CSA have agreed SA is necessary

[coff33pot]

Received letter this morning saying the CSA have agreed to do SA on DS.

Ok had a coffee in the garden and got the tears out the way from both releif and that fact I always get emotional when I read something about DS. Sooo I am balanced again!

It says in the letter that the EP and the school doctor will contact me shortly about appts to assess DS and that I have the right to be informed about the assessments and be invited to discuss his needs.

Two questions please if someone could help

1. by the term invited to discuss would that be with the CSA or the EP and Doc.

2. DS has already been seen by an EP and they have had the report with the initial request.

Also he has been seen by a community pead which covers this area and schools on behalf of the LA. Do the CSA/LA need another assessment from the EP? If so they will be hard pushed as she has been sick since March and they dont have another. And would the Pead be the school doctor they are talking about? As there is no doctor attached to the school that I know of.

Firstly, whoo hoo!

I don't know what the CSA is? Some part of the LA I assume. When DS has his SA he saw lots of the same people again, the EP again, an LA Paed, not his own, Salt again and the autism advisory teaching service. The 2 schools both did more reports. But back then getting SA didn't seem so hard, not so many reports needed just to get them to agree to SA so some of your reports may be sufficient? Not sure, though. Good luck!

I am not much help but wanted to say I know what you mean about feeling the relief! I found out Wednesday the LEA will be doing SA on my DS and I was dancing all over the house! It was the first request we had made and was so sure it would be turned down first time (and even the school did) as the LEA are cutting back so much!!

We got a letter saying similar to you and they said all advice and reports would have to be in by 7th September and the EP will contact me and most probably see my DS in the holidays!

What I done was too called them and asked them for the deadline dates so I had a note of them as obvisouly they have deadlines to meet!!

Thanks both and thanks Ellen yes it is a BIG whoo hoooo!

CSA stands for Child Services Authority. And at the bottom of the letter it has Children, Schools and Families and is on Council headed paper. I am gathering that they must be the gateway to the LEA down here that does the initial decision making before forwarding to LA?

Anna85 That is great that the EP will see your DS in the holidays! as that will speed things up a bit for you!

In the letter it is telling me they will write to me with the outcome during the week ending 21 October and to keep sending any relevant info about his needs in the meantime if I have any.

Was hoping to have things all in place before school started and so was the school themselves but at least they have acknowledged that he may require support additional to what is in school and that is definately not to be sniffed at And seeing as the school delayed sending the request because of the EP being sick for months. It will probably be good to see an EP a second time as the first only saw him for his cognitive tests and didnt finish assessing him due to going sick. The head EP wrote the report on her behalf after being nagged to do something so at least DS will get a full assessment with proposals by the person that actually sees him.

The Pead said to me that he will get his statement as I was walking out the door from the appointment. I am hoping that they havent had her report yet and that she is the school doc in question as then it is only the EP to go through. DS cannot stand being assessed and flipped last time so the less he has to see the better.

We must be on similar timescales as any proposed statement will be made by 20th October!

Fingers crossed it will be a hug and a dance on that day then!

Well I got through to the CSA (Child Services Authority) who have said that the school doctor was the Pead that I just had appointment with they just havent got report yet. So that strikes that one out.

A new EP will be seeing me as I told them the other is off sick and has been since march and apparently there isnt another one so I was told. They have found one to deal with an assessment (amazing isnt it when they need something they find one but the school and myself were requesting for months with no joy saying there wasnt another employed )

So good news that there is only one report to go thank goodness as DS is getting quite shirty and seeing all these people and took the phone from my ear and said I am not seeing anyone else

That's good coff33. (with Baileys) It sure has changed from 7 years ago. Agreeing to assess was pretty straightforward, it was getting a Statement out of it that was the problem. Now they seem to have virtually done all the assessments before they agree to assess?! Weird.