Assessment pathway
In Devon, a disabled child or young person is eligible for an assessment if they:
- live in Devon
- are aged 0 – 18 years
and their daily life is substantially affected by a (one or more of the following):
- hearing impairment
- visual impairment
- learning disability
- physical disability
- chronic or life-limiting physical illness
- significant communication disorder (including autism, which substantially and adversely affects their ability to take part in normal day-to-day activities)
Parents, carers or any professional involved with the family, as well as the disabled young person themselves (providing they are over 16 years of age), can ask for an assessment if they feel that the above criteria apply.
Request an assessment
Requests for assessment of a disabled child will be considered by Children’s Services. We would generally expect a child to already have an established Early Help Assessment and Plan. If the child’s needs cannot be met at this level and through targeted support including:
- consultation and advice
- advice and practical help
- additional targeted help
then it would be appropriate to consider a referral to Children’s Social Care.
If you think your child is eligible for an assessment by the Disabled Children’s Service, you or a professional who knows your child (such as a teacher or someone at your child’s nursery, a health visitor, your GP or a support worker) should contact our pre-referral and assessment consultation (PAC) line on 01392 385276 (option 1) to discuss a request.
We support parents, carers and any professional involved with the family as well as the disabled young person themselves (providing they are over 16 years of age). You can ask for a pre-referral and assessment conversation, discuss the outcome of an assessment, or talk with us about options and what is accessible in your community.
Following this conversation, and to make a referral, you or a professional who knows your child well should complete the request for service form. It is important when making a request that consent is provided.
Once your referral form is received, the team will consider the information you have provided in order to identify the right pathway for your assessment or the signposting and support we can provide (or both).
The assessment process
We will identify a social care assessor or social worker who will contact you in order to start a Disabled Children’s Service assessment.
When we contact you, you can ask for an initial short online meeting, so you know who you are talking to and will be visiting you.
The social care assessor or social will arrange to visit and talk to you at home.
We recognise that this can be difficult, and we don’t want you to worry. We have outlined the main areas we will talk to you and others about in addition to other assessments and documents we will consider from our partners.
We will start by focusing on your child or young person to explore their strengths, interests and who is important to them. This includes friends or peers as well as their family and helps us to get a sense of their interests.
We will explore their diagnosed needs and, more importantly, the impact of these on their daily life, the support they need and what works for them.
We would like to explore with your child or young person what they might like to achieve and their goals. We understand that this is complicated for some children and young people, but we really want to understand what matters to them and their views, in any way they want to communicate these.
As children become older, we will start to ask different questions which will focus on their future as a young person and young adult. We want to support opportunities to develop new skills, networks and relationships.
We will talk about your child or young person’s education and health but where there are specific assessments or plans we will attach these to our assessment rather than asking you to repeat this information.
We will ask you about your family wellbeing and wider factors which impact on your family as we know the importance of this in supporting you and your family.
We explore your views and wishes which you want to share with us and offer a parent carer needs assessment. This can be part of the wider assessment or separate and helps us to look at what support might support your individual outcomes as a parent carer.
We will explore with you who is involved, supporting or helping your child or young person’s and your family. This helps us to understand if you have the right support in order to recommend other services or support which might be accessible.
Once we have gathered the information we feel is necessary we will reflect on this and consider a range of services and support which we believe is necessary to meet your identified needs.
We will consider who is best placed to support you. This may be through our partners, wider services and support provided by Devon County Council or through support provided by Disabled Children’s Service.
In some circumstances we may identify that additional support is required from our service. This could be services provided directly to you by Devon County Council in order to meet the identified needs and outcomes we have assessed as necessary to provide
We will send you a copy of the assessment and talk to you about what this means for your child and your family.
After your assessment
At the end of the assessment, we will consider the most appropriate options for you to access the social care support we have assessed as necessary to offer. Where we feel that these needs can be met within the community, we will be open and honest about how you can access this support and try to assist you in doing so.
In some cases, we may consider that a short-term plan is required. We will work with partners to consider your need and establish a plan which can continue to be provided by our early help partners. We know that many families benefit from early support which considers wider needs and the impact of these on you as a family.
Where we identify through our assessment that due to the complexity of your needs it is necessary to provide individual and specific specialist support, that cannot be provided by other services, and this relates to social care needs we will work with you and those who support your child and family to agree a plan. This plan maybe partially provided by Disabled Children’s Service.
If we provide a plan this may be through:
Short term intervention including wider targeted early help services – the lead professional will be the person named on your early help plan with Disabled Children’s Service offering specific support. This will be where we have identified a need which we feel can be met through specific targeted intervention as part of a wider early help plan.
Medium term intervention in partnership with early help targeted services – we will help where needed to develop an early help assessment and plan as well as identifying a lead professional. We will be part of the group supporting you to achieve your outcomes.
However, we will not lead the early help planning for more than 12 weeks. We know that consistency is important to you. We will therefore work together so that you have an identify a lead professional as soon as possible.
Long term needs supported in partnership with early help and targeted services – long term needs, intervention and provision identified through the assessment will be carefully considered to explore the type of services and support which matter to your family and if this can be included in your plan.
We will work with you to consider how you access support in order to meet your identified outcomes.
This may include consideration of direct payments which give you more control and greater choice over how social care needs are met for children and young people with SEND.