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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Autism Sussex provides a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency evidence-based service offering National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) compliant assessment, formulation and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, otherwise referred to as Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC).
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Pricing/bespoke serviceAutism Sussex offers a bespoke assessment and diagnostic service. For the costs of each of our services, please see out services page or get in touch and we would be happy to send you further information.
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Private versus NHSOf course, there are ethical, perhaps arguably even moral issues with independent practice. An independent assessment service, allows you access to very timely and high quality, NICE compliant assessments that generally are accepted by local authorities and tribunals etc. As an example, a recent case of ours was accepted by the local child development service for follow up ASC support following our independent assessment.
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Will I get an Autism Diagnosis?It is important for you to note that the multi-disciplinary team will compare the full range of information that we collect for the assessment to formal and universally accepted diagnostic criteria in order to determine whether your child meets the diagnostic classification. We would NOT give a diagnosis unless your child fulfils the necessary criteria and it is possible to undergo the assessment process and not receive a diagnosis. In every case we feel it is important to give a diagnostic formulation and offer advice.
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How do I make a referral?We offer an open referral system and referrals can be made by parents and professionals. As we do a careful pre initial assessment we will advise you immediately if we feel that we are not the appropriate service to help you. We will endeavour to signpost you to the service we feel may be most helpful.
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Will this assessment and diagnosis be recognised by the NHS or local Authority?Our assessments are of a very high quality, are always conducted by at least two professionals and are NICE compliant. We also request information from schools. A careful autism assessment also considers other hypotheses for your child’s behaviour and if we do not think your child reaches diagnostic criteria for autism we will then give you our clinical opinion as to what else may be underpinning your child’s presentation or difficulties. All our assessments are NICE compliant. As a result they are unlikely to be queried by statutory services (NHS or education). In the unlikely event that you find our report is not accepted by the statutory services please contact us and we will support you in addressing this. To date all our assessments and reports have been accepted by the local NHS and Education departments.
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PDAIn partnership with our preferred partner, Laura Kerbey (N-EST) we can offer Demand Avoidant assessments but only in the context of a NICE compliant Autism assessment.
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Our ProfessionalsOur team members all still practice in the NHS and are registered with independent bodies that regulate the work of medical and healthcare professionals (e.g. Health and Care Professionals Council, the British Psychological Society or the GMC). These bodies set standards in terms of how professionals should behave and keep a register of professionals who meet these standards. You can check the registration of our clinicians by visiting the HCPC and GMC websites. We always provide our professional registration numbers in our reports.
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Insurance coverageOur team are registered with WPA, BUPA, AVIVA and Vitality Health.
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