Gold Standard Psychological Assessments
FAQs
Using Your Assessment for School Support and EHCP Applications
Assessments from Gold Standard Psychological Assessments can be used as evidence for both school SEN support and Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) applications. Under the SEND Code of Practice, local authorities and schools are required to consider all relevant, professionally obtained reports, whether they come from the NHS or a private provider.
Why Our Assessments Carry Real Weight Equal statutory standing. The law does not distinguish between NHS and private assessments. Both carry the same legal and clinical credibility, provided the professional carrying out the assessment is appropriately qualified and registered, for example with the Health and Care Professions Council. All of our assessments are conducted by qualified, registered professionals and follow NICE guidelines for neurodivergence, so you can be confident the report you receive meets recognised clinical standards. Rather than relying on a single professional's perspective, our assessments draw on the combined expertise of a speech and language therapist, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, a counselling psychologist, and senior psychotherapists.
Reports from professionals such as speech and language therapists are often particularly influential in EHCP decisions, as they speak directly to the specific provisions a child needs. Bringing this range of expertise into one coordinated assessment strengthens the evidence base you take forward. A practical option when facing delays. If your local authority has long waiting times, or has declined to carry out an EHCP Needs Assessment, a private report from our team can help move things forward without you having to wait indefinitely for statutory provision.
What Makes an Assessment Report Effective for SEN and EHCP Purposes To be fully usable by a local authority, a report needs to do more than provide a diagnosis. We build our reports around three principles:Clinically robust. Assessments follow recognised standards, including NICE guidelines, so the methodology and conclusions hold up to scrutiny.Needs-focused. Every report clearly sets out your child's specific needs and the provision or adaptations required, not simply a diagnostic label.Grounded in educational context.
Wherever possible, we take the child's school setting into account and welcome input from school staff, so the picture we build reflects how needs show up day to day, not only in a clinic room.What to Expect from the ProcessLocal authorities are legally required to properly consider private evidence, and cannot simply set aside a credible, professionally produced report. They may still choose to carry out their own assessment if they feel further information is needed, but a well-evidenced private report remains a strong and valid part of the picture.If you are preparing for an EHCP application, IPSEA's website is a helpful independent resource for understanding how to submit evidence: www.ipsea.org.uk
How We Store and Protect Your Data
At Gold Standard Psychological Assessments, we take the security and confidentiality of your personal and clinical information seriously. As an assessment clinic, we hold what data protection law classifies as special category data, information relating to physical and mental health, which requires a higher standard of care than ordinary personal data. Our data handling practices are designed to meet the requirements of the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and are informed by the guidance of relevant professional bodies, including the Health and Care Professions Council and the General Medical Council.
Why We Hold Your Data
We collect and hold personal and clinical information for the purpose of carrying out your assessment, producing your report, and providing ongoing care where relevant. This may include demographic details, background and developmental history, information shared during appointments, and results from standardised assessment measures. We only collect what is necessary to carry out a thorough and accurate assessment.
How Your Data is Kept Secure
All clinical records are stored securely, whether in electronic or paper form. Electronic records are held on encrypted, access-controlled systems, and any devices used to access patient information are password protected and encrypted. Paper records, where used, are kept in locked storage. Access to your file is limited to the clinicians directly involved in your care, and every member of our team is bound by professional confidentiality obligations and regularly trained in information governance.
How Long We Keep Your Records
There is no single fixed retention period set out in law for private clinical records, so we base our retention practice on recognised guidance, including the NHS Records Management Code of Practice, and on the professional standards our clinicians are bound by. As a general principle, adult records are retained for a minimum of eight years from the end of treatment or contact. Where an assessment relates to a child, records are typically retained for longer, usually until the individual's twenty fifth birthday, in line with standard practice across health and care settings, to ensure the information remains available to them into adulthood if needed. Where a longer period is required for clinical, legal, or regulatory reasons, we will retain records accordingly.
