Reassessment?

[Anotherlongdrive]

Hi all

My son was diagnosed with HFA 4 years ago. His school has a 'learning officer', which from what I can gather is the new version of the SENCO. She suggested i try and get a reassessment of him, she feels he needs further support in school. His symptoms, especially melt downs have got worse recently. To the point he is having panic attacks going into school.

She dropped this on me today. I was a bit shocked. Came a home and googled wether he can be reassessed and cant find anything.

Is a reassessment possible? Does it take as along as the original assesment?

Thanks. I am finding it hard. Very emotional and in shock and cant speak to her until tomorrow. Any advice or links would be appreciated

Forgot to say. His current support is slim to none. The learning officer runs sessions for kids with extra needs. This can be anything from children with autisim to kids struggling to deal with their parents divorce. They take them out of the classroom and do therapy through play and have support staff available for them to talk to during that time. But as its very generic he doesnt benefit much. It seems to be more aimed at children with anxiety.

Hi op,

Am i right in assuming your child has an ehcp?

You absolutely can ask for a reassessment if needs have changed. I would ask for an emergency ehcp review and ask the local authority to attend. Make them aware what has changed and that the school feels more support is now needed, specify what support is required, the school will have to submit evidence. The local authority will decidee whether to access or not. They can also award extra funding without a reassessment depending on the reports submitted (this happened in our case).

If i where you i would contact your local send iass. They would be able to arrange an emergency review for you (though the school should know how to do this) and also support you through your options. They would also be able to attend the meeting with you.

A reassessment would take upto 20 weeks. The local authority also has 2 weeks to respond to you whether or not they intend to access. Often these timescales are abused by the la. Your local send iass is good to have on side to chase things up.

Sossen and ipsea can also advise if you need further support going forward.

Good luck x

Hi, thank you. Yes he does.

He has been fine and functioning quite well.

I think the problems he has are my fault, so not sure if they will reassess.

I left his father 3 years ago. He was abusive and raped me. We lived on a friends couch for a few months until I sorted us a house. I was lucky that I had plenty of savings.

His father doesnt bother with him really. Police couldn't do anything about the rape, my fault as I left it too long. I tried to prevent exh having contact but I visited 3 solicitors who said I wouldnt win and SS supported exh. I think me leaving and him not having much contact with his dad seems to have made him worse.

I stopped speaking to my parents as they felt me leaving was an over reaction and said I would ruin his life.

Perhaps they are right and this is mental health issues instead? I should have stayed as he was so doing so well. When I first left he was ok for a while. The downturn seems to have been since his dad stopped bothering.

I will contact send iass tomorrow. Thank you.

Regardless of fault (and it wasn't yours btw )- please get him reassessed. If the school feels he could do with more funding then it will be beneficial all round. It will help your DS with his emotions and the school will be better equipped to deal with it which in turn will have a positive effect at home.

Can you contact the paediatrician who diagnosed him or the trust? Autism is an umbrella term and lots of other things can come under it.

Is she talking about reassessment of medical needs (via the NHS) or reassessment of educational needs.. Our experience with the former is that once an ASC diagnosis has been given then CAMHS will place all mental health issues under this umbrella and offer very limited support or advice. On the other hand we have found it useful to have reassessment of needs at school and an EHCP issued to give extra support at school. Contrary to the opinion of some teachers the most effective way to get more support at school is from the educational services - CAMHS can offer advice (if you are lucky) but not funding. One thing to ask the SENCO in the short-term is to call in an educational psychologist for advice on strategies that the teachers can use in the classroom to lower your ds's anxieties.