and educating parents, carers, schools and other healthcare professionals
  • providing written reports for statutory educational assessments


Where do we work?


Depending on the needs and age of the child, we work in a variety of settings including:

  • Home
  • School
  • Pre-school setting
  • Child Development Centre
  • Children’s Therapy Department Outpatient clinics
  • Hospital

How do we access this service?

Referrals can be made by GP’s, Consultants, Health Visitors, Parents/Guardians, Schools, and other Health Professionals.

Referrals need to be made through the CHT Children's Therapy Services website (opens in a new window).

Parents wishing to refer their children directly may telephone the department on Halifax 01422 261 340, and Huddersfield 01484 344299

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Last updated: 12/10/2020