Surely this can't be right, SEND assessment waiting list

[Jennybeans401]

Dd is in Year 5 and has struggled for a long time, school think she has autism. I'm struggling with her at home, she's burned out from masking all day, needs to stim but won't do it at school and lots of other sensory issues.

I met with the SENCO a few weeks ago and she's scheduled a meeting to fill in all the forms for CAMHS. This will be in two months, it seems a long time. She then said that the school have to do two terms of intervention before they refer for an assessment as may not be needed. If there's still an area of need they can then refer.

There is then another 18 months waiting list!! Surely this can't be right?!

My child is year 8 and we’re told she will have an answer probably when she’s in year 9. She’s been in the system since year 5. Feckin covid ruining lives

Both my children have been through the autism / ADHD process.
Ask your school if they would accept an educational psychology assessment. A diagnosis of autism is a diagnosis of autism - an educational psychology assessment makes recommendations for changes in school to give the child support. An educational psychology assessment should be able to demonstrate through testing how your child's SEN is effecting their study.
However, only a psychiatrist can assess autism and ADHD and only a psychiatrist can prescribe ADHD meds.
We had the psychiatrist assessment who recommended the educational psychology assessment. It was the educational psychology assessment that the school used to give the support needed.

It's approximately 3 years for an ASD diagnosis, in the area of Scotland where I live.

It's not 'right' but unfortunately it is pretty typical across the country.

It's two months just to have the meeting to fill in the forms

This ^ isn't right. That should be a follow up action from the meeting - I would expect within a week.

As others have said though, remember the assessment for Autism via CAMHS is to assess for a medical diagnosis.
If she isn't managing to access school, then that is a separate procedure and doesn't rely on her having a diagnosis.
Plus, if she is in Year5, then surely they already have evidence of interventions, over far more than 2 terms ?

Sorry yes you are right, I didn't mean the diagnosis drove the funding, it was the EHCP and the hours of 121 support contained in that.

Pre Covid, it was a 2 year wait in our area. Post Covid, I've already waited 3 years for my ds and counting. I focused on getting my son a Statement of Educational Needs in school which I did after starting the process to take the Local Authority to a Tribunal twice. First time they refused to assess him for SEN, due to having no Autism diagnosis and the "wait for the two term" line (he'd only been in school 6 weeks). They backed down immediately and assessed him. He was given a Statement but it wasn't sufficient so I started the Tribunal process again and they backed down a week after I sent the Tribunal paperwork in. I ignored everyone who said to wait. It was hard work though and seriously stressful.

There are two separate issues here.

1. A referral for autism assessment. This does not need to be done by school, GP can do this instead to get the ball rolling, school may be asked for their input as well you and DD. My DD was referred by school at a similar age and saw clinical psychology not CAMHS, it took 2 years to be seen due to Covid. DS saw community paediatrician at a younger age for his diagnosis and it took 15 months from referral to appointment.

2. An EHCP assessment. An EHCP is not required in order to support your DD. DS had IEP's only and school based support for the first four years of school and only had an EHCP put in place for junior school. He was non verbal and in pull ups for the first two years. The reason his EHCP application was successful is that school provided lots of evidence of all the intervention they had put in place already and that an EHCP was necessary to fully meet his needs.

Under the SEND code of practice the school have to work with you to meet your daughter's needs even before a diagnosis is in place. My son was supported by school for 15 months without a diagnosis. My DD was not officially diagnosed for 3.5 years, but both her primary and secondary school have put in place extra support without a diagnosis.

Can I ask where you are?

Jeez, it was hard when dd was diagnosed and it took us about 18 months from the first independent flag to diagnosis. to all of you going through this

I’m at 18 months waiting so far for my son. CAHMS send letters saying sorry for the wait every so often and the wait is close to 2.5 to 3 years. It gets longer with every letter. My son will probably be close to school leaving age by the time he is actually assessed. He is 13 in 3 weeks.

This is for an EHCP, not for CAMHS autism assessment. Also, not exactly accurate. For an EHCP, it's 6 weeks to decide whether an assessment is needed, then 14 weeks to issue a plan if needed.

For CAMHS, there's no legal timeframe and it takes years in many areas.

Sadly yes its appallingly true. Its about cost nothing else. This is why so many children are in crisis. Have you tried Autism concern. They maybe able to give you some strategies to help and sign post you to resources. Good luck I hope it goes quickly for you

3 years and lots of chasing by both us and the school. We got a diagnosis in 2 days once we'd got through the list.

We got a diagnosis within 3 months. It cost £2,500 and to get it I emailed every assessment place within a 2 hour drive. Most of them had closed their waiting lists because even for private assessments it was a one year wait. The one we found had only very recently started offering the assessments when they got a new staff member, so hadn’t built up a big list yet.

It’s outrageous.

CAHMS can intervene to move your child further up the waiting list (by making them high priority) but they only do that for really serious mental health issues.

Same here my child had to wait 5 years from start to Finnish, for all his assessments and diagnosis to be finalised.

From referral being accepted to being seen by paediatrics we waited 1 year. We are in the south west

You should be able to do it yourself, and it’s quite a simple process.

My assesment was done over video link, the whole process was pointless. I explained at the beginning I was a 'masker' I'd done it all my life as when I was a child( born 1974) autism wasn't a thing you were just naughty/odd , I'm very good at faking eye contact for example as I had frequent rows with my mother (who would say 'look at me when I'm talking to you) We did the whole assessment and at the end the lady's comments that I seemed to have no problems with eye contact really annoyed me. Firstly it's not the same on a computer screen and also as she was wearing glasses I couldn't see her eyes just the reflection of her computer screen. Working from home is fine in many ways but some things need to be face to face. Good luck to you both

EHCPs can be fully funded and for the year in which it is given. LAs don’t like it, but they can be forced to provide it.

School don’t need to do two terms of intervention.

There are also some providers across the country that offer NHS right to choose assessments, although you might need to travel some distance. GP can refer in - school agreeing there are signs will help with this.

On top of your initial waiting, it’s then at least 6 months to get the actual report around here.
18 months here for fast tracked.
3 years normally around here.

Ask school to get an educational psychologist in at this point as well (make request in writhing) to help make recommendations on support for your DD. School can do this but it will come from their funding. She doesn’t need to be within EHCP process for this, school can be proactive.

Getting a diagnosis doesn't actually help much. The school senco should add her to the list of undiagnosed sen children so she'll be able to still receive support. You can apply for a echp without a diagnosis, you can also apply for dla as long as you can demonstrate why she should receive it.

All the children on the waiting list will have been through those 2 terms of pre referral work. The pre referral work is designed to reduce the waiting list.

There are 3.5k children in my CAMHS team covering a large county awaiting ASD/ADHD assessment. They have all been triaged by a healthcare/education professional. We have a team of 20 clinicians to assess (and only assess) 3500 children.

Education in our area has had to adapt and there is a bigger understanding from schools about supporting a child's needs, not their diagnosis.

@relamped - What about the children who aren’t in school? Either home Ed by choice, or on roll and unable to attend because of fear or school/mental health difficulties created by unmet needs