How long should I waiting

[hannahpritchard1]

Hi I'm wondering if anybody could give me some advice. After a whole year of my daughter been in reception and been told not to worry about her even though I had concerns I was told after been in year 1 for 2 weeks that she was significantly behind her peers and needed to be refered for some extra help. We filled out the forms straight away but was told not to expect anything till after Christmas. However we still haven't had an assessment and the senco keeps telling me it's normal and should be seen soon. Am I right to be concerned that we are almost half way through the last school term and she still hasn't been seen. I really don't know how long it should take.
Thanks
Hannah

IT depends - who is she being referred to ?

Regardless of this, what have the school put in place to give her the support she needs, whilst she is sitting on this waiting list?
They should have written plans of how they are differentiating for her, and they should be reviewed regularly and new targets set. I would ask to see these in the first instance.

What forms did you fill in, and what assessment are they getting? If they're simply referring her to the educational psychologist, it may well take some time but it's absolutely right that they should be putting in quite heavy duty support. There should be some sort of plan setting out what her difficulties are and what strategies and help they are putting in place to meet them, and there should be an "Assess, Plan, Do, Review" cycle. That means they assess what her difficulties are, plan how to meet them, do what has been planned, and review how that is working before starting the cycle again. If she doesn't make progress they should look at making a formal request for an EHC needs assessment - and in fact if that is the case, if I were you I would make the request myself.

If they're in fact talking about making an application for an EHC needs assessment, then there is a time limit of 6 weeks from when the request was sent for the LA to write to you with their decision on the request.

I think you maybe need a meeting with the SENCO to establish precisely what is happening, what support they are putting in, whether she's making progress and whether that is progress that is closing the gap between your DD and the other children. If not, I would suggest getting that request for EHC assessment in yourself. There's information about the process on the SOS SEN website.