We've been asked by our Ed Psych to complete a Statutory Assessment for a child at our setting. As this is new territory for me I thought I'd ask you lovely people for any tips, pointers etc.

The ECM website seems to suggest that it is local authorities who do these now.

Every Child Matters

Cambridgeshire County Council have some help on their site

HI
I complete SAs all the time!!! The way it works where I work West Sussex) is that the Pre school panel agree for SA to be starrted and then the Education authority inform parents schools and agencies and ask for reports to be sent.

If the EP is asking you to complete the SA, it sounds like it's already underway, but is he asking you toinitiate one? Clarify procedure with him/her.

Any report that you write needs to be negative in a horrible way so that those 'who know better'!!!!! decide the child will neeed a statement.

Hope this is sort of? helpful.

I agree with the above in that it needs to be horrible and negative to ensure the help is given. I have only had experience of completing one but it flew in the face of everything we did in preschool where we looked for "can do" statements. Instead we had to explain what the child did not /could not do and it seemed very alien. Once we got past that it wasn't too hard but it did take a while to get to that.

Check with the SEN department at your local authority - ours gives out an A5 booklet that gives you a format.

I am amazed that you are being asked to request a statutory assessment without any guidance. If you are a pre-school setting you need to contact your Area Senco for advice, if you are in a school, your Senco should already know.
I was an Area Senco so have helped lots of settings with requests, and that is what you have to remember - it is a request to the LA and it is their decision whether a statutory assessment is appropriate or not. LAs vary on their criteria for carrying out an assessment and if they issue statements at all, as most give schools a budget for supporting children with SEN and some give more than others. A few LAs do not do assessments at all.
Nearly all have a form to use for the request, which needs to be completed as fully as possible. That is where the Area Senco advice comes in. All authorities I have known also require you to send in with the form evidence of the child having Individual Education Plans at Early Years Action Plus for a minimum of 6 months, which show the child still has not made progress despite this support. Also I have always advised that the more professionals you have 'on board', the more likely the LA to carry out an assessment - so get everyone you can think of to come and observe, so the list of external agencies is as long as possible.
I notice other posts have talked about being negative. It is true that you do have to write clearly and specifically what the needs of the child are and this does not come naturally (and can be very hard for parents to read). But you do still need to be honest!
You need to be sensitive to parents through this process and not promise anything. It is the LA who decide if an assessment is needed and they also decide if they should issue a statement, you cannot make that decision nor can the parents.
Hope you are getting the help you need.

Hi Gruffalo2 , welcome to this amazing forum, and thank you for those wise words. My Area Senco has been in and given me a blank form which we then went through together to discuss what is needed.

I know its nothing new but the timescale involved means this child will no longer be with us if and when a Statement is forthcoming, so we will not get any additional support or money for him. We, like everyone else, struggle on day by day and do the best we can with the staffing we have but it is flipping hard and definitely not in his best interests or the interests of all the other children in the setting...

Grumble over!

is there anyone who could help you with this - does he have any other agencies involved that could help you with this form -they can give you ideas on what you need to include etc
we did one for a hearing impaired child and recieved lots of help from the lady who visited her and us to support her / check her aids etc

Ironically the child goes to the local Child Dev Centre once a week and has done since September!

Do you have a copy of the SEN TOOLKIT?

...we were given ours by the Area SENCo team. It has several individual booklets in it including one about writing reports for Statutory Assessment - it's a lovely guide with headings to use and notes of what information to include under each....it really helped for my 1st report.

It was a very nerve wracking process and I felt very responsible for the child's future. The AREA SENco team were a great help and looked it over before it was submitted.

Hope this helps, good luck xx

p.s We received a written request, with a formal front sheet to complete and attach to the report, but this may be just our local authority's procedure.