Terms of Service

These Terms of Service set out the professional and contractual framework within which All Kinds of Minds Assessments provides its services. They explain the nature and boundaries of the professional relationship and the arrangements that apply before, during and after an agreed consultation or assessment service.

These Terms should be read as an integrated whole. The provisions that apply in an individual case depend on the service agreed and on whether it is privately arranged or commissioned by the H.S.E. Service-specific information and any individual written arrangements form part of an agreed private service only as provided under Formation and Scope of the Service Contract. H.S.E.-commissioned assessments are additionally governed by the provisions under H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments.

Practice Identity

All Kinds of Minds Assessments is the registered business name under which Shaun Frandsen operates the practice as a sole trader, with registered business name number 732887. The practice is based at 1st Floor, 10 Stephen Street, Rathquarter, Sligo, F91 V2XR. All Kinds of Minds Assessments is not a limited company or a legal entity separate from its proprietor; the registered business name identifies the practice through which the professional services described in these Terms are provided.

Clinical Psychology Lead

All clinical work at All Kinds of Minds Assessments is led by Shaun Frandsen, a Chartered Clinical Psychologist (C.Clin.Psychol., Ps.S.I.), Chartered Member of the Psychological Society of Ireland (P.S.I.; Member No. M5560C), and Full Member of the Division of Clinical Psychology. Her Clinical Psychology education and professional training were completed at accredited American universities, including postgraduate professional training through the Pacific University Psy.D. Programme, and her qualifications were formally recognised through a Statement of Equivalency from the Department of Health Validation Unit following her relocation to Ireland.

Shaun has 15 years of Clinical Psychology experience within the Irish public health service, including six years with Mater C.A.M.H.S. and nine years as a Senior Clinical Psychologist across H.S.E. Northwest C.A.M.H.S. and Primary Care Psychology. Her work at All Kinds of Minds Assessments is grounded in current research, evidence-based practice and professional ethics and is delivered within a neurodiversity-affirmative framework that considers each child or young person’s strengths, differences, developmental context and support needs together.

Multidisciplinary Autism Assessment

Private Autism Assessments in which the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (A.D.O.S.-2) Module 3 is used include multidisciplinary input from Tina Usborne, a C.O.R.U.-registered Speech and Language Therapist (Registration No. SL016775). Tina brings more than 35 years of clinical experience across Ireland and the United States, spanning hospital, school and community settings, and participates in these assessments in a private professional capacity separate from her H.S.E. employment.

Shaun and Tina participate jointly in the Module 3 appointment, and the resulting findings are considered within the wider assessment rather than interpreted in isolation. For some adolescents and young people assessed using A.D.O.S.-2 Module 4, multidisciplinary participation may also be clinically appropriate. In other cases, Module 4 may be undertaken by the Clinical Psychologist alone where this is considered more conducive to the young person’s comfort and participation, as governed under Assessment Process, Participation, Access and Reasonable Adjustments.

Where Tina participates, the diagnostic formulation draws upon the respective professional contributions and assessment findings of both clinicians. Shaun remains professionally responsible for the Clinical Psychology components of the assessment, while Tina remains professionally responsible for the Speech and Language Therapy work she undertakes. The multidisciplinary conclusion is reached through integration of the relevant findings and professional perspectives rather than through any single assessment component.

Professional and Ethical Standards

All Kinds of Minds Assessments provides its services in accordance with applicable Irish law and the professional and ethical standards governing the work undertaken. Shaun practises in accordance with the current P.S.I. Code of Professional Ethics and relevant P.S.I. professional guidance, while Speech and Language Therapy work is undertaken in accordance with the applicable C.O.R.U. Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics.

Nature of the Practice

All Kinds of Minds Assessments is a specialist, assessment-focused practice for children and young people. Its age range, assessment services, diagnostic scope, service limitations and the circumstances in which another professional or service may be more appropriate are governed by Scope of Practice.

Each consultation or assessment is provided for a defined and time-limited professional purpose rather than as an open-ended clinical-care relationship. The service agreed in an individual case is governed by Formation and Scope of the Service Contract, while the circumstances in which the active professional relationship ends are governed by Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries.

Private and H.S.E.-Commissioned Services

All Kinds of Minds Assessments provides privately arranged professional services and, under separate commissioning arrangements, assessments commissioned by the H.S.E. A private service is agreed directly with All Kinds of Minds Assessments in accordance with these Terms and the applicable private service arrangements, while an H.S.E.-commissioned assessment is undertaken as an independent professional service within the scope authorised by the H.S.E. and is subject to the applicable H.S.E. referral, commissioning and governance arrangements.

The two pathways remain distinct. A private service does not extend or alter an H.S.E. commission, and an H.S.E.-commissioned referral does not create a private assessment contract between the family and All Kinds of Minds Assessments.

Related Policies and Information

Personal information is handled in accordance with the Privacy Policy, while the Cookies Policy applies to cookies and similar technologies used on the Website. The Feedback and Complaints Policy provides the practice’s process for offering feedback, raising concerns, or making a complaint, and the Child Safeguarding Statement sets out the practice’s safeguarding arrangements and responsibilities concerning children and young people.

