Neurodiversity Assessment Pathway (NAP)

Assessments that we can undertake are:

• Robust, ethical, and compliant with NICE^[1] guidelines (these are national guidelines which lay out how assessment and intervention should be delivered based on the available evidence and is followed by the NHS).
• Our standard assessments include all three disciplines identified as necessary and essential by NICE (https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg128) for a robust assessment – Speech and Language Therapy, Paediatrics, and Psychology. All of our clinicians have extensive knowledge, skills and experience of working within the NHS and independent sector with children and young people with neurodiversity and mental health needs.
• Our assessments also include a school observation (if your child attends school) to establish their needs in a variety of settings.
• We are able to add in additional assessment according to the needs of your child, of which we would advise you in advance – this may be if there are additional complicating factors, or if sensory or learning needs require assessment.
• Our assessments aim to create an understanding of your child and provide recommendations appropriate to them.
• Every assessment receives a report containing:
  • A summary report section with a summary of our understanding and recommendations. This is aimed at professionals who may have less capacity to read in-depth reports as well as providing the family with a brief summary.
  • Each report then moves onto the comprehensive report section which details the evidence gathered within the assessment. Should you require evidence for example an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP), this report can be used to support this.

We have also recognised the great level of need for support whether or not your child meets the criteria for a diagnosis and have recently developed our Neurodiversity Support Packages, and more information about this will be released soon. In the meantime, please contact us for more information on our support packages.

What should I look out for when choosing my an ASD assessment for my child?

NICE publish guidelines for any clinical work within the UK (both NHS and private) based on extensive evidence and research. They state that for a child assessment there must be a medical opinion (Psychiatrist or Paediatrician), a psychological opinion (Clinical or Educational Psychologist) and a Speech and Language Therapist assessment. This is because there are so many other difficulties that can look like Autism, but these three areas of expertise are needed to cover the main ones. If any assessment you’re looking at does not have these 3 clinicians it is more likely that your child could have their needs missed, or be misdiagnosed. This would mean that support designed to support your child, might not meet their needs.

Sadly, this means that those assessments involving all 3 clinicians can be more expensive. Therefore, services appearing to offer cheaper assessments may not be following these guidelines. Many will offer ‘gold standard assessment’ which refers to some of the assessment tools used. However, at Psychology Associates, we both use those gold standard assessment tools but also ensure our assessments are NICE compliant with a Paediatric, Clinical Psychology and Speech and Language Therapists component in our assessments.

[1] National Institute for Health and Care Excellence