Moving back to the UK with a SEN child.

[Sun78]

Good evening all. I'm in need of some desperate advice please.

I have 2 DCs both on the Autism spectrum. Last year we moved abroad (with the intention of staying permanently), however it didn't work out and we came back to the UK a couple of months ago. However, our kids ASD diagnosis reports have been misplaced and the centre that originally issued the reports can't locate them either. The kids' previous UK schools are adamant that they dont have any paperwork for us either. We dont know how to start the DLA again, or what to do now. Can somebody please recommend what to do in this case. Who do I get in touch with?
After returning, we enrolled the kids in independent schools so they could receive more 1to1, so the current schools probably dont have any ideas on how to reinstate the DLA, or who to get in touch with for reassessment or obtaining any paperwork/proof of the kids' ASD ..
Any suggestions would be very helpful please. Has anyone gone through something similar.. ??? I'm so frustrated about losing such important piece of paperwork and not even having a copy... generally I have photocopies of 5 year old post office receipts as well... :-(

Make a doctor's appointment and tell the GP about what's happened...they will make an appointment for your children with an educational psychologist to be assessed.

Just a word of warning re. private schools and autism...if the schools are hot on academics, they may not be super helpful later on when the children are older.

Sometimes, state schools are better as a support system.

Thanks a million. I didn't think of the GP at all...! yes I'm beginning to think that independent schools do not pick on the SEN like the state schools would... its just so frustrating ...making the right decision and choosing the right school is a hard job and iv made some wrong choices like moving abroad :-( ..

You could also try doing a subject access request to the place that diagnosed your children and to the previous schools, as they will be legally obliged to search for any of their information - that might turn up the missing reports, but even if not, there might be clinical notes, emails, letters etc that might help to secure a confirmed diagnosis. Similarly, your new GP should have their medical notes - often, GP's will be sent copies of Ed Psych reports, diagnosis reports etc, so might be worth making an appointment at your GP's to look through your children's notes to see if there is anything helpful there - they can then copy anything useful for you.