AIBU re Ed Psych

[keepyourmouthshutox]

HI,

I employed an ed psych to assess ds at school. At the time of appointment, ed psych wrote and gave me a provisional appointment and time when she would assess ds. In the letter, she also stated that post assessment, she usually invites parents into school to have a chat. School was very reluctant to give permission but appx 1 week before ed psych was due in, I got verbal agreement from school that they would allow ed psych in.

In the meantime, I misplaced the letter and emailed ed psych to ask what time she was going to go in etc. No reply. I thought it was all part of the game plan not to give too much information so I can't really tell the school anything (In one of her emails to me, she said to give as little information as possible). I thought she might call me in the morning of the assessment. No call.

Anyway, by the end of the school day, I thought she might not have gone into school but TA said she did. I waited for EP to call but no call. 5 days later, she said that she had left a message but did not hear from dp so had written her report without input from us. She also could not see any previous assessments as school did not have our permission to show it to her.

AIBU to expect more contact from someone who is charging me a lot of money? At least a reply to my email? Or to email me when we did not reply to her voicemail (ds has been chucking phones). EP did say that email was best method of contact afterall.

Okay, rant over. Sorry for the long post. Will call her on Monday. Btw, she was an EP recommended by a charity I really respect.

Did she leave a message? I'm confused.If you are saying that she didn't leave a message and that she went into school despite your attempts to contact her and arrange to meet her, then, yes, I would be annoyed.

To be honest, I would not have let her go in unless I knew precisely when she was going and when I was supposed to see her. Could you not have telephoned her?

Did you email or call her again after her visit when you found out from the TA she had been in to discuss it? Or did you wait for her to call you?

This is not meant to be critical although I appreciate it might sound that way. I have just learnt that these people are busy and they haven't got time to chase and remind you about times and dates or use alternative methods of communication in case you didn't get their intial measure. They will tell you - once - and leave it with you.

She will clearly provide a copy of the report to you for your comment and you can ask yo input then too. I don't know whether that will change her conclusions.

It is a nuisance that consent for her to have access to your son's file wasn't obtained and she should have flagged that up to you prior to the event.

I do feel your frustration. I have to comment on my son's draft statement by next week and we saw an EP three weeks ago and are still without a report from her. When I chased her, she said she still hasn't had a report back from the school.

Not sure when she was going to tell me that if I hadn't chased

Bottomline, you often have to chase to get things done as if they're any good, these people are busy.

She had arranged a provisional date but we had to get school's permission. I emailed her when we finally got permission and asked her what time she was planning to go in. We did not get a reply.

Like I said, we did think of calling her when she did not reply to email but thought that she was withholding that information till the last minute so as not to pre-warn school.

However, after the visit, we were a little perplexed by the whole thing and thought she would contact us. We did not try to contact her. I suppose, in hindsight, we should try to call her and ask to clarify the situation.

Maybe she thought that after paying 50% upfront, we we decided not to go ahead? Found her first letter today and I noticed that it states payment in full on day of assessment. That being the case, I would have thought her office would contact to confirm we would be there with (big, by my standard) payment. Her letter did say she was going to invite us to have a chat with her post assessment - no invitation was received.

Problem is - I had delegated this bit to dh and he had fully expected reply to email or do the male thing and wait!

Yes, she should have got all the consents before she went - would have thought that should have been standard practice, especially with her experience.

Anyway, she did say I could give her copies of assessments and other tests and she would make appropriate comments on the report.

I would have liked to know what she looked like though .

Sounds like a breakdown in communication. It is hard when you haven't been through a process like this as you think, quite rightly, that paying will improve 'customer care'. My experience is that it doesn't necessarily and you have to be just as proactive and pushy as with NHS 'experts' etc.

Our EP wanted 50% up front too and I was a little peeved when she cashed the cheque immediately as it was alot of money and I don't see many professions where you get paid before you have done anything. Must be standard practice.

It all hinges on the terms of the contract you had with the EP.

Terms can be verbally stated as well as written terms.

If you and she had agreed a particular approach and she tehn did something else and the end result will be a report that is not informed by the information school are holding - then it's not the fully informed report you could reasonably expect given the terms you had agreed with her.

If you withold the final 50% she'll probably try to recover it through the courts.

I would suggest that you contact her, ask her to agree to rewrite those parts of the report once she has seen his school file and meanwhile get yourself a copy of his school file and send it to her.

Worth a try.

Sausage will try that.

She did say that perhaps now I would like her to include his assessments and tests and look at her draft report first.

Hope to get it sorted out tomorrow. She was highly recommended and on telephone suggested tactics etc re tribunal.

I did suggest EP as a career to older ds though...