Private ADHD referral - School & Trust won't complete forms

[Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky]

Anyone been through this. School agree referral to Cahms is warranted however completely refuse to complete forms for a private assessment - it's also trust policy.

I think I need to get SEN lawyer involved but anyone been through this scenario and got any advice.

Basis for this is that they cannot guarantee their qualifications.

Apparently it doesn't matter if CAMHS will accept their diagnosis . It also doesn't matter that they are actually the lead for local NHS trust most of the week, if the forms come on a private day they won't be completed.

They have apparently never had anyone go private in the entire trust and if they fill the forms for me they have to do for anyone else and they cannot be sure they would guarantee the credibility of the provider.

I have already done a private mental health assessment for which they wrote a letter and in that assessment her scoring was above the adhd thresholds (also dad has it)

My PM is disabled. Hope this is allowed.

This is disgraceful, but sadly not uncommon. I think a lot of ignorant schools view private assessment as unscrupulous or ‘buying a diagnosis’.

Id go for a letter from a solicitor reminding them that the NHS isn’t the only health care provider in the UK and they are obliged to support SEN assessment as per the code of practice.

Good luck x

Thanks @Wishyouwerehere50 I've screen grabbed it in case it's deleted.

They actually made a comment to me about other parents not being able to pay to go private! What the fuck has that got to do with my daughter.

I don't have pots of spare money floating around but her education is too important, If I need to spend a good proportion of my savings then that's what I have to do.

You sound like the treatment from school and whoever else has knocked your confidence.

Go straight to requesting a full assessment privately from a suitable provider that you find yourself. I think it's best you assess for ASD and ADHD. Say, school are being obstructive, can you help still? A good assessor will recommend their own educational psychologist id imagine. They'll request school reports going back years. They'll figure it out quite easily without school having any direct input.

You need the best assessor you can find. I went for all female. Very advisable. You can guess why.
They must be NICE approved. I'd check if they're prepared to challenge any one who questions validity of the diagnosis. They won't if you have the best, honestly. They just want to get you to go away. They did it to me.

@VivaVivaa that is totally how I think they see it.

They even asked me if her dad's diagnosis was nhs or private as if that made a difference.

All this is just to get you to go away.

We have this massive influx of SEN kids. School have to be seen to do something legally. And the more kids diagnosed well the more obligation and more expense for them. That is the only reason they're being obstructive. Same as CAMHS or the GP or whoever else does this to you.

It's very unfair of the school to hold your DD back like this. My DS was medicated at 13 and went from Maths set 3 to Maths set 1 in less than a year. I went private because I just couldn't wait for the NHS diagnosis with the 2 year wait. DS had to put up with 2 years of teachers suggesting he was plain naughty at high school. The consultant who diagnosed DS and wrote to GP to prescribe him worked as Head of Paediatrics for large NHS hospital during the week and did a Saturday morning private surgery.

No 1. They should do it for every pupil they are asked to do so.

No 2. It's not a school's job to regulate the medical profession to decide who is qualified to make a diagnosis and prescribe medication.

I hope you do fight back, it's disgraceful that they won't fill in a form for you. Even thought this should not need to be a fight

@Wishyouwerehere50

I have just found out that someone in the local CAMHS also works privately - I'm asking the school if they will accept her referral 😂

I had several people try and accuse me of having 'bought DD's diagnosis' and go into great detail about online meetings, drugging my child, chasing extra time, DLA and how unfair it is that we went private etc.

Ours was face to face, DD has has CAHMS involvement since she was 18 months old and 6/8 cousins are ADHD, ASD or both... diagnosed in 3 different countries and years apart.

Still get the odd person who acts as if stuffing stimulants into my child is some kind of fashion accessory! I am not entirely sure what huge advantage they seem to think we get... she already had all her access arrangements due to dyslexia since she was 7.

Anyone who knows DD well doesn't say things of that kind as it's horribly obvious that she's ADHD.

It's a familiar story.

We have an absolutely overwhelming genetic history on fathers side. My child has Autism, ADHD and Tourettes. THE SENCO at primary school went down the route of just blaming it as a behavioural problem, suggested I should not pursue a diagnosis and subsequently refused to include any useful information on the NHS assessment request form.
So the NHS refused to assess entirely.

