Educational Psychologist needed?

[time4chocolate]

Hi All - We applied for a statutory assessment for our DS aged 9 (ASD) with the schools backing and we found out last week that they will not be assessing him (surprise surprise). Naturally we will be appealing this as this is the second time that we have been turned down, last time was 2 years ago and no progress made since then in any area. Anyway, thinking ahead to Appeal Tribunal and gathering extra info to put forward, would this be a good time to have an Educational Psychologists assessment done or should I leave this until later on when we will no doubt have to appeal the statement (assuming that we get this far). I am concerned that if we throw everything in the ring at this stage then we will have nothing further to offer at a later date. Any advice appreciated.

Good on you to decide to appeal their crass decision.

IPSEA have a useful pack on their website called Refusal to assess www.ipsea.org.uk.

Re an EP report, if this is a private based one (in that you've paid for it) some LEAs may not take much if any notice of it. I will stand corrected on that point though if others know differently.

The SEN COP specifically states

"7:16 Before deciding whether to make an assessment the LEA must issue a notice under
section 323(1) or 329A(3) of the Education Act 1996. The LEA:
...
ix. should tell parents that they may also provide any private advice or opinions, which
they have or can obtain, and that this advice will be taken into account."

But it is a 'should', not a 'must'.