Exceptions to the time limits

3:39.   The paragraphs above have described the time limits which LEAS, the health services and social services must normally meet.  But there will be circumstances in which it is not reasonable to expect the bodies concerned to meet those limits.  The regulations therefore prescribe exceptions to the time limits.

3:40.   The exceptions to the six week time limit within which LEAs must tell parents whether they will or will not make a statutory assessment are:


a.   where the LEA have requested advice from the head teacher of a school during a period beginning one week before the school closes for a continuous period of not less than four weeks and ending one week before it reopens

b.   where the LEA are aware of exceptional personal circumstances affecting the child or his or her parents (for example, family bereavement) during the six week period

c.   where the parents or the child are absent from the area of the authority for a continuous period of not less than four weeks.

(Regulation 11(4))


3:41   The exceptions to the ten week time limit within which LEAs must make an assessment are:


a.   where subsequent to receiving full advice as requested by the LEA, further advice or reports are exceptionally needed

b.   where the parents want to provide advice for an assessment more than six weeks          after the date on which an LEA's request for advice was received

c.    where the LEA issue a request for educational advice during a period beginning one week before the school closes for a continuous period of not less than four weeks and ending one week before it reopens

d.   where the LEA have requested advice from the health services or a social services department who have not replied within six weeks

e.     where the LEA are aware of exceptional personal circumstances affecting the child or his or her parents (for example, family bereavement) during the process of assessment

f.   where the parents or the child are absent from the area of the authority for a continuous period of not less than four weeks

g.   where the child fails to honour an appointment for an examination or test.

(Regulation 11(6))

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