If you are concerned that a child may have Autism, you should first discuss your concerns with any professionals already involved with the child such as their GP or school SENCO.

To find out more about our referral criteria, click here. If you would like to make a referral, you can download the referral form here.

The form has sections to be completed by parents and by professionals involved with the child. The form requires in-depth information and evidence over a 6 month period. This information is essential and a referral cannot be accepted without the correct information and evidence.

GPs are not expected to complete the form but may wish to provide parents with a referral letter. Once we receive that letter we will send parents a full referral form so that they can work in partnership with the school that the child is registered with and complete the form over time.

Yes, we accept children that are registered to a Solihull GP.

No. We can only accept children registered to a Solihull GP. Please see your GP who will be able to recommend how to seek an assessment in your area.

You may find our “Waiting for your Autism Assessment” page helpful where we regularly update our waiting list time.

Unfortunately, our administrators will not have any additional information as to when your child may be seen so please help us by not telephoning in with this question.

In the majority of cases, children are taken off the list in strict date order. In certain, specific circumstances a request may be made for an assessment to be prioritised, and this will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis in line with our prioritisation criteria. We are unable to respond to any individual requests for children to be moved up on the list or seen earlier/out of date order outside of these criteria.

Further information about our prioritisation framework can be found here.

If you have received a letter from us not accepting your referral then please read the letter carefully. It will tell you all the appropriate next steps in the letter.

Referrals into the service are triaged by clinicians to carefully consider all of the information presented by parents and professionals, and to make recommendations as to the most appropriate next steps. Not accepting does not mean that your child may not need an assessment, but it may mean we do not have all the information we require to accept a referral.

Firstly all referrals will need to be on a referral form. Our referral form gives guidance on the type of information we need to make a decision, you can download our referral form here.

Sometimes, a child may have seen a professional such as a GP or Paediatrician who has recommended the Specialist Assessment Service. After your appointment with that professional, the first step is to gather as much information as possible from home, school/nursery and other professionals. We will not accept any referral until we have all of this information on the correct referral form. Parents can take the referral form into school for support with gathering all the necessary information.

Your GP can start the referral process by writing us a clinical letter and then we will make sure that you receive our referral form to complete in partnership with your child’s school.

If after you have provided the additional information we requested, your child is still not accepted, it is because the additional information indicates that this is not the most appropriate next step for your child .

Sometimes, we can see from the additional information that other steps need to be put in place before a Specialist Assessment should be considered. For example, your child may have unmet learning needs or speech and language needs that could account for the difficulties. If your child’s referral is not accepted we will recommend the most appropriate next steps for your child from the  information we have received.

It is Health Service policy that a child’s referral is closed to a service whilst further information is gathered to support the referral. In your letter, it will state that the referral has been closed in order for you to gather the information requested. Once you send all the  information required, we will be able to open the referral again to review the additional information.

The information we request should be submitted within 6 months from the original referral if it takes longer than this you will need to submit a new referral form as the original information will be out of date.

It is not uncommon for a child to present differently at home and at school. Some children find the structured environment of the school day easier to manage and therefore do not display the same behaviours and needs at school as they do at home. Other children find the school day more difficult and present with difficulties that parents see far less of at home.

In these circumstances, it is very important that you discuss these differences with school or any other professional involved with your child, so you can work in partnership to plan and agree on appropriate steps. This helps us all create a complete picture of what difficulties the child is experiencing, in what situations and when and if a specialist assessment is required or not.

We require information to be gathered over a minimum period of two terms (6 months). Schools will find it helpful to use the materials provided to them by the Autism Education Trust (AET) to carry out focused observations. These observations help pinpoint key areas of difference and will support any future referrals.

Children presenting with a range of complex difficulties often cannot be fitted neatly into diagnostic categories. Many neuro-developmental difficulties such as Autism, ADHD, DCD (Developmental Coordination Disorder) to name but a few, can present in similar ways.

It is often helpful to consider the nature of the difficulties over time and explore options to best describe and account for the difficulties experienced by the child. It is important to help and support your child at home and with other professionals and then to review the outcomes of that support. Once these steps are in place it may become clearer whether an additional assessment may be required.

Support for children and young people in Solihull is needs-based rather than diagnosis-based, this means a child does not need a medical diagnosis in order to gain support from services or from education.

Services should support a child regardless of whether they have a diagnosis, and whilst they are on the assessment waiting list.

This service is an assessment and diagnostic service only and does not provide on-going support.

Resources and further information about what support is available in the local area is available on our resource page.

In an emergency (a person’s life is at risk or you do not feel you can keep yourself or another person safe), you should call 999 or take your child to your local A&E.

For more information about the support available locally, please visit our mental health and well-being resource section.

Many parents have found the online parenting course called  ’Understanding your child’s behaviour’  very helpful.  All parents in Solihull can access this free.
https://inourplace.co.uk/           The code you will need is APPLEJACKS

If you think your child may have Autism and you would like information, help or support you can approach your GP or your Health Visitor.

When you go to see your GP or Health Visitor, you might like to take along a list of behaviours and characteristics that you are concerned about. This can be a helpful prompt during your appointment, ensuring that you are able to give them an overview of why you are seeking help. They will talk through your concerns and may then carry out a screening interview or assessment.

There are a range of different tools that they may use. These screening tools will not give you a diagnosis, but are a good way of indicating if your child may need further support, monitoring or further assessment work. The professionals will also be able to help you access some first steps of support before requesting this highly specialist assessment.

It is important that very young children receive appropriate support before considering an Autism Assessment. For example your child may benefit from help with communication skills by the Speech and Language Therapy service, or with learning needs by the Early Years and Childcare Support. 

We request a large amount of information to create a complete picture of a child’s experiences, across multiple settings, with different people, and over a period of time. The information we gather forms an vital part of any assessment package that we offer if your child requires a full assessment.

Your child may be experiencing difficulties for a range of reasons and it is important that all options are considered and needs met before further assessment is considered.

We will require evidence that interventions have been put in place either in school or by other services to meet the child’s needs. This evidence needs to be gathered over a 6 month period. The 6 month period does not need to start from the date you receive the referral form. For example, your child’s school may have records going back over 6 months of any additional steps put in place to meet your child’s needs, which could be used as evidence for the referral.

Schools will find it helpful to use the materials provided to them by the Autism Education Trust (AET) to carry out focused observations. These observations help pinpoint key areas of difference and will support any referral. We will also require all reports previously written on your child.

Each child’s assessment is individually planned. A member of the team will be assigned as your child’s Case Lead.

During the assessment, information is considered from a wide range of sources and environments. The Case Lead considers all of this information and then plans the assessment around your child’s strengths and difficulties and what information we still need to gather. Each child’s assessment plan is different and the number and type of specialists involved will therefore differ from child to child.