Assessment, time Frame?

[Bizzysocks]

My 5 year old son has been referred by the GP to Healthy Young Minds / CAMHS back in June. They contacted me to say he will likely receive an appointment at the end of October.

From this initial meeting do you have any idea of how long it will be until he be assessed to see if he has autism or Adhd or ODD.

My reason for asking is he has had three 1 day exclusions from school, and I don't think the school will be making adjustments for him until he has a diagnosis. I think as this will be the evidence they need for the council to provide extra funding for a one to one.

No idea, I'm afraid, it probably differs between different areas. But if there is any sign of the exclusions continuing I would suggest that you talk seriously to the school about whether they should be applying for an EHC needs assessment. For a 5 year old to be excluded three times, that's a pretty strong indicator that the school is not meeting his needs.

Don't wait for a diagnosis, apply for ehcp now. We got told to wait till diagnosis as we would get turned down without, so we did and still got turned down anyway, and said his was with a diagnosis and having had exclusions. You will prob get turned down for assessment whatever but once your into the process and appeals, it takes so long you may get up with a diagnosis in during the process

Your appointment in October is presumably an initial triage meeting. It can take another 14 weeks in our area for sufficient observations and evidence gathering to be done, to support diagnosis. You will need to ask your CAMHS how they do it to get an idea of timings, but don't expect anything to be quick.

SEN Support at school should not be linked to diagnosis. Book a call with IPSEA and book yourself on to one of their foundation law courses. You should probably write to the school SENCO quoting the relevant paragraphs from the SEN Code of Practice that they should put support in place. I assume that they have given you evidence of unacceptable behaviour. You can use the same list in your letter as "evidence of unmet needs" and things which are "limiting his access to the curriculum". You then ask what support they will be putting in place. The funding is up to them to sort with the LA. If your letter doesn't prompt action you need to escalate a complaint up through the head teacher and then governors to try to get things moving. If you can go through that process at the same time as the diagnosis pathway, then you could be ready to apply for an EHCP as soon as that paperwork comes through. Keep good records of all meetings/paperwork/phone calls. Correspond with the school in writing. Check that your son is on the SEN Register/SEN Support.

Thank you for the replies. I have looked up EHCP and saw that one of the evidence needed was from an education psychologist. School had a special needs teacher from the local special needs school come and write a report on DS2 in which she recommended a referral to the educational psychologist. The SENCO had told me this was only for children with academic problems such as dyslexia and as DS2 isn't behind academically she didn't think a referral was appropriate.

I called the local council Ed Psyc , who was great, her team will discuss with the school and ensure they understand that the Ed Pscy do cover challenging behaviour / social / emotional. And also discuss DS2 with the SENCO at their next meeting with a view to setting a date to meet DS. She said i can call her back if I'm not happy or have any questionstamps. So I am feeling more positive.

I will look up IPDEA next. And start making notes for the SENCO and his new teacher for when school starts back.

Thanks.

We had an ed psych report as part of ehcp application as I'd paid for a private one as part of diagnosis, but la do their own ed psych assessment as part of process so it's not essential to have one before. La could potentially use as a reason to refuse your request for assessment but it would not stand up on appeal. School have to pay for ed psych that's the main reason they are saying they don't think it's appropriate!!! I got fobbed off for best part of a year saying my son was on the waiting list.

Hello - just read your post. I would press ahead yourself with the EHCP process getting a diagnosis can take a long time and you might not get one for some time. I got a private EP report carried out and submitted it with my request for an assessment. School have continued to maintain that my DS age 7 now is at age appropriate levels academically (I disagree with this) but they did support my application although I did insist on reviewing all their correspondence with LA before they submitted it. The LA will request their own reports which will tend to say what they want. We still don't have a full diagnosis but do have an EHCP x

You should not have to pay for a private EP report (or have one carried out by the school) to support an EHCP application. A diagnosis is not necessary either, but frankly it does make the process a lot easier.

The way it worked for us was that we got the diagnosis and then I waited 4 months for the paper work, then I spent 3 months researching EHCP and how to apply. Our school said DS was too able to qualify for help so didn't help me with the application but were then stunned when we got the EHCP and top up funding....

If I were to do it again, I would start gathering evidence and understanding the EHCP process earlier to avoid wasting time. I could have had the application sorted ready to send off as soon as the diagnosis paperwork arrived. I did an IPSEA foundation law course (available online if you can't get to a session in person) which helped massively.

What also held things up for us was that it took ages for people to write supporting letters. When you see your professionals for diagnosis, make sure to ask them if they would support an EHCP and to put this in writing to you. Also if you see a SL&T for them to give you written advice for you to give to the school. I didn't know this was possible so it took 3-4 months after the diagnosis paper work for all this to arrive which delayed things as well.

If your diagnosis is delayed then (as above) you may be able to justify an EHCP depending on what evidence of "un-met needs" and how your DC is limited in their "access to the curriculum". As someone on here said to me it is all about "evidence, evidence, evidence". Learn the system and the jargon, and the application should work out whether or not you have a diagnosis.