Your Rights Under data protection law, you have the right to ask what information we hold about you, to request a copy of your records, to ask for inaccurate information to be corrected, and to raise concerns about how your data is used. Some of these rights are subject to certain safeguards where health information is involved, for example where disclosure could cause harm. We are happy to talk you through any of these rights and how they apply to your situation.Sharing Your InformationWe do not share your information with anyone outside our clinical team without your knowledge, other than in circumstances required by law or in situations involving risk of serious harm. Where a report is prepared for use with a school, local authority, or another professional, this is done with your understanding and, wherever possible, your explicit agreement about who will receive it.If you have any questions about how your data is collected, stored, or used, or you wish to raise a concern, you are welcome to contact us directly, or to contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for independent advice.
How Can I Contact My Clinician?
All contact with clinicians is managed through our administrative team. If you need to get in touch, please email or call the clinic directly, and your message will be forwarded on to your clinician. This helps us make sure nothing gets missed and that you always receive a response, even if your clinician is unavailable on a given day.
Booking Ongoing Sessions
If you are having ongoing sessions with a clinician, appointments can be booked in 30 or 60 minute slots. Please contact the administrative team to arrange or amend a booking.
Response Times
Our administrative team and clinicians work within clinic hours, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm. Messages sent outside these hours will be picked up on the next working day. Clinicians do not monitor emails or messages outside of clinic working hours, including evenings, weekends, and bank holidays.
We Are Not a Crisis Service
It is important that you understand the limits of what we can offer. Gold Standard Psychological Assessments is not a crisis service, and we are not able to provide immediate or emergency support. Our clinicians are not able to respond in real time and cannot guarantee a response within a specific timeframe outside of scheduled appointments.If you are in crisis, experiencing thoughts of suicide or self-harm, or are concerned about your immediate safety or the safety of someone else, please do not wait for a response from us. Instead:Call 111 and select the mental health option, for urgent advice and support any time, day or night.Call 999 or attend your local A&E department if there is immediate risk to life.Call the Samaritans free on 116 123, available 24 hours a day, if you need to talk to someone.If you are already under the care of a crisis team or community mental health team, please contact them directly using the details they have given you.Please make sure you and anyone supporting you are aware of these options, particularly if you are working with us on an ongoing basis. Our team is here to support you within our scope of practice, but your safety in an emergency depends on contacting the right service straight away, rather than waiting to hear back from us.
In Person Face to Face Assesments
Face-to-Face Assessments
While many of our assessments are carried out remotely, we also offer face-to-face assessments for those who prefer or need an in-person service. This includes children, individuals with disabilities for whom an in-person appointment is more accessible, and adults who simply prefer to be assessed in person.Face-to-face assessments take place at one of our four hubs, in London, Berkshire, Manchester, or Liverpool. When you receive your assessment information, this will include full details of who will be carrying out your assessment, so you know exactly who to expect on the day.
Who You Will Meet
During your in-person appointment, you will be with one of our consultants throughout the assessment. Other members of our multidisciplinary team join remotely online, allowing you to benefit from a wider range of clinical expertise without needing several professionals in the room with you.
Why We Record Assessments
With your knowledge, we may record the assessment so that it can be reviewed by other members of the multidisciplinary team who were not present. Once this review has taken place, the recording is securely deleted.Having more than one clinician review an assessment matters because diagnostic decisions, particularly for something as nuanced as autism, ADHD, or a combined AuDHD presentation, benefit from more than a single perspective. A second or third professional viewing the assessment helps to check that observations are consistent, that nothing has been missed or misread, and that the conclusions reached would hold up to scrutiny. This kind of peer review is a recognised marker of a robust, high quality assessment process, and it is particularly important where a report may later be used as evidence for school support, an EHCP application, or another formal process. It gives you confidence that your report reflects genuine clinical consensus, not the judgement of a single clinician working in isolation.
Why Does the Assessment Include Meeting with a Psychiatrist?
A psychiatric assessment is a valuable part of both our autism and ADHD assessments, helping us build a complete and personalised understanding of your mental health and wellbeing, not just a diagnostic label.Autism and ADHD often coexist with one another, as well as with other conditions such as anxiety, depression, or OCD, all of which can affect day-to-day experience and quality of life.
Including a psychiatric evaluation as standard means we see the fuller picture, your strengths, your needs, and the unique ways you interact with the world, rather than looking at a single condition in isolation.This is also a matter of clinical best practice.
