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Clinical Tools and Resources

Resources:

Best Practice Guidance: Paediatric Pre-Assessment Pathway (TVW, 2026)

Best Practice Guidance: Pre-operative Care Services for Children and Young People (APAGBI, 2026) This best practice guidance sets outlines how preoperative services for Children and Young People (CYP) should be organised in any hospital providing surgery or procedures under anaesthesia to patients from birth to 18 years.

Best Practice Guidance: Preparation and Management of Children and Young People with Individual Needs requiring Surgery or Procedures (APAGBI, 2026) This document supports the provision of services in any hospital or elective surgical hub which provides services for children and young people (0-18 years) with individual needs.

Tools:

Asthma Control Test 

NHS BMI Calculator for children and teenagers

Common Anaesthetic Events & Risks (Royal College of Anaesthetists)

Anaesthesia for Children Living with Obesity (Society for Obesity & Bariatric Anaesthesia)

Anxiety Scale Reproduced by kind permission of the Paediatric Pre-Assessment Team at South Tees NHS Foundation Trust

UK Immunisation Schedule (UKHSA, 2026)

Widget Health A series of resources designed to help patients with learning difficulties understand the procedures, sequence of events and people associated with a visit to hospital

Pre-Assessment in a box A useful resource provided by Dr Amy Norrington, Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at South Tees NHS Foundation Trust. If there are any resources that you would like to use or replicate in your service, Amy is very happy for you to do so, just please remember to acknowledge her work in your final document. Please note, that you will need to request permission to access these resources, but you will only need to do this once and access is usually granted within 24-48hrs.

Resources for patients and their parents/carers can be found on our Patient & Families page. Resources include links to videos to prepare children and young people for their hospital admission, health promotion resources and links to support groups and charities. 

Resources:

Tools:

Widget Health A series of resources designed to help patients with learning difficulties understand the procedures, sequence of events and people associated with a visit to hospital

 

STOPP Tool – Safe Transfer of the Paediatric Patient Tool (TVW PCC ODN, 2025) For use on ALL non-PICU retrieval team transfers of children BETWEEN hospitals

 

Resources:

Tools:

GIRFT Further Faster ENT Handbook (GIRFT, 2025) A resource aimed at helping reduce waiting times by sharing best practice and provides checklists for Trusts to self-assess current practice.

ENT Advice Guidance Templates & Toolkits This link will take you to GIRFT’s Future NHS pages, where there is a suite of editable templates for use in your service.  Please note, that you will need to request permission to access these resources, but you will only need to do this once and access is usually granted within 24-48hrs. 

Paediatric Referral Guidelines (GIRFT, 2025) Includes standard referral pathways for a range of conditions/symptoms and should be adapted for local services to facilitate an effective referral system.

Conditions and symptoms include: 

  • Acute and chronic otitis externa
  • Persistent recurrent and complicated acute otitis media
  • Otitis media with effusion
  • Chronic otitis media
  • Lower motor neurone facial weakness
  • Rhinitis
  • Chronic rhinosinusitis
  • Epistaxis
  • Obstructive sleep apnoea
  • Sore throat and tonsilitis

Resources:

Thames Valley & Wessex Best Practice Guidelines:

GIRFT Report: Paediatric General Surgery and Urology (GIRFT, 2021) 

Acute abdominal pain and appendicectomy pathway guidance (GIRFT, 2022)  

Tools:

GIRFT Advice & Guidance Templates This link will take you to GIRFT’s Future NHS pages, where there is a suite of editable templates for use in your service.  Please note, that you will need to request permission to access these resources, but you will only need to do this once and access is usually granted within 24-48hrs. 

Editable templates include:

  • Foreskin
  • Hydrocele
  • Umbilical Hernia
  • Undescended Testes

Surgical Abdomen Referral Pathway: SORT Guideline (Sort & TV&W PCC Network, 2024)  

4-skin Health A support tool to help healthcare professionals identify possible treatment options for their patients and support joint decision making for a range of foreskin conditions  

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Tools:

GIRFT Further Faster Handbook – Paediatric Trauma & Orthopaedic (GIRFT, 2024) A resource aimed at helping reduce waiting times by sharing best practice and provides checklists for Trusts to self-assess current practice.  

Resources:

GIRFT: Further Faster Handbook (GIRFT, 2025) A resource aimed at helping reduce waiting times by sharing best practice and provides checklists for Trusts to self-assess current practice.  Specialities cover include General Surgery, ENT, Gynaecology, Ophthalmology and Gastroenterology 

 

Closing the Gap (GIRFT, 2024) Provides a concise set of actions to reduce waiting times for children, with links to quick essential data, resources and case studies  

Service Specification: Paediatric Surgery: Surgery (and Surgical Pathology, Anaesthesia & Pain) (NHS England, 2013) NB: This document is currently under review


Best Practice Guidance: Preparation and Management of Children and Young People with Individual Needs requiring Surgery or Procedures (APAGBI, 2026) This document supports the provision of services in any hospital or elective surgical hub which provides services for children and young people (0-18 years) with individual needs.

Tools:

STOPP Tool – Safe Transfer of the Paediatric Patient Tool (TVW PCC ODN, 2025) For use on ALL non-PICU retrieval team transfers of children BETWEEN hospitals

Nursing

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