Educational Psychology Assessments
Chiswick, West London
Our Educational Psychology Team are skilled assessors who have extensive training in relation to all areas of a child’s learning. An Educational Psychology Assessment can contribute to the identification of factors which may be hindering your child’s learning and participation in school and other activities.
If you have any concerns about your child’s learning, or their school progress, an Educational Psychology Assessment can help to put a comprehensive plan in place, encouraging your child to reach their full potential. We can provide an assessment to children aged 6 and over.
Why might I see a private Educational Psychologist?
All schools should have access to an Educational Psychologist who can provide an assessment and support should there be any concerns about your child’s learning and/or behaviour in the classroom. It is always advisable to first speak with your school about any of your concerns and assess what support they can offer you, and what the time frame for this would be. Unfortunately this can sometimes take a long time and for this reason, many families seek the support of a private Educational Psychological Assessment.
When there are concerns about learning, the sooner your child can access the appropriate support required, the better and the more successful the interventions will be. If applying for an Education Health and Care Plan for your child, at times an Educational Psychology report may be needed.
What can an Educational Psychology Assessment help with?
• If you are concerned about your child’s progress at school
• If your child is becoming anxious about learning
• If your child’s academic progress continues to be below age related expectations despite them receiving additional support
• If your child has specific literacy or numeracy difficulties
• If your child has language and communication difficulties
• If your child has attention and concentration difficulties
• If your child is struggling to remember information
• If you want to find out if your child may have a specific learning difficulty, such as Dyslexia or Dyscalculia
*Please note an Educational Psychologist cannot formally diagnose ADHD or Autism. Their tests used can determine whether there are indications of this present, but for a formal diagnosis, this would need to be a separate and different type of assessment.
The Assessment process
All children are treated as individuals, with their own unique qualities and the assessment process will vary slightly dependent on each child and their needs. Once you have contacted us, we will book your child in for an assessment in our clinic, which tends to last around 2 hours.
A day or so before the clinic appointment, our Psychologist will arrange a telephone call with you to speak more about your child ahead of meeting with them.
A variety of formal standardised tests will be used during the assessment, depending on your child’s age and need. After the assessment, the Psychologist will provide verbal feedback. The formal report is sent to families within 21 working days, detailing the findings, next steps and providing advice on how parents/carers and schools might help your child to learn and develop, as well as recommended methods and strategies to help them learn more effectively. Strategies may include teaching approaches, changes to learning environments, behaviour support and advice about programs for additional support.
Please note, the report provided is a standard report. It can be used if you are in the process of applying for an EHCP, however would not be suitable to be used towards an EHC Needs Assessment. We also do not provide Tribunal reports; you would need a specialist SENDIST EP for this.
Our Educational Psychology Assessments our provided in our calm and welcoming therapy rooms, to help children and young people feel at ease.
Types of Assessments and Fees
Standard Assessment and Report: This is the most commonly booked assessment, and will provide an understanding of your child’s learning needs, as well as assessing for any Specific Learning Difficulties. The cost of this assessment is £895, which includes an initial telephone call with the Psychologist, the formal assessment, verbal feedback and the report.
This assessment is suitable for those wanting to apply for an EHCP.
Appeals and Tribunals: The standard assessment and report can also be used for appeals and tribunals, however please note, it is not written as a legal document and our Psychologists are unable to attend tribunals. Although a standard report can usually be used as evidence, it is important to check with your solicitor or educational advocate first, to see if a legal document is required. In most cases, for example, if your initial EHCP application was rejected and you are appealing this, a standard report will suffice. However, for more complex cases, or if you require a legal document for your appeal, then you would need to commission a ‘SENDIST EP’ or a ‘MEDICO LEGAL EP’ for this.
EHCNA-like Report / EHCP Update Reports: If you have applied for an EHCP for your child, and this has been initially accepted, the local authority then will carry out an ‘Educational Health Care Needs Assessment’ as the next step. This assessment will then determine whether your child will be given an EHCP. Only a local authority can carry this out and make this decision, however, at times, if there are delays within the local authority, some families choose to pursue a private assessment. It is important to note, that this assessment is not the legal EHCNA assessment, as only the local authority can carry this out, but the report is written in exactly the same way, including detailing quantified provision that your child requires. A private report of this kind should enable the local authority to have more information so they do not need to fully re-assess and may speed up the approval process, however it is up to each individual authority whether they will accept a private report. Please always speak to your EHCP representative before booking.
This type of assessment is also useful for families who are wanting their child’s EHCP updated and want an independent perspective on outcomes and provisions.
The assessment itself is the same as the standard assessment, but would also include an additional telephone call with parents / carers to gain more information and the report would be written in a very different way. The cost of this assessment is £1050.
Update Assessments: An Educational Psychology update assessment is for those who have had a full Educational Psychology assessment in the last 12-24 months and do not yet need a full re-assessment. An update assessment would re-assess areas that were identified as areas of need, as well as any other areas as determined by the Educational Psychologist, to demonstrate progress or lack there of. Additionally, the update assessment would include any additional recommendations for continued support and intervention.
An update assessment is ideal for those who are applying for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) who have already had a full assessment, but require an assessment to be conducted within the past 12 months. Also if you feel your child’s profile has changed following intervention recommended on the original assessment, an update assessment can help inform the continuation of any school-based individual support plan.
The cost of an update assessment is £450. Please note this service is only available for clients who have had an assessment previously within our clinic.
If your child has last been assessed 2 or more years ago, it is recommended to complete a full Educational Psychology assessment.
If you are looking for a more in-depth cognitive assessment, we also offer Neuropsychology Assessments within our clinic. Please see here for more information.
Our Educational Psychology Assessments are provided by our HCPC Registered Clinicians, Julia Anderson: Registration PYL38358 and Michael Rance: Registration PYL20275