Service-specific pages on the Website provide information about individual assessment pathways and current service arrangements. Whether Website content or service-specific information forms part of an agreed private service is determined under Formation and Scope of the Service Contract, while the use and status of Website and e-mail information are governed by Website, E-Mail and External Links.

Enquiries, Suitability Review and Wait Lists

Making an enquiry, submitting an Assessment Suitability Form through the Enquiries page, providing preliminary information, or undergoing suitability review does not, by itself, form a private service contract or guarantee that a referral will be accepted. These preliminary steps allow the Clinical Psychologist to consider whether the proposed service appears clinically appropriate and falls within the Scope of Practice.

Placement on a private wait list means that the referral has been accepted for progression through the relevant pathway, but it does not create a contract for a Parent Consultation or subsequent assessment. It does not guarantee when appointment capacity will become available, commit the family, young person, or Clinical Psychologist to a later assessment service, or guarantee any particular assessment or diagnostic outcome.

Formation of a Private Contract

A private contract is formed when the particular professional service and its material scope have been identified, the applicable fee and payment arrangement have been made clear, the booking arrangements have been accepted by the person arranging the service, and the service has been confirmed by All Kinds of Minds Assessments. A contract may be formed electronically through the practice’s booking system or through agreed written electronic communication.

Where a service is available for direct booking, the contract will ordinarily be formed through the booking and confirmation process. Where an assessment pathway requires individual discussion or configuration, the assessment contract is formed only when the pathway, material scope, applicable fee and payment arrangement, and booking arrangements have been confirmed by All Kinds of Minds Assessments and accepted by the person arranging the service.

Parent Consultation and Subsequent Assessment

Where Autism or A.D.H.D. forms any part of the assessment question, the Parent Consultation is a required, separately booked professional service and forms its own contract. The Parent Consultation provides an opportunity to consider the referral question, available information, clinical suitability, and the assessment pathway that may be appropriate, but it does not itself constitute or guarantee acceptance for a subsequent assessment.

The Parent Consultation is not a deposit, instalment, or advance payment towards a later assessment. Booking or completing it does not commit the family, young person, or Clinical Psychologist to proceed with a full assessment and does not create a contract for any subsequent assessment service.

Where a full assessment is subsequently agreed, it forms a separate contract when the assessment pathway and its material scope, the applicable fee and payment arrangement, and the booking arrangements have been confirmed and accepted. The Parent Consultation remains a completed professional service in its own right regardless of whether a later assessment is agreed.

Standalone S.L.D. and Cognitive Assessment pathways may proceed directly to an assessment contract where the referral has been accepted as suitable and the assessment has been booked and confirmed. These pathways do not require a preceding Parent Consultation.

What Forms Part of the Agreement

The agreement for a private service comprises these Terms, the service-specific information applicable to the service being booked, the confirmed booking and payment arrangements, and any individual written arrangement or variation expressly agreed for that service. These sources are read together and interpreted in the context of the particular consultation or assessment pathway agreed.

An individual written arrangement expressly agreed by All Kinds of Minds Assessments and the person purchasing the service prevails over a more general description to the extent of any genuine inconsistency. This applies only where the individual arrangement is lawful and does not remove or restrict any contractual or statutory right or protection that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.

Nothing in these Terms limits the effect that applicable law gives to pre-contractual information or to oral or written statements relied upon when entering into the contract or making a subsequent decision concerning the service. This includes the protections provided by the Consumer Rights Act 2022.

Later changes to generally published Website information, fees, or these Terms are governed by Changes to These Terms and, where applicable, Fees and Payment. Such changes do not alter an existing private service contract except as permitted by those provisions and applicable law.

Assessment Pathways and Individual Assessment Components

An assessment contract is ordinarily for the agreed assessment pathway and its clinical purpose rather than for an inflexible sequence of individual tests, questionnaires, interviews, or observations. The agreed pathway establishes the material scope of the professional service, while the particular assessment tools, sources of information, sequence of procedures, and other clinical components are selected according to the assessment question, the information available, and the professional judgement of the clinician or clinicians involved.

Service-specific information distinguishes between components that are included or required within a pathway and those that may be selected, recommended, or incorporated where clinically appropriate. A component identified as included or required forms part of the agreed service, subject to any clinically justified refinement that remains consistent with the purpose and material scope of that service. A component described as possible, optional, or clinically selected is used only where the Clinical Psychologist considers it appropriate to the individual assessment.

Clinical Refinement Within the Agreed Scope

Psychological assessment is an iterative professional process, and the appropriate assessment plan may become clearer as information is gathered and considered. Information obtained during an assessment may establish that a planned component is unnecessary, that another method would address the clinical question more appropriately, that the sequence of procedures should change, or that a particular component cannot validly or appropriately be used.

The assessment plan may be refined where the change remains consistent with the clinical purpose and material scope of the service already agreed. A clinically justified change to the method or sequence used to address the agreed assessment question does not, by itself, create a different assessment contract.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments will not substitute a materially different professional service, expand the agreed pathway, or impose an additional charge without prior express agreement. Where a proposed change would materially alter the service purchased, its purpose, effect on the assessment arrangements, and any associated fee will be explained and agreed before that work begins. Any refinement involving participation, access, reasonable adjustments, evidential sufficiency, or the use of previous assessments remains subject to Assessment Process, Participation, Access and Reasonable Adjustments and Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments and Reassessment.

Additional