Evidence Gathering for SEN Assessment in Northern Ireland: A Practical Checklist

The Education Authority's panel will decide whether to proceed with your child's statutory assessment based primarily on the evidence you and the school submit. If the evidence is vague, incomplete, or fails to demonstrate that school-level provision has been exhausted, the panel will refuse. A refusal triggers an appeal right — but it also costs your child weeks or months and leaves them without appropriate provision in the meantime. Getting the evidence right from the start is a better strategy.

Why Evidence Is Everything at Stage 2

The statutory threshold for assessment is that the child probably has special educational needs and probably requires the EA to determine provision. "Probably" sounds like a low bar. In practice, the panel interprets this through the lens of what the submitted evidence actually shows. Anecdotal parental accounts, however accurate and distressing, carry little weight without corroborating documentation.

The panel is asking: Has the school genuinely put interventions in place? Has the child failed to make adequate progress despite those interventions? Are the child's needs complex enough that the school's resources are genuinely exhausted? Each of these questions requires documented evidence, not assertion.

Core Evidence Categories

1. Personal Learning Plans (PLPs)

Every iteration of your child's PLP should be in your evidence file. The PLP record should show: a pattern of targets being set and not met, or being met only with a level of support that the school cannot sustain; escalating levels of concern; and involvement of external EA advisory services. A child who has been on Stage 1 support for two or three PLP cycles without adequate progress has a strong evidential foundation for a statutory assessment request.

What to look for — and document if it is missing: specific, measurable targets with data on whether they were achieved; standardised test scores (Progress Test in English, Progress Test in Math, Cognitive Abilities Test) with percentiles, not just descriptive commentary; and the names and frequency of any external specialist input.

2. Standardised Assessment Data

Raw scores are essential. The panel is not persuaded by "Charlie is struggling with reading." The panel is persuaded by "Charlie's Progress Test in English score places him at the 6th percentile for his age group, having received targeted literacy intervention for three terms." If your child's school has not been sharing standardised assessment data with you, request it formally in writing. The school is required to provide this information to parents.

Cognitive Abilities Test (CATs) scores, reading and spelling age assessments, and any diagnostic assessments commissioned by the school (speech and language screening, occupational therapy referrals) all belong in the evidence file.

3. Communications Log

Maintain a chronological record of every significant communication with the school and the EA. Include: dates of meetings, names of people present, key points discussed and any commitments made; emails and letters in and out; and notes from telephone calls, confirmed by follow-up email.

This log serves two purposes. It demonstrates that you have engaged proactively and in good faith with the school throughout the Stage 1 process. And it creates a documented record of any promises or commitments that were not delivered — which directly supports the case that provision has been inadequate.

4. Medical and Clinical Reports

If your child has a clinical diagnosis — autism spectrum condition, ADHD, a physical disability, a speech and language disorder — include the diagnostic report. If the diagnosis was made by a CAMHS clinician or a community paediatrician, include the full clinical letter. If only a letter exists and a full assessment report has not been shared with you, request it from the relevant HSC Trust.

Private clinical reports from paediatricians, psychiatrists, or speech and language therapists commissioned independently of the NHS are equally admissible and often more detailed. Include them.

5. School Reports and Teacher Observations

Annual school reports are useful background. More valuable are any written teacher observations documenting specific difficulties — concentration, peer interaction, physical access, sensory responses, emotional regulation. If teachers have raised concerns in writing, include those letters. If you have copies of correspondence between the school's LSC and EA advisory services, include those too.

6. Your Own Parent Statement

Write a formal parent statement. This is a structured document, not a letter of complaint. It should cover: your child's developmental history relevant to their needs; specific examples of academic, social, physical, or emotional difficulties observed at home; what you have already communicated to the school and what response was received; and what provision you believe your child requires.

Keep the tone factual and specific. "Emma has been unable to complete homework independently since September, crying for two to three hours on three nights per week, and her teachers have confirmed she is similarly unable to work independently in class without 1:1 prompting" is evidence. "Emma finds school really hard" is not.

Organising the Evidence

Present your evidence as a coherent, indexed file rather than a stack of documents. Number each item. Create a covering summary page that maps each piece of evidence to the specific argument it supports: "Document 3 (PLP, November 2025) demonstrates that the target for independent reading set in March 2025 was not achieved despite twice-weekly literacy intervention."

The EA panel reviews many cases. A clearly organised, well-indexed submission is easier to engage with and harder to dismiss than a disorganised collection of documents. This is not about presentation for its own sake — it is about making the strongest possible case for your child.

What Happens If Evidence Is Missing

If key evidence is in the school's possession and has not been shared with you — PLPs, standardised assessment data, records of external specialist involvement — write formally to the school's LSC requesting these documents before you submit your assessment request. Parents have the right to access records relating to their child's education.

If the school refuses or delays, note this in your covering letter to the EA. It is itself evidence of the difficulties you are facing. If the school claims it does not have relevant assessment data because it has not conducted standardised assessments, that too is significant — a school that has not been systematically tracking the progress of a child on its SEN register is providing additional evidence that adequate Stage 1 provision has not been in place.

For the complete evidence checklist formatted for Northern Ireland's assessment process, the template for an evidence-indexed assessment request letter citing the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, and guidance on organising your documentation file, the complete toolkit is at /uk/northern-ireland/advocacy/.

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