Already have private diagnosis - should

[Macramepotholder]

*edited- apologies for the half finished subject line!

After struggling to get on the waiting list for ages we bit the bullet and paid for a private ASC assessment for DD10 last summer (with Lorna Wing Centre, unsurprisingly to anyone she's autistic). Healios have called today to offer an online assessment, which would be about 12 months after the last one.

Obviously we don't need the diagnosis now. But is it worth doing anyway? A year on we may get some more up to date information in the reports (and she has had some behaviour changes recently, becoming more volatile and oppositional)- and we're currently going through the EHCP process and I'm a bit concerned if we don't engage that might not look that great to the LA. Plus might give us some more fuel for the reports.

Is it worth doing the second assessment? It's also online which I have my concerns about but they don't kick you out if online won't work, you just get referred back in to the Borough service.

Has anyone else done this?

not a chance i’d turn it down personally

If it is specifically for a diagnostic autism assessment, since you already have a diagnosis from a well regarded service, they may not even carry out another assessment, so before thinking about it any further I would check with them. If you were happy with the existing assessment and diagnosis I wouldn’t carry on.

We have a private diagnosis but it's Gold Standard, multidisciplinary and according to NICE guidelines. No reason at all why it won't be 'accepted' therefore we wouldn't put our DD through another assessment again, even if we were offered.

Thanks for thoughts, I'll discuss with them once they've sent me the initial emails. It doesn't help that there doesn't seem to be an actual person at CAMHS/Healthcare to speak to.

I definitely would, unless I thought thr assessment would cause my child significant harm.