The Local Authority (LA) will write to you giving the decision of whether the Assessment will go ahead or not.
If you wrote to ask for the Assessment, then the Special Educational Needs Officer or one of her assistants based at County Hall will send this letter. If the Assessment is going ahead, then the Officer will inform you that the Educational Psychologist will be in touch to tell you the next part in the process.
If your letter came from your local Educational Psychologist as Named LA Officer, then your second letter will come from the same person.
If the Assessment is to go ahead, you will be told the reason for this decision.
The Educational Psychologist (as Named LA officer) will ask for reports from:
- you, the parents or carers
- your child’s school and/or the specialist support teacher who has worked with your child
- the school doctor or paediatrician (speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy reports will be collected by the doctor).
The Social Services Department will be asked if they have any information which relates to your child’s education and the Educational Psychologist will also write a report.
You can also ask other people to send reports if you wish.
You will be told about any special arrangements which are being made to allow the above people to write reports about your child. You will be told why, when and where the person (for example, the doctor or the educational psychologist) is seeing your child. You have the right to be present when your child is being seen. Sometimes a child may behave differently when a parent is present, so you may wish to discuss this with the people giving advice.
The Educational Psychologist will write to let you know when all the reports have been received and are being sent to the Officer based at County Hall. If there are any delays in reports being sent, the Educational Psychologist will send reminders to the people involved and keep you informed.
You will be sent copies of everyone’s report by the Officer based at County Hall when the Assessment is complete.
If the LA decides that an Assessment is not necessary, then you will receive a letter giving the reasons for this decision. The letter may explain what help your child should be receiving in school. This could include help provided by the school or by the support staff employed by Nottinghamshire LA. You should discuss your child’s needs with his/her teacher or school.
If you wrote to the LA and a decision was made not to assess your child, then you can appeal against this decision to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal.
