If your child receives 'Early Years Action Plus' help for a reasonable time without success, and the pre-school thinks that there is a serious cause for concern, the pre-school may ask for your consent to contact the local authority for a statutory assessment.

This will only happen if your child's stammer is part of more complex needs that should ideally have been identified at an earlier stage. The majority of children who stammer are unlikely to be statutorily assessed.

This assessment will take several months and will involve information about the child's needs from all the professionals involved, the parents and, if appropriate, the child. If the assessment concludes that your child needs more help, the local authority may produce a Statement of Special Educational Needs. The Department for Education (DFE) has encouraged local authorities to reduce the number of statements as the Inclusion Development Plan (IDP) is extending specialist provision in mainstream settings. If you do receive a statement this will give details of the help your child will be given and where they will go to pre-school. For example, a place in a specialist nursery to meet his needs might be offered. These are found throughout the country and many are run through the government's programme of Sure Start.

The SEN Code is clear that if your child at any stage appears to have serious difficulties the pre-school can proceed immediately to this statutory assessment. Parents should express their concerns as soon as possible so that support can be put in place. If you need advice about statementing your local Parent Partnership can give support. This is an organisation in every local authority area which provides independent advice to parents of children with special educational needs. See When your child has complex needs.

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Text for this page: Further action: Assessment and Statementing
Text for this whole section: How to get support for learning for your child who stammers