The simple answer is yes.

However at present with the boom of Right to Choose and a signficant variance in quality of assessments and reports due to the system trying to manage large volumes, schools and local NHS services are scunitising assessments more than ever.

Kimberley and her team, pride themselves on examplar assessments which are inline with NICE guidance and other National policy, and they work hard to ensure reported as indepth and evidence the how the formulation has been reached.

We are hearing schools in particularly moving toward not accepting any private provider assessment reports and outcome *Including those funded through Right to Choose, therefore we we would advise a conversation is had with the school prior to going ahead to understand their position.

This is a fair question. Kimberley is a fellow parent and has comissioned assessments for her children in past. While she works in the field, she was also overwhlemed about where to go and where would listen and allow her and her child to feel heard. While key points would be to ensure services are NICE compliant, she would also recommend that you explore there service website, social media and other information online to get a better understanding of the service you will be working closely with, and sharing personal information. Sometimes it is down to gut instincts but we would always recommend the basics alongside this too.

• NICE Compliant (This means Autism Assessments are completed as a Multi disciplinary team (more than one professionals), explore other health conditions, uses standardised tools and can see you within 3 months). ADHD assessments must be completed by a clinical specialist, such as Nurse specialist, Psychiatrists or a Clinical Pharmacist.

• Check to see what language they used. For example any service that refer to autism as a disorder or uses puzzle pieces is likely to be outdated in their practice and not neuroaffirming (*only exemption to this is if the service is working with the NHS and this is prescribed as an requirement in the assessment by the local team).

• Ensure the Lead Assessor is registered with a health professional and has extensive experience in assessments. junior staff may be involved but should be overseen and supervised by a suitably qualified professional.

Kimberley and her associates work extremely hard to not have a waiting list, as she understands that if you are looking for an assessment privately, time is often a huge factor. Typically assessments are booked in on mutually agreed times within 6 weeks.

When assessing adults this can be a common questions they are asked by loved ones or they ask themselves. It is important to recognise and not under value the power of validation. Everyone has the basic human right to understand who they are. It can help inform support strategies and also provide better understanding in relationships and patterns of behaviours others might be finding hard. This is especially important for autistic PDA’er as misdiagnosis or incorrect diagnosis such as ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) or Personality Disorders can be used which can cause further trauma as the incorrect support approach is taken.

Ordinarily only one person with parental responsibility would need to consent to the assessment, however we feel it is important all parties are consenting. Without this the assessment could cause splitting in approaches and friction for the younger person. If the younger person is in their teens and meet Gillick competence then we would consider assessment with one person with parental responsibility consent. If the other person with parental responsibility is estranged and has not had any input in ongoing support, we would also consider these circumstances.

Kimberley has extensive professional and lived experience of PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) and feels it is crucial this profile is identified and understood to ensure well informed strategies and approaches are adopted.

NICE guidance also states that demand avoidance should be explored during an autism assessment, which is very much at the heart of what we do.

Masking is one of three different camouflaging strategies we can see autistic and ADHD individuals use. These are;

1. Masking

2. Compensatory

3. Assimilation

We work hard to provide a safe environment that we hope the young person or individual does not feel the need to camouflage/ mask but we also have extensive experience in recognising this during the assessment journey.