Children aged under 18 with disabilities have a right to an assessment under Section 23 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. The local authority then has a duty to provide any services necessary to meet their needs. 

Your child may be entitled to an assessment of their needs even if they do not yet have a formal diagnosis of autism. This is because Section 23 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 applies to all ‘children in need’. A child is in need if:

• he or she is unlikely to achieve or maintain, or to have the opportunity of achieving or maintaining, a reasonable standard of health or development unless they are provided services by a local authority 
• his or her health or development is likely significantly to be impaired, unless such services are so provided 
• he or she is disabled 
• he or she is affected adversely by the disability of any other person within his or her family. 

It is important to note the inclusion of children affected by another person’s disability. This entitles brother and sisters of autistic children, and children with an autistic parent, to an assessment. 

Section 24 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 says that when a local authority undertakes an assessment of the needs of a disabled child, it should also inform any carer who regularly provides a substantial amount of care for the child of their entitlement to an assessment of their ability to continue providing care for the child. This is generally referred to as a carer’s assessment. If you as a parent request an assessment for your child you should also request a carer’s assessment.

What is an assessment?

An assessment allows the council to collect information about your child and your family and to identify any needs for support that you may have. A social worker will carry out the assessment. They will need to meet with you and your child, usually by visiting you at home so you do not have to worry about taking your child to an unfamiliar environment.

How do I ask for an assessment?

To request an assessment, you should write to your local social services department in your council. . You can use our template letter.  Be sure to delete any statements which do not apply to your child. To make sure that the letter is received by the right person, it may be helpful to take the following steps:

1. Phone your local social services office and ask which team deals with requests for Children (Scotland) Act 1995 assessments for autistic children. Ask for a postal address of the relevant team and don’t be put off from getting this. If necessary, explain you’re writing a letter about your child’s disability and about his/her need for an assessment and wish to send it to the appropriate team so you need an address. For many local authorities the first point of contact is a call centre. The person who answers the phone will not necessarily know much about autism and they may not understand the urgency of your situation.
2. If possible, find out the name of the team manager of the team you’re writing to so you can address the letter to him/her, but if this proves too difficult, address the letter to the Team Manager.
3. Send the letter, remembering to put a date on it and keep a copy of it (whether a paper photocopy or on your computer).
4. Wait for a response from the team you wrote to.  If you’ve not heard back within a few weeks, phone the team and ask for an update.
5. If you haven’t had any success finding out the team responsible, address the letter to the Director of Social Services who will probably not reply to you directly but will pass it on to the right person.

When you contact children’s services they should decide what response is required. If the decision is to take no action, children's serices should notify you of this promptly and give reasons why. 

The assessment process

If the decision to do something is made, a social worker should contact you to carry out an initial assessment. An initial assessment will help children’s services identify whether or not your child is in need, what services may be needed and whether the case is urgent or not. They will need to see and speak to your child at this stage. 

After this they may decide to carry out a core assessment. A core assessment will be much more thorough and will require social services to fully evaluate the level of your child’s needs and the help you as a parent are able to offer, as well as the services your child might need. They may liaise with other professionals with whom you have contact to find out more about your child. At the end of this time they should inform you of what services, if any, they are going to provide, and you should be given the opportunity to respond to this. You should also be informed that you are entitled to use the local authority’s complaints procedure if you’re unhappy with the way the assessment has been conducted or the decisions made. 

All local authorities use slightly different methods of assessment, so it’s hard to predict exactly what questions they will ask. It’s important that they get as full a picture of your family’s situation as possible. 

Integrated Assessment Framework (IAF) 

Some local authorities will carry out IAF. Many Local Authorities in Scotland have signed up to use the Integrated Assessment Framework (IAF) to assess the needs of children who require support from multiple agencies. This is part of the Government’s Getting It Right For Every Child policy. An IAF is an assessment tool that is used to assess the unmet needs of a child. This form can then be shared between professionals involved in the child’s life to better understand the child’s needs and to work out ways to further support them. The IAF is completely voluntary and would be carried out with the involvement of you and your child. 

The IAF looks into seven main indicators of wellbeing: 

• Safe 
• Healthy 
• Achieving 
• Nurtured 
• Active 
• Respected and Responsible 
• Included 

Once the IAF has been completed, you will be given a copy of it and the worker may liaise with other professionals and agencies involved in your child’s life to discuss ways of meeting their needs. This could be by arranging for extra support with school work or access to a short break service. 

If multiple teams are to be involved in supporting your family they will work as a team with you. A lead professional will be identified. They will keep you up to date and co-ordinate the team around your family. 

The IAF does not take the place of a core or initial assessment. If an IAF has been completed, and it is decided that a referral to Children’s Services should be made, an allocated social worker will still have to carry out a full child in need assessment. However, in some cases, the IAF can reduce the number of assessments that the child and their family have to go through. 

Eligibility criteria

Social Services departments are allowed to operate eligibility criteria to decide which team will assess a child’s needs. Sometimes autistic children do not meet the threshold for assessment under the disabled children team's eligibility criteria. In these cases, it is a good idea to ask to see the children in need team's eligibility criteria as well. Someone should be assessing your child's needs whether it is the disabled children's team or the children in need team. If you are told you do not meet either team's eligibility criteria you have the right to complain using your local authority's complaints procedure.

It is also lawful to use eligibility criteria to ensure that services are provided to families in the most need. Often these will be attached to services provided under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Person’s Act. Not every child will be entitled to everything on the list and the local authority can use eligibility criteria to decide which children can access a service.

However, the local authority cannot have blanket policies such as ‘we never provide holidays’ or ‘we do not give respite to children under eight years of age’. Similar statements to these have been challenged in court and found to be unlawful. Local authorities have to consider each individual case and decide whether there is a need for the service.

The care plan

Once the assessment has been completed the social worker should draw up a ‘child in need care plan’. This outlines the needs that have come to light through the assessment process and the services that will be offered to your child as a consequence. They will not list services that need to be obtained from other statutory bodies such as the health authority or local education authority, although they may make reference to the fact that you will be approaching these departments for further help. Below is an example of how a care plan may look: