TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• Are HCPC registered and hold registered qualifications from the Royal College of Occupational Therapists;
• Hold Enhanced DBS certification;
• Hold professional membership with specialist sectors such as CYPF or SI Network. 

Assessments 

By completing the pre-assessment forms and returning them, you are entering into a contractual agreement for an EHCP or Standard assessment package, provided by one of the Ace COT OTs. The travel time and fuel costs are in addition. Changes to the package cost, for example, change of assessment location or the type of assessment, may be agreed in advance.

You will be invoiced for 50% of the assessment cost on confirmation of the scheduled date, and will not be expected to pay the balance plus any applicable travel charges until you have received the report and the assessment has been completed in full. Payment should be made by cheque, bank transfer, debit or credit card as per the invoice details, and should be received within 15 days of the invoice date or at least 1 week ahead of the confirmed assessment date.

Treatment Sessions 

By scheduling treatment sessions, either at home, school or clinic, your child is expected to attend. The travel time and fuel costs are in addition. You will be invoiced monthly, payment may be made by cheque, bank transfer or card as per the invoice details, and should be received within 15 days of the invoice date.

Safety

A parent / carer is expected to be present either in the room or within the home or other venue for the duration of each session. The Therapist cannot be expected to look after additional siblings present in the home, venue or within the clinic. Parents / carers are expected to be responsible for their children when not in the direct contact of the OT (outside of any treatment area provided) whether in the home, school or other venue. In the family home, the area provided for the Therapist to work within should be free of sharp objects on the floor, clean and any pets removed from the vicinity, and placed in another room. Please do not smoke in the presence of the child or the Therapist.

Parents are responsible for children / family members attending the Clinic space and their safety outside the building. We are based on a farm. Please note there may be vehicles moving and animals that may be viewable. You are requested not to allow children to touch the animals nor climb on any fencing.

Safeguarding is taken very seriously at Ace Children’s OT, where all staff take training annually. A copy of our Safeguarding Policy is shown in the hallway at our clinic and is available on request for any parent whose child receives services remotely. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Helen Carr.

The Therapist will treat the child / adult at any venue with due respect and use appropriate language and dress code. It is expected that the adult will address the Therapist with equal respect and wear appropriate clothing and use appropriate language. Any physical, verbal or emotional abuse towards the Therapist by the adult at any time will result in the termination of the session. Children whose condition involves potential for harm (either physical, verbal or emotional) either towards themselves or others should be notified to the Therapist in advance. The child should wear loose comfortable clothing such as T-shirt and shorts or a tracksuit. Clothing such as: tight jeans, hoodies and tops with additions such as sequins, beads or fringing are not suitable.

Equipment 

The Therapist is generally responsible for provision of the Therapy equipment required (unless otherwise agreed), apart from ‘consumable’ items such as play dough, therapy brushes, oral motor toys, which will need to be purchased by the parent / carer / school in advance, on the advice of the OT, if these are to be used on a regular basis within therapy sessions. This does not include the assessment package. This is due to this type of item being only suitable for single child use, where hygiene and infection control regulations recommend that it is not re-used with other children. Parents or schools may be recommended to provide or purchase specific equipment as outlined in the Assessment Report.

Insurance 

The Therapist is insured with Balens Insurance Ltd and with BAOT / RCOT.

Disclosure and Barring Scheme 

The Therapist has a valid Enhanced Disclosure DBS document and in most cases, this will be viewable on the Update service. The Update service makes the DBS portable, for example, it will hold the same validity in a school as if the DBS had been created for that particular school.

Training / Registration 

The Therapist is registered with the Health Care Professions Council, as a Practicing member of the Allied Health Professions – Occupational Therapist. This requires proof of ongoing professional development as a practitioner, and re-registering every 2 years. This is the only registration which allows practice as an Occupational Therapist in the UK, and requires the Therapist to hold valid qualifications for registration. Some therapists have completed training with the Sensory Integration of UK and Ireland for Sensory Integration Theory and Practice, plus holding further evidence of training for other courses to maintain professional development. The Therapist has valid documentation for up to date skills and knowledge for: Basic life support and Anaphylaxis, Safeguarding Children and Adults, Manual Handling and the Mental Capacity Act. The OT abides by the Code of Ethics as detailed by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists.

OTs follow Company policies for: infection control, information governance, fire safety, health and safety, or will follow local policies within schools or colleges, where necessary.

Treatment 

Occupational Therapy treatment can be agreed on completion of the Assessment and receipt of the Report. This may be for direct treatment either at school, clinic, home, or other venue depending on need. Treatment can be flexible to the child’s and family’s needs. Treatment will include goal setting with the child, family and school (where appropriate) and the goals reviewed at the end of each block of treatment sessions, before proceeding with agreement of the parents / carers. Note writing and programme writing are chargeable activities.

