Care, Education and Treatment Reviews (CETRs)

This article explains the purpose of a Care, Education and Treatment Review (CETR) and the process involved for a child or young person and their family.

Page contents

• What is a community CETR?
• Deciding if your child needs a CETR
• The CETR meeting
• What happens after the CETR meeting?
• Further information

What is a community CETR?

Care, Education and Treatment Reviews (CETRs) help more children and young people with autism, or a learning disability get the support they need in the community rather than having to move from home, move school or having to go to a mental health hospital.

A CETR can be requested if there is a risk of either:

• an admission to a mental health hospital or
• situational breakdown at home, such as a risk of needing to go into care.

It checks with everyone in the child or young person’s team (the group of professionals who provide care for the child or young person), if all the right support is in place to help the child or young person stay in their community. CETRs can also take place when a child or young person is in hospital, to help with planning to leave the hospital.

Deciding if your child needs a CETR

Before the CETR is arranged, a member of your team will speak to you and your child about it. They will give you information and check that you understand what the CETR is. They will ask you if you agree to the CETR taking place. If you do not want the CETR to happen this is okay.

Dynamic Support Register

You or your child may be asked if you are happy for their name to be added to the ‘Dynamic Support Register’. This is a list of children and young people who are at risk of losing their school/college placement, having to move away from home or go to hospital. If the name of your child is added to the list, it means that their needs might be discussed with other professionals such as social workers and teachers. We do this so that we can make sure they get the support that they need in all areas of their life. This list is managed by CAMHS.  (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) It is the responsibility of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to have a DSR.

The CETR meeting

A CETR meeting might take place over the course of a full working day, but most people invited will only attend certain parts of it.  The meeting can be held in person in a place that works for you, or virtually via an online meeting, or a combination of both. The CETR will be planned around you, so you can let us know what works best for you.

Who attends the meeting?

Your child does not need to attend the meeting if they do not wish to, or they can attend part of the meeting.  You and your child can decide if you wish other people to attend such as family members, friends, an advocate or any supportive/trusted person.

If the young person is over 16 and doesn’t want their responsible adult(s) at the meeting they can let their team know.

The meeting will be led by someone from the ICB. There will also be people who you have not met before:

• an Expert by Experience (this is someone who has personal experience either through being the responsible adult for an autistic person and/or a person with learning disabilities or someone who has a diagnosis themselves)
• an independent Clinical Reviewer (this is a professional from the area, so maybe a Specialist Learning Disability Nurse, a Speech and Language Therapist or an Occupational Therapist).

Together with the person from the ICB those three are often called ‘the panel’ – that means
that those three are the ones responsible for asking the questions and gathering the information. There will also be an administrator to take some notes.

What happens during the meeting?

At the CETR we ask your child the following questions:

• What is your current situation?
• How you and your family feel about the situation?
• Are you safe?
• What is your current care and treatment?
• Are you attending education?
• What is working well and what is not working so well?
• Is there any other support that would help you stay in the
  community for your care and treatment?

Everyone at the meeting is asked to give their point of view. You and the other people at the meeting agree if any changes to your care, education and treatment should be made. People in the meeting agree any actions that need to happen to make your care better. Once the meeting is completed, the ICB is responsible for checking that actions are/have been carried out.

What happens after the CETR meeting?

After the meeting the Chair (this is the person from the ICB) writes a short report about what was discussed which includes the actions and who will carry them out and when.  The report is then:

• kept in a safe place
• only sent to the people at the meeting and those that need to know what the actions are
• sent to you as a copy unless you say you don’t want it

Further information

For further information see our leaflets on a CETR for young people and families and also an easy read version with information on the CETR.