UK NHS Autism Assessment

My toddler has finally been given a Social Communication Assessment appointment by the NHS. There will be a session with the Doctor as well as with the Speech and Language Therapist. Does anyone from the UK know what happens after the assessment? Asking because I seeked out private speech therapy but have not made an appointment yet, this was befote receiving the NHS appointment. Should I go ahead with the private speech therapy? Or will NHS offer speech and therapy sessions after the appointment?

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You wait years then to be assesed. My son had this appointment 2/3 years ago were still waiting for him to be assesed x

Id say yeah sort out the speech therapy x

After the social communication appointment with the doc and SLT, you wait for the diagnosis appointment which can take some time to come through, I suggest chasing up every so often. After that you are literally left to your own devices tbh and will need to be proactive yourself in getting your child what he or she needs. In regards to SLT, you'll need to attend Chatterbox first I believe (10 sessions) and if no improvement or further support required, they can make a referral for you after you have completed chatterbox.it does take some time to come through so try and get started ASAP. If you can afford to do so, I'd say go ahead with private in the meantime until you get an appointment as you'll have to attend chatterbox full sessions in order to be taken seriously as needing further SLT report so that's already 10 weeks gone plus the wait time for appointment blocks. Hope that helps

We’ve had 3 assessments so far and just been accepted to be seen by a paediatric but the appointment can take months to come through. A lot of hoops to jump through

We have just been seen by a paedatric doctor & speech therapist like you mentioned and have been told that his speech therapy appointments will hopefully take about 6-8 weeks. I’m not sure if it is different in different areas in the UK. I’ve had to wait since last July to be seen but thats quick compared to the old referral system which was changed in November 23 Hopefully you won’t have to wait too long but if we could we would habe paid to bring his speech therapy forward xx

The wait list across the country varies, but on average, it's 8 months. We waited 2 years. I'll add that NHS speech therapy is usually given on blocks of 4-week sessions, and then you go back on the list for another round. You'll wait around 6 months for that. With my eldest, who is 5.5 now, he was referred at 22 months and has had 3 blocks of 4 week sessions since that point - that is how long you may have to wait. There is a reason for that - there is research that shows there is limited impact that speech therapy can have on children under a certain age, where speech might be delayed and come fine later. Is your toddler at nursery? My son's nursery applied for additional council funding and got money for him to have 121 support 50% of his time there. Its so worth having - they reinforced all the stuff we did with our SALT. We use his DLA payments to part cover his speech therapist. My advice is if your kid is under 3, then there is limited value in a private therapist

Thank you ladies for the advise! ❤️