LA have said DD will need to be seen by a Medical Officer

[Eveiebaby]

LA has agreed to assess DD (3.9 ASD) for a statement. They said they will need a report from a medical officer. Can anybody tell me who a medical officer is and how he will examine DD. Thanks

LAs have to seek medical advice as part of stat assessment. DS was seen by a paed for about an hour, just to look over previous reports and do basic checks on weight, height, hearing. It was fairly straightforward in our case, a bit of tick boxing really as DS doesn't have medical issues as such.

I think it very much depends, Eviebaby. DD1 already sees a Paediatrician every 4 months or so, so he took over the role of Medical Officer from the person who usually does it, because it made sense - he already knows her.

So, if you already see a Paed regularly, your paed might write the report. If not, your DD will be called to an appointment with a Paed for assessment. But as sugarcandymountain says, it will just be general stuff. (Our Ed psych report was 8 pages, the Paed report was 1½ pages - Ed psych saw us once, Paed sees us every 4 months )

we didn't have a sep assessment either - they wrote to the gp i think, but dd2 doesn't really see the gp, just the paed, so we supplied existing reports.

as lou says, it's basic stuff on the 'official' MO questionnaire... much better to supply reports you might have already on file as supporting evidence.

Evie

In teh letter you received from the LA telling you that they intended to assess it will have asked you to name anyone that you want the LA to contact to seek advce from about your child.

Please make sure you list everyone that your child currently sees - i.e. their current Paed etc. Don't assume the LA will automatocally contact them - they won't. But they must contact everyone that you name.
That's important.

Best wishes

Agree with the others. The assessment letter is usually computer generated, so the wording is a bit one-size-fits-all and can be a bit puzzling. DD1's talked about an "assessment place" when there was no way on God's Green she was not going to get a statement and no way she would end up in any other setting than the one that was technically "assessing" her; everyone involved knew it was just bureaucracy, it was "her" school from the day she turned up aged 2 1/2. Sorry, I digress. What I mean is "a report from a medical officer" is a standard phrase which means different things based on the child's history and can just mean they fire off a standard letter to her regular paed and he fires off a standard letter back.

But - agree w WA - make sure you give them the names of all the "right" people. They are more than capable of contacting the wrong ones.

Thank you all ever so much for your responses. DD was only diagnosed last December and we are due to see paed for progress update in June - maybe this will be brought forward. Paed has never given DD a thorough medical check this is on his list to do at the appointment we should receive for June although she did have a hearing test last week which was clear (but this was only because Ed Psch said we should have her hearing checked).
Thanks WA and R3 - When I received the first correspondence from LA saying they were deciding whether to carry out an assessment or not I did list people I thought they should contact such as Paed and SLT, however, it was only an afterthough to be honest because I thought they would anyway. But as I now know you should never assume in the statmenting process! I also need to give my views yet again as to why I think DD needs support. I have already done this but will do again just as they have requested. I am quickly learning mostly due to MN and all the knowlegable mums who very kindly take the time to give advice.

I am also a bit hacked off with Parentpartnership who have invited me to a meeting about the statmenting process with just three days notice. I will be declining as although DD is everything to me I do have a life and cannot just drop everything to turn up at short notice to a meeting. It seems to be a group meeting to give advice to all parents going through the statementing process but like I have said I think I have learnt a lot from MN so I would probably not be missing out anyway!

Just a word of caution about Parent Partnership:

They are funded by the Local Authorities.

While some may be excellent other PP groups are not so 'independant' of their LA. It may stem from the fact that they deal with the same LA education officers all the time so have lost a little of their impartiality.

Just treat what PP tell you with a degree of caution.

Thanks WA - that had crossed my mind - ours are located in LA offices, paid by LA, and to be quite honest were quite useless when school applied to get exceptional funding for DD (which has sadly been refused 3 times). The manager at PP tried to fob me off by telling me I had no worries as her school were doing their absolute best for DD and was then forced to admit that she did not know what strategies her nursery were providing!!!

Luckily DD is at an excellent nursery with great staff who have much experience with special needs. They gave DD tremendous support in her first half term. Unfortunatley it is unrealistic for them to provide so much support continiously which is why we were hoping to get funding from LA but like I mentioned it was refused. We are now hoping for some sort of support come September when DD starts reception.

So much for early intervention. It is all so rubbish why can't they help DD now. She is only 3.9 months so why wait until she is 4.3 when a whole six months in her crucial development have just passed on buy. I am cross so will sign off now!