Independent Assessments

Parents and schools often contact us requesting that we complete a one-off psychological assessment of a child or young person. This can be to help a child academically, socially, emotionally or behaviourally, and schools and parents then use our assessment reports to implement a structured intervention and support package.

EPs usually complete assessments in the following areas:

  • Learning difficulties
  • Literacy and numeracy
  • Social needs
  • Emotional difficulties
  • Behavioural concerns
  • Low motivation
  • Underachieving academic performance

If your child's needs are in these areas, you are welcome to contact us using the form below. Our usual process is to:

  • Ask you whether you've contacted your school's SENCo to see if you meet criteria for a referral to a local authority EP (local authority EP services are often free at point of delivery)
  • If you would like to commission an EdPsychs' assessment, we will ask you to complete a school and family questionnaire and an EdPsychs' referral form.
  • Discuss your child's needs in more detail with you. If we feel that an EP can help, we will agree a mutually convenient assessment date and location (either at our office in Harley Street, your home or in a school)

Our assessments

Our assessments are detailed and the reports are very clear, informative and comprehensive. Although each EP has their own areas of expertise (and we will carefully match you to the right type of EP), most EP assessments will:

  • Focus on the child's perception of self and school
  • Contain a range of assessment information (which can be standardised, quantitative and/or qualitative)
  • Have a detailed summary of strengths and needs
  • Have a detailed intervention plan
  • Have areas for the family, school and child to work on and develop 

Assessment fees

Our standard assessment costs £900.

Assessments where the psychologist is exploring whether a diagnosis of dyslexia or dyscalculia is appropriate should have at least a year of targeted support in place in literacy or numeracy prior to assessment.

If you would like John Hepburn, Company Director, to personally complete an assessment this will need to be commissioned in advance as there is usually a waiting time of several months. The fee for this assessment is £1360 and assessments are completed at Harley Street.

If we are completing work towards an assessment for an EHCP, this usually takes two days of EP time and costs £1360. This type of support will always be completed in the school, and requires an initial meeting with the school SENCo or Inclusion Manager, file review and evidence of a thorough 'plan, do, review' process before any assessments can occur.

EP integrity

As always, we provide an independent professional view and parents and schools should be aware that we do not take on cases where a parent or a school actually wants a specific result or viewpoint.

The psychologist will always provide their own professional viewpoint within HCPC and BPS criteria and guidelines and is commissioned within this over-riding service agreement.

Areas our EPs do not assess

We often receive requests from parents who would like an assessment of autism, ADHD, ADD, conduct disorders or attachment disorders. These are areas that a clinical psychologist or community paediatrics would normally assess, and as such parents are advised to visit their family GP or ask the school SENCo to make a referral to the appropriate service.

As a rule we do not see cases that appear to be primarily psychiatric in nature, but we may provide assessments and support for children who are being supported by a psychiatrist or CAMHs team with careful negotiation.

Generally speaking, most EPs who support us also do not diagnose dyspraxia (please refer to an Occupational Therapist, again through your family GP or the school SENCo).

Medico-Legal work

We also receive many requests from parents and lawyers seeking medico-legal reports. Although our assessments and reports are very comprehensive and thorough (which is why so many services request them), we do not specialise in this area, but we can put parents in touch with excellent medico-legal lawyers and support services and psychologists we use when we need expert witness work and tribunal reports completed. 

In such circumstances, parents can also source an appropriately skilled EP by looking at

  • The British Psychological Society website at www.bps.org.uk or
  • The Association of Child Psychologists in Private Practice (ACHiPPP) website at www.achippp.org.uk

Assessment timescales

It should be noted that we are usually very busy, and our assessment time is very limited.

Our general waiting list extends to around three to four months unless you are on our priority service list (this is for previous clients and schools with existing EdPsychs' contracts who need additional assessment time).

Would you like to learn more about our services?

If so, we'd love to hear from you ...