The GP suggested a parenting course for me when I went to them.

My ex ( ND I now believe with certainty) with multiple obviously Autistic first relatives gaslit me and blocked the NHS assessment in tandem with the SENCO. I ended up in hospital as have severe chronic conditions and they just went nuts. I could not believe people could all do this.

This story is not uncommon. People are appalling when it suits their own interests and it's important to listen only to yourself and push through them all. They shut up once they know you are confident and won't back down.

You don't need to ask. I believe they are lying to you. They have no legal standing to dispute a diagnosis where the assessor has the right credentials and follows the correct process. A good assessor will write to them and challenge them and outdo them with their experts and qualifications on this. You add in legal support from SEN lawyers, you'll be laughing!

Just find your own assessor, the best you can afford and totally bypass the school! You can ask the assessor how they can help navigate the lack of support from school. Just forget them now, they're delaying and blocking and lying. You cannot trust anything they say. It's appalling.

Once you have a diagnostic report you can then start asking for some support in school based on disability status and according to their obligations under Equality Act legislation. Legal support can help you with this. They write letters and all sorts if you can afford it.

As the pareht of an adhd girl you are absolutely right to fight for this. Our school just did the form. Like you I didn't have 3 years to wait for cahms

@Wishyouwerehere50

It's funny - when looking over her reports from y3/4 so 5/6 years ago there was a comment in their I thought her dad had adhd - at that time even her dad didn't think he did - 5 years later he gets a diagnosis.

Sorry I only wanted to quote your second to last paragraph but can't see how to!

Not sure from your post if it's the school saying that, or the GP? Either way, the credibility of the provider is guaranteed if the provider is CQC registered and follows NICE guidelines.

There seems to be a huge push back in all directions, certainly where I live in the SW, when it comes to anything to do with ADHD. For example, all right to choose providers were put on hold for new referrals for about a year, and they now blanket refuse any shared care agreement for ADHD medication, yet you cannot get an appointment with the paediatrician to get it prescribed on the NHS!

@Warmautumnbreeze

School trust

Yr 8 for us and fully private. School weren’t officially involved, we had a referral from the GP instead as school hadn’t spotted anything at that point. We asked 2 core subject teachers to complete the questionnaire. One had no clue and said absolutely not, the other said that yes although doing well and perfect student they could see there were potential issues but unless grades fell substantially wouldn’t have highlighted them. 2 years on and getting a diagnosis has been really beneficial. DD understands so much more about why she does what she does and how best to make it work for her. She’s so far experienced none of the difficulties that my older and, at that point undiagnosed kids did. School have a copy of the diagnosis and exam concessions are currently being explored.

@Warmautumnbreeze that's a nightmare for parents. I'd really like my DD to not have to take meds. But she does. Her choice. She is much more focused on them but still all over the place at times. It's a 3 year wait for nhs here. Referred at end year 7 .. she's in year 10 and still waiting

Speaking as a teacher (in a school that would never behave like this I hope), I was asked to do one of these a while back (as a form tutor). I couldn't do it as I don't have the opportunity in form time (with 30 kids and material to deliver!) to observe anyone's behaviour unless it's really extreme.

But I did hunt down a subject teacher who knew the child better and we did it together.

I bet a subject teacher could help you. And if the SLT are arses, they probably will!

The HOY had offered to do it and was then essentially told she should not have said that and stopped from doing it.

Ask DD which subject teachers she gets on well with. Ask one of them.

If they agree a calms referral is needed, would they full in the calms forms? And then you share those with your private provider?

Calms seems to vary from area to area, but in my calms the school forms were pretty standard and the school bit was actually only the initial referral.

This is a really good point. Quote the SEND code to them and make a formal complaint

I would have the conversation with your provider. The assessment includes multiple elements and it is sometimes possible to reach a diagnostic outcome on the basis of the other elements, even if school reports are missing. (So long as evidence of difficulty in more than one setting and prior to age seven).

Do you have any copies of school reports - even from primary - that would provide evidence? It might be worth asking your provider if you can submit those.

Can they not fill the form for CAHMS and this can be used for the private referral? NHS are not obliged to do anything for private providers. Even medication will need to be privately prescribed as your GP doesn't have to enter into a shared care agreement.