Cancellation of Appointments 

Our therapy treatment sessions run for 45 minutes and may be delivered weekly, fortnightly or monthly, taking place at a number of premises. Additional time is required for clinical notes after each session of 15 minutes. If you cannot make a session, please let us know, giving as much warning as you can. Of course, we will contact you should it be necessary to reschedule but please be assured this seldom happens. Once you have booked a session, this hour is your child’s; if you arrive late to a venue, we may still need to end at your regular finishing time because we are likely to have other people scheduled after you.

We operate a sliding scale of cancellation / no show charges. This is because, unlike other branches of Medicine, we set aside large blocks of reserved time for your appointment, especially for assessments and will have prepared for it. For both assessments and treatment sessions, cancellation within 72 hours attracts a charge of 25% of the anticipated fee as stated on our fees sheet including anticipated travel time; within 48 hours, is 50%, and within 24 hours or on the day / no show is 100%. This will also include any fuel costs if we have not previously been advised your child is unavailable and the therapist has travelled to site. We try to fill all cancelled slots and if we are able to do so, we may, at our discretion, waive the first two of these fees, but this is not guaranteed.

We understand that people fall ill and have accidents, but you must appreciate that we are also running a business. If you have to cancel, please do so in person by phone – an email must be deemed not received unless we acknowledge it. Phone calls and emails outside office hours advising of cancellation will not be accepted. The office should be contacted between 0830 and 1700 to ensure your message is appropriately recorded. We count the time from our acknowledgement (which will be very prompt) as the relevant period set out above, not when you sent it, so phoning is better. Voicemail messages left will be responded to – again we count the time from when we phone you back as the relevant period, so it is best to phone us during office hours.

Cancellation of Business Contracts 

For business customers engaged on a bulk termly contract basis, we require a full term’s notice in the event of termination, due to the volume of organisation required in re-allocating the staff already engaged and scheduled to deliver the defined services. If notice is served between the start of a term and half term, half the termly fees will still be due the following term. If notice is served between half term and the end of term, the full termly fees will be due the following term. Fees will continue being invoiced on a monthly basis.

In each case, where it is possible to re-allocate the staff assigned to a termly contract, their fees will be deducted from the balance payable.

Other Appointments / Documentation / Confidentiality 

If you need to contact your therapist urgently in-between sessions, then of course we will try and make them available, providing it is for a short period of time, typically there will be no charge. However, if this were to become regular, we may suggest a time you attend an additional session. The OTs do not have the capacity to undertake regular emails or phone calls as this is unpaid time, where their schedules are invariably booked back-to-back. If you require this level of communication, then this time will have to be scheduled and charged where our current hourly rates will apply.

Where a family request the Therapist to attend meetings either at school or with other agencies (e.g. Annual Review meetings), the Therapist will charge the hourly rate plus travel time and fuel costs. Documentation required outside of treatment e.g. reports for Statement of Educational Need, referrals to other professions, letters etc will be charged at the hourly rate pro rata for time spent on the task (which will include planning, typing, copying and posting).

Any documentation will be stored safely in accordance to Caldicott Guidelines (rcot.co.uk) and be treated as confidential.

A copy of our GDPR Privacy Notice is issued to all new clients and may also be viewed online at: https://acechildrensoccupationaltherapy.com/privacy-policy

Clinical progress notes will be kept following any intervention or contact made with the child / family / school.

Fees and Insurance

If you have a health insurance policy, it is essential to have your claim pre-authorised and any limits of cover checked before attending any appointments. Standard and EHCP Assessments have fixed charges. You will be invoiced for 50% of the Assessment cost, on confirmation of the schedule and will not be expected to pay the balance until you have received the report.

The Assessment reports are usually extremely comprehensive, we have incorporated a small administrative charge for this and also the Quality Assurance process; we do not usually charge extra for complexity in this, no matter how long it takes. Nor do we usually charge for telephone liaison with other parties or professionals, although we reserve the right do to do so where such work is particularly complex or time-consuming.

Terms of settlement are stated on invoices and are 15 days. If payment is not made within this period and following reminder emails, we will seek to recover charges by other means. We offer direct billing to insurance companies as a courtesy and convenience, but please be aware that the contract is between you and us, not the insurance company and us, and you remain liable for all fees. We may at any time decide to bill you direct and would then supply receipted invoices for you to reclaim from your insurance company. We welcome payment by cheque, bank transfer, debit or credit card. Please note that any collection costs incurred by Ace Children’s Occupational Therapy Ltd (including fees billed by collection agencies, credit reference agencies and solicitors) will be added to the final amount payable.

Version 5.1 Copyright © Ace Children’s Occupational Therapy Ltd – December, 2024