At times school may ask for additional advice from an outside agency. The term outside agency means any professional who doesn’t work as a member of our staff. This could be the Educational Psychologist, the Speech and Language Therapist, the Occupational Therapist, the Physiotherapist, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service or the Autism Team.

Some of these services are directly commissioned by school, for instance, the Educational Psychologist and the Autism Advice Team. This means that the SENCO pays for the service from an allocated budget and organises who sees the professional and when.

Other services are part of the National Health Service and, although school can make referrals, each agency has its own threshold levels; will decide who gets seen and when and organises their own visit dates and timetable.

The SENCO is usually informed of this information. However, should you need to change a time of an appointment with one of these agencies then please contact the number on the letter which you will have received.

On occasion, the Local Authority may commission a specialist to provide support to a student. Additionally, parents may also privately pay for support from a qualified professional. As with all other agencies, school are happy to work closely with this specialist and as far as possible within a school setting, will follow any advice given in a written report.