ASD assessment anyone gone private?

[Kbel71]

I’m so frustrated and don’t know where to go from here. My daughter (now 8) has had sensory problems since I can remember. When she was nearly 6 I asked the dr to refer her who said it was the schools responsibility, I spoke with the senco who said she would send the referral and agreed she could wear her own clothes (which she still does) could have a chewy necklace (lasted 2 weeks, because of covid she had to put it in a pot and ask for it the next day and the t.a kept telling her she didn’t need it so she gave up asking) and would arrange for sensory breaks, which never happened.
6 months later that senco teacher left and turned out she never sent the referral, the school didn’t have a senco in place so I again went to the dr. They did refer her to occupational therapy but because of covid we just recieved a generic video explaining what it is.
Last year things where getting worse, aswell as the sensory problems I began realising that a lot of her other behaviours and ‘quirks’ could be ASD. The school where ‘borrowing’ a senco from another local school one day a week so I had a meeting with her and she said she had sent a referral and it would be 18 month waiting list.
Fast forward to now, The school have a full time senco now, I have met with her and she is lovely but the previous senco also didn’t do the referral. This new lady is so apologetic and filled out the form with me and emailed it off straight away but I can’t bare the thought of waiting so long again. I honestly could have cried. I’m thinking of maybe going private which I really can’t afford so would have to borrow the money, I’ve heard alot of places only except an nhs diagnosis (if she even gets one) have any of you gone private or is it worth just waiting again?

By places I assume you mean the LA and school, they can’t refuse to accept a private diagnosis just because it is private. The validity of a private assessment is less likely to be questioned if the assessment follows NICE guidelines and the person you use does or has previously done NHS work.

If you are going to go private Caudwell Children offer reduced price assessment if your income is less than £45k.

Never had an issue getting DD2's private report accepted. She was polite, well behaved in school and so unlikely to get any bloody input through the state system (and so incredibly rigid and anxious about following rules). Only thing I had was a call from the GP to talk through the report, compliment us on how thorough it was, and see if there was any additional support they could offer us.

We had a similar experience to @CoffeeWithCheese. In our case because, it was early 2020, nothing was open to refer her to anyway. I'm now trying to get her into the NHS system. We've spent over £5k so far on assessment and various therapies.

Schools don't generally do much unless you make them. And I say that as a teacher!

It was worth it for us. Whereabouts in the country are you?