Writing off for a statotry assessment

[Mcgil]

I am writing off to the council for a assessment of my child's special educational needs.
Any advice on what I should put in.
I am desperate for my child to get the help put in place he needs

Is the school helping you? It would be good if you could work with them. Also be completely honest too, don't leave things out.
Maybe other parents will have had experience of this and can help you a bit more.

Good luck!

Hi McGill, in the first instance a letter asking for statutory assessment is all that's required. You need to outline what his needs are, include the details of all the professionals currently involved with him. They have six weeks in which to respond.

You will get absolutely loads of advice by reposting this in the special needs children area if the site. Lotsa of mums that have walked this walk before. Good luck

Thanks,
I have been to school and had meeting with SENCO, my son is on school action plus, but the school haven't put anything in place for him other than make teachers aware that he is ASD.
The school can't put in for assessment as they have no evidence as he only started September so been advised to do a parental one ourselves.

Thanks for that

We applied for ds2' ourselves in anticipation of him starting school, & once the wheels were in motion it made no difference, except I sent it off very quickly compared to waiting for the school.
Has he seen the Ed psych at all in school?

Agree with crumpled to post it in the sen area. Good luck!

Hi,

I have asked MNHQ to move this into special needs, as others have said.

If you are not doing this through school I would send copies of any reports from CAMHS, ed pyschs, Ots, speech and language etc. Basically, anyone who has seen your child and sent you a report. Also maybe some bullet points yourself about what you feel his needs are.

On the letter from the council there should be a number you can ring for advice, as well as the number for Parent Partnership.

Good luck.

Oh, school need 2 terms of showing how their interventions have worked or not. So if he started in September, they can do it after Easter. At least, this is how it works in my area.

Yeah seen EP in primary school, who referred to CAHMS, started secondary school September, diagnosed ASD November, so new school can't apply until Easter, so I am kick starting it my end. I do have all the speech therapy reports and CAHMS and assessments in primary school which I'm going to copy and send that in with my request, :-)

I would call the primary and ask them to send anything they have.

How were his needs met in Primary school? What is happening now?
It might help to consider how things differ now that he is in secondary, so that you can write about the difficulties he is now facing, and how he is responding to those difficulties.
Think about what works, and what isn't working, so that you can pin point some specific reasons why a Statutary Assessment should be carried out.

Slightly is right - you don't need to present all the evidence now, you just need to write to ask for a Statutory Assessment at this stage. They then start the procedures to gather evidence.
Your local Parent Partnership will help you if you need help with the wording, or with addresses etc.