The Local Health Board (LHB) is responsible for the assessment of children with suspected ASD and ADHD. Assessment is undertaken by the LHB through its Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ND)Team. A helpful factsheet provided by the LHB’s ND Team is attached. The LHB have indicated that they expect referrals to show that evidence has been gathered over time, which demonstrates how a child has been supported, and why an assessment by the ND Team may be appropriate. The factsheet also confirms that anyone can submit a referral to the ND Team and parents can, in some circumstances, choose to co-ordinate a referral if they are able to gather all the relevant evidence. The factsheet also contains some very helpful links.

If a school has a sufficient concern over a child’s functioning in areas such as socialisation, concentration, attention or behaviour it may consider referring them to Local Authority (LA) based professionals, for example, an educational psychologist or specialist teacher. The school would only make referrals to these professionals as part of a graduated approach to supporting the child and not solely to secure a referral to the LHB’s ND Team. If your child needs to be seen by an educational psychologist or be supported via a specialist teacher due to their needs then this is possible, and with your consent, any information that comes from this can be included with a referral to the LHB, by whoever is making that referral.

The school is not able to request educational psychology reports or specialist teacher input solely for the purpose of making a referral to the LHB’s ND Team. LA professionals are happy to provide comment on a child’s needs and how those needs might be addressed, but their role is to provide advice, guidance and support on functioning within an education setting. This information may form part of a referral but it will not be provided solely for the purpose of providing a recommendation for referral to that service. This is a LA decision based on the rationale that education services, including schools, are need led, not diagnosis led. Please find below a link to a video produced by the Local Authority that explains this approach:

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) support - Swansea