Statement - wait or apply (relocating to a different county)

[dev9aug]

DS 2.8 GDD ASD is currently under the care of Neuro Paed and has been referred by her to the LEA EP.. I had been planning to apply for a statement but we got a letter recently where It states that he is on the waiting list for an EP assessment.

Another thing is that we are in the process of moving to another county for 6 months, possibly upto a year but will be keeping our old address as we want to be able to see the Paed's for DS1 & DS2 for as long as possible as it took a long time for us to find someone decent.

So my questions are these..

1. Should we be applying for a SA even though he has been referred to the EP or wait for their assessment first.

2. should we tell the existing council that we are moving now or wait for the EP's assessment.

3. Do you get referred to the local hospital if you register with the local GP's surgery?

TIA

Bump.....

I am no expert since it is years since we applied for ds's statement, but given the time both statements and EP assessments take, I would apply for statement now. EP will probably be doing assessment for statement anyway. Given your ds's dx I would have thought that you don't need to wait for EP assessment to know that he will need a statement.

Really don't know answer to q.2
In theory GP should give you choice of hospital which should mean you can choose existing paed. There are some specialities to which choice doesn't apply but I don't think paediatrics is one. Sorry that's a bit vague. NHS website should clarify choice thing and what difference NHS changes will make (if any).