NICE guidelines for both autism and ADHD recognise the value of a multidisciplinary assessment, and for ADHD in particular, diagnosis should involve a psychiatrist or another appropriately qualified specialist. Some clinics choose not to include a psychiatrist as part of their assessment team. While this may be quicker or lower cost, it does not reflect NICE guidance, and can mean a less complete assessment.
At Gold Standard Psychological Assessments, a psychiatric assessment is included as standard, because we believe it is an essential part of getting the full picture right.Meeting with a psychiatrist also gives you the space to raise any challenges or areas where you might want additional support, so that any recommendations we make are genuinely useful to you.
The aim is to build a holistic, supportive plan that considers every aspect of your mental health, so the guidance and resources we offer are aligned with your personal goals and values. Ultimately, we want you to come away from your assessment feeling understood and supported, with a clearer and more empowering understanding of your strengths and needs.
Complaints Policy and Procedure
Our commitmentGold Standard Psychological Assessments (GSPA) is committed to providing a high standard of care to every person who uses our services. We recognise that there may be occasions when you feel that the service you have received has fallen short of what you expected. We welcome feedback of all kinds. Complaints help us to understand where things have gone wrong and to improve the way we work.
We will: Treat every complaint seriously, fairly and without prejudiceRespond promptly and keep you informed at each stageInvestigate thoroughly and impartially. Explain our findings clearly and in plain language. Apologise where we have got something wrong. Use what we learn to improve our service. Making a complaint will not affect the care you receive from us, now or in the future.
This policy applies to complaints about: Any aspect of our assessment, diagnostic, therapeutic or post-diagnostic services. The conduct or communication of any member of our clinical or administrative team. Our administrative processes, including booking, scheduling, invoicing and correspondence. The accessibility of our services or our premisesOur handling of personal information. This policy does not cover: Disagreement with a clinical opinion or diagnostic outcome, where no procedural failing is alleged.
Employment matters, which are dealt with under our internal HR procedures. Requests for refunds, which are governed by our Terms of Service and Cancellation Policy, although a complaint may be made about how such a request was handled.
Who may make a complaint? A complaint may be made by: A person who has used our services, A parent or person with parental responsibility, on behalf of a child under 16, A young person aged 16 or over, in their own right, A person acting with the written consent of the client, such as a relative, advocate or legal representative, A person with lasting power of attorney or another form of legal authorityWhere a complaint is made on behalf of an adult client, we will normally require written consent from that client before we can share information relating to their care.
Time limits: We ask that complaints are raised as soon as possible, and normally within twelve months of the event concerned, or within twelve months of you becoming aware of the matter.We may consider complaints made outside this period where there is good reason for the delay and where it remains possible to investigate the matter fairly.
How to make a complaint
Informal resolution. Many concerns can be resolved quickly and directly. If you feel able to, please raise the matter with the member of staff involved, or with our administrative team, at the time or shortly afterwards.You can contact us by: Email: admin@psychologicalassessments.com We will try to resolve informal concerns within five working days. If we cannot, or if you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may make a formal complaint.
Formal complaint. A formal complaint should be made in writing, by email to:Dr Rachael Phillips, Clinical Director and Complaints Lead Gold Standard Psychological Assessments. To help us investigate, please include where possible: Your name and preferred contact detailsThe name of the client, if different, and their date of birth. A description of what happened, including relevant dates. The names of any staff involved. Any documents or correspondence you wish us to considerWhat outcome you are hoping forIf writing is difficult for you, we can take your complaint by telephone and produce a written summary for you to check and confirm. The company will send a receipt in writing and explain who is handling your complaint Within 3 working days. Investigation Review records, speak to those involved, and consider the evidence. We will Provide a written response setting out our findings and any action takenWithin 20 working days. Extended investigationWhere a complaint is complex, write to you explaining the delay and giving a revised date. Updates at least every 20 working days. Our written response will explain:What we found, Whether we uphold your complaint in whole, in part, or not at all, and why Any action we have taken or will take as a result. An apology, where one is due. How to escalate the matter if you remain dissatisfied. Complaints are investigated by a senior member of the team who was not directly involved in the matter complained about. Where a complaint concerns the Clinical Director, or the care she has personally provided, it will be investigated by the Managing Director or by a suitably qualified independent reviewer instructed by us. We will tell you at the acknowledgement stage who is handling your complaint and confirm that they were not involved in the matter you have raised. If you remain dissatisfied: Internal review: If you are not satisfied with our response, you may request a review within twenty working days of receiving it. Please explain which parts of our response you disagree with and why.The review will be conducted by a Director who has not previously been involved in the complaint. We will respond within twenty working days of receiving your request.
