"paeditrician assessment "

I put a story in patient opinion about a month ago of which two kind members of staff replied and spoke with me which I appreciate and paid for a private psychologist to see my little boy and two of her recommendations were that my little boy have a sensory assessment and Dyspraxia assessment; and other recommendation was for me to have an advocate to help obtain these;

However I have just found out from my visit from the paediatrician yesterday that the sensory assessment is not offered in this area by the NHS privately I have checked is nearly £800. 00 I find this disconcerting that on one respect you need assessments to ascertain what difficulties a child may or may not have and what support a child may need but you can't get any support until a diagnosis is made but how can you get help for your little one if the NHS don't provide the assessment.

I have since spoken to other professionals who are also perplexed why this assessment is not being offered in the area.

Equally again although paediatrician is referring my little one to OT for movement and motor assessment again was asked about my parenting skills and whether I had been assessed and suggested to go to sure start for behavioural management skills; my answer was been there, tried that. Sure start not running them was told just go to drop in but my logic would say if CAHMS need a diagnosis to offer help and tailor parenting skills to a child's need are sure start trained in sensory issues; etc; from what I know they are not; I have actually found more support on facebook forums on support groups there than I have from anything offered by NHS which again I find disconcerting; I am also concerned that the emphasis placed seems to be on my parenting skills; I would not say I am a perfect parent but wonder would such an emphasis be placed on that if I wasn't myself on spectrum; I am perplexed and disappointed by lack of services within the county. not only for myself but others I have since learnt that indeed a lot of things are a postcode lottery; I find this sad.

equally how can we offer children and adults the best support packages and help children attain their full potential if your postcode dictates what can or can't be done.