Neurodevelopmental services

Referral for NHS assessment

If your GP decides that your child needs to be referred to a neurodevelopmental team, they will contact your local NHS team.

Supporting evidence

Your GP will need to tell the neurodevelopmental team about:

Your concerns about your child and what you’ve observed
Their observations of your child’s development and behaviour

Your GP will need information from your child’s place of learning. They might ask you to get this information or contact the school directly.

Review

The neurodevelopmental team will review all of this information. The team will decide whether there is evidence that your child needs a neurodevelopmental assessment.

If the referral for assessment is accepted

If the neurodevelopmental team decides that your child needs an assessment, they will add your child to the waiting list.

Unfortunately, the waiting list is long. The neurodevelopmental team will put you in contact with Family Action, who can support you while you wait for the assessment.

While you're waiting, you can also:

If the referral for assessment is not accepted

The neurodevelopmental team might:

Need more evidence to decide if your child needs a neurodevelopmental assessment
Decide your child does not need a neurodevelopmental assessment

If the team needs more evidence, they will send a letter to you and your GP asking for more information.

If the team decides that your child does not need an assessment, they will send you a letter to tell you this. The letter will include information about other services that may be able to support your child.

Your child will still be able to get special educational needs support at their place of learning.

You might want to look at the support available from other organisations, talk to your GP or talk to the healthy child programme team.

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