Parents' refusal to allow professionals to assess
We have a parent who is relying on SEND Regs 2014 s6(4) to prevent any professionals from re-assessing her child; arguing that the necessary reports have already been carried out. However, for various reasons, we deem it as necessary to obtain up-to-date reports.
Therefore, what is it that we must do to evidence the necessity to re-issue these reports? Do we need to say that we do not accept the previous reports conclusions?
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The issue about LA access for assessments is a perennial one and I will try and do a blog post about it shortly, but the key point is whether further assessments are really necessary. You say you think they are and it appears the reason for this is because you do not accept the previous reports' conclusions, but I am not sure that is a good enough reason on its own. If the actual assessment itself was done properly and there is no reason to doubt the results then it is not obvious why you cannot just explain why you disagree with the conclusions or why a whole new assessment is needed. On the other hand, it may be that because of the passage of time, or some flaw in the assessment, or the results being unexpected or unusual in some way, you think the existing assessment is not (or may no longer be) reliable. But in every case you need to think carefully about why you think (or you are being told) that a further assessment is necessary, and keep issues about the assessment process itself separate from the conclusions the author (or others) draw from it.