External escalation: You are entitled to contact an external body at any point in the process. You do not have to complete our internal procedure first, although we would encourage you to allow us the opportunity to put things right. Depending on the profession of the clinician concerned, the following may be appropriate:Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) The statutory regulator for practitioner psychologists and speech and language therapists. Website: www.hcpc-uk.org General Medical Council (GMC) The statutory regulator for doctors, including psychiatrists. Website: www.gmc-uk.org British Psychological Society (BPS) The professional body for psychologists. Considers complaints about the conduct of its members. Website: www.bps.org.ukBritish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) The professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists. Complaints about registered members are considered under its Professional Conduct Procedure. Website: www.bacp.co.uk Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) The professional body for speech and language therapists. Concerns about a therapist's fitness to practise should be directed to the HCPC, which holds statutory regulatory powers. Website: www.rcslt.org Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) For complaints about how we have handled your personal data. Website: www.ico.org.uk. Please note that the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman considers complaints about NHS-funded care only, and cannot consider complaints about privately funded services. Concerns about a clinical opinion: We understand that receiving an assessment outcome that differs from what you expected can be difficult, whether that is a diagnosis, a decision not to diagnose, or a formulation that does not feel like it reflects your experience. Disagreement with a clinical opinion is not, in itself, a matter for this procedure. In these circumstances we would usually suggest: Requesting a feedback appointment to discuss the findings in more detail. Providing any additional information or evidence that was not available at the time of assessmentSeeking a second opinion from another suitably qualified professional. However, if you believe that our assessment process was not properly followed, that relevant information was overlooked, or that the assessment did not meet accepted professional standards, that is a matter we will investigate under this policy.
Confidentiality and record keeping: Complaints are handled in confidence and shared only with those who need to be involved in investigating and respondingRecords of complaints are held separately from clinical records and do not affect the care you receive. We retain complaint records for 12 months, in line with our Data Retention Policy. Personal data is processed in accordance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and in line with our Privacy NoticeWe may be required to disclose information about a complaint to a regulator, insurer or safeguarding body where there is a legal or professional obligation to do so.
Unreasonable or vexatious complaints:
We are committed to responding to all complaints fairly. Very occasionally, the way in which a complaint is pursued may make it difficult for us to respond, for example where contact becomes excessive, where the same matter is repeatedly raised after it has been fully addressed, or where staff are subjected to abusive behaviour. In these circumstances we may place proportionate limits on contact, such as nominating a single point of contact or a preferred method of communication. We will always explain any restriction in writing, give reasons, and set out how it can be reviewed. Restrictions will never be applied because a complaint is persistent, detailed or critical. Accessibility and reasonable adjustments: We want this process to be usable by everyone, including autistic people, people with ADHD and people with other neurodevelopmental or communication differences.We can:Accept complaints by email, letter, telephone or in person. Take a complaint verbally and write it up for you to check. Provide our correspondence in large print, plain text, or another format on request. Communicate in writing only, if telephone contact is difficult for you. Extend our deadlines for your response where you need more time. Allow a family member, friend or advocate to support you or to communicate on your behalf, with your consent. Please tell us what would help and we will do our best to accommodate it.Learning from complaints:
All complaints are logged and reviewed by the senior team. We review complaints themes at least annually to identify patterns, inform staff training, and improve our policies and processes.
Safeguarding: Where a complaint raises a concern about the safety or welfare of a child or an adult at risk, we will follow our Safeguarding Policy. This may mean referring the matter to the local authority, the police, or another appropriate agency, and we may not be able to await the outcome of the complaints process before doing so. Contact: Complaints Lead: Dr Rachael Phillips, Clinical Director Email: drrachaelphillips@goldstandardpsychologicalassessments.
Safe Guarding Lead: olivia.izzo@goldstandardpsychologicalassessments.com
Gold Standard Psychological Assessments is a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17336938.This policy is reviewed annually and updated as required.
If you would like to know more or begin the process, please get in touch with us today to schedule an initial consultation.