statutory assessment.  This power of direction under section 13 will be used very exceptionally: it can be used only if a child has been refused admission to, or has been permanently excluded from, every school which is a reasonable distance from the child's home and provides suitable education.

3:23.   The GM school should consult the parents before asking the LEA to conduct a statutory assessment.  On receipt of such a request, so long as no assessment has been made in the previous six months, the LEA must issue a notice to the child's parents under section 174(2) of the Act.  That notice must give the parents the same information as the notice required under section 167(1) and the LEA should follow the same procedures, encouraging the parents to make representations and submit evidence.  Those representations must be made and evidence submitted within a given time limit, which must not be less than 29 days.  As with a notice issued under section 167 (1), a notice issued under section 174 (2) must be copied to the district health authority and the social services department and to the head teacher of the child's school.


Children who may need immediate referral for statutory assessment

3:24.   In the great majority of cases, before any reference is made to the LEA for a statutory assessment, the school will have assessed a child's learning difficulties and will have made special educational provision to meet the child's needs in the context of their staged assessment model.  However, in a very small minority of cases, children may demonstrate such significant difficulties that the school may consider it impossible or inappropriate to carry out in full their chosen assessment procedure.  For example, the school's concerns may have led to further diagnostic assessment or examination which demonstrates that a child has a major sensory or other impairment which, without immediate specialist intervention beyond the capacity of the school, will lead to increased learning difficulties (see also 3:6).

3:25.   Where there is agreement between the school, the child's parents and any relevant consultant or adviser about the child's need for further multi-disciplinary assessment or there is concern that any delay might further damage the child's development, the child may be referred immediately to the LEA for consideration for statutory assessment.  It is in such circumstances that assessment and emergency placements may be appropriate - see paragraph 4:13 - 4:16.

3:26.   The LEA must then decide whether or not to make an assessment under section 167. The LEA should react consistently to requests from parents and referrals from schools and others for assessments and should subsequently make open and objective judgments as to whether a statement should be issued.  The LEA should reach decisions as quickly as thorough consideration of all the issues allows and always, subject to certain prescribed exceptions, within the statutory time limits.  Those time limits govern each step in the process of making assessments and statements and are described in the next section of this Part of the Code.

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