A qualitative pilot study to compare physiotherapy provision through sure start and hospital-based services

This paper explores and compares the mechanisms involved in the provision of a home-based physiotherapy service to children up to four years of age by a Sure Start programme and mainstream hospital-based service of a multicultural city in the north of England. The providers and users of the service were consulted and their views were invited either in a group form or on a one-to-one basis. The word ‘users’ in this context refers to parent/carers of children with disabilities who might have used the physiotherapy service either through Sure Start or the mainstream hospital-based clinic. The findings are discussed in terms of: any added value of the Sure Start physiotherapy service; communication gaps and the various strategies devised to overcome such barriers; and the exploration of referral mechanisms from primary to secondary care. The unit cost of the service is compared with the nationally available figures (Netten and Curtis 2003). The data collected show that the key strength of Sure Start's home-based physiotherapy service lies in its ability to provide insight on how people access services, satisfaction with home-based service and the use of bilingual physiotherapy assistants from within the community.