Amendment of section 8: assessments and examinations
79.Section 8(1) of the 2004 Act applies where an education authority proposes to establish whether a child or young person has additional support needs or requires, or would require, a co-ordinated support plan or a review of such a plan, and where “an appropriate person” requests that the education authority arranges for a child or young person to undergo an assessment or examination to establish this. In that case the authority must comply with such an assessment request unless it is unreasonable.
80.Paragraph 6(a) of the schedule to the Act inserts new section 8(2)(b)(ia) into the 2004 Act, the effect of which is that a child aged 12 years or over is “an appropriate person” for the purposes of subsection (1) and may therefore make an assessment request. Paragraph 6(b) of the schedule inserts new subsection (2A) into section 8 to provide that a child aged 12 years or over is only an appropriate person and therefore able to make an assessment request if:
the education authority is satisfied there has not been a significant change in the circumstances of the child since the child made a request referred to in section 6(2), 7(1) or 10(4) of the 2004 Act. That is to establish if the child has additional support needs, if the child requires, or would require a co-ordinated support plan, or if the child requires a review of such a plan was made, thus indicating a significant change which might have affected the child’s capacity since it was assessed by the authority under those sections;
where the authority consider that there has been a significant change in the circumstances of the child since the child made a request in section 6(2), 7(1) or 10(4), the authority is satisfied that the child has capacity to make the assessment request under section 8(1) at the time the request is made; or
no such request was made by the child under section 6(2), 7(1), or 10(4), and the authority is satisfied that the child has capacity to make an assessment request under section 8(1).
