speech therapy in school prevented by doctor's surgery

[picturerail]

DS1 started Reception in September and I had a meeting today with the school SENCO to discuss his progress. Prior to starting school he had speech therapy sessions that he was referred to by our doctor & a paediatrician from the local health authority. The paediatrician, school and I are in agreement that he needs more speech therapy & also that he will benefit from being assessed by an educational psychologist as he may have other behavioural issues.

We live in the London area on the borders of two boroughs. The school is in one borough (where we live) and our doctor's surgery is based in the neighbouring borough (it is the same distance away as the school in the opposite direction) The SENCO has told me today that because our doctor is based in a different borough the speech therapist & educational psychologist attached to the school will not assess DS1.

The NHS trust for both boroughs is the same but apparently the Borough's Health Authority (not sure if this is the correct term?!) act independently. I asked whether this was a funding issue but she seemed to think that it wasn't & it is just the case that the two departments will not communicate when it comes to speech therapy/education psychology and that there is no way round the situation other than for us to change doctors.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or have any thoughts about it? I know the simple answer is for us to change doctors but I am loathe to do this as he is the doctor for the whole family and in the area we live in reliable/helpful doctors are difficult to find.

I think you need to call ed psych and speech therapy for yourself. You are being spun a line about changing dr. Educational psychologists are employed by the council and have nothing at all to do with the doctor's. They don't even send a copy of their report to the GP.

It may be that the NHS speech therapist you end up seeing relates to your address or doctor rather than the school, but that's no big deal so long as you see one. If your dc gets a statement, the council must fund the speech therapy until/unless the NHS volunteers to offer it.

If the school want your dc to see CAMHS because of asd or adhd assessments being needed, that's NHS and thus be affected by your address or your dr's address. But again, every area has one and they're usually run on similar lines.

We have similar GP in one borough, school and home address in another borough. Can only see Paed in the GP area, can only "get!!!" speech therapy from our address area, likewise OT. Currently they are arguing which CAMHS will see DD. We are London/Kent border. Ed Psych came into school when requested by school though with no concerns about where our GP was.

Your SENCO is wrong by the way - the speech therapy should be related to the area you live in. School should be able to refer you. Insist they do. Most definately I was not able to access speech therapy after we moved across the borough border and had to change to the new area, even though GP remained in the old area.

Yes! In my case because his school was in a different borough from my address and the doctors it cost us a good extra 18 months of waiting time to see the righ specialists.

In the meantime my kid "aged out" of several schemes of support and has failed 2 school placements. It's a total disgrace imho how they use a few yards to justify teflon shoulders.

If you can get home, school, GP all in the same authority early on, as it will really help avoid silly beauracratic tangles you just don't need. It's a very common reason for the authorities to evade responsibility. It is something I really wish I had known.