trying to find an independent EP, any advice?

[JoMaman]

Our ABA programme is about to start and I am in the process of applying for SA, I am anticipating a tribunal based on experiences of others in my borough, and thus want to employ an EP to assess ds1 pre- and post-ABA.

I checked the MN archives for recommendations and so far have tried many of the names listed and had no luck: David Urani (booked up til December!), Gillian Willis (has stopped doing tribunal work) and Allan Willis' number doesn't work, Lisa Blakemore Brown, no contact details, Rosemary Thornton has retired.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

David Urani comes very highly recommended and I wouldn't mind waiting for December but will it be bad for the comparison if he only sees him once ABA has commenced?

TIA

We used David Urani.

He was excellent for us (tricky case - even he said that for most of the assessment he thought he was going to end up not being able to recommend ABA school for dd1 as she is seemingly so able to cope!).

He only saw dd1 well after any ABA work had started. We started with ABA (part time) at home when dd1 was 3.6ish, and Urani saw her in March of this year, when dd1 was 5.8

We had, in the meantime, our consultant's experience of dd1 and her progress, along with all the SA assessments, a BIBIC assessment, and reports form school too. the case we were building was to state that ABA was the only way dd1 was learning, and the contrast between LEA ed psych report on dd1 and her capabilities and Urani's report on dd1 and her capabilities said it all, really.

Our LEA settled before Tribunal in the end.

hth

Has anyone had any experience of Nigel Pierce in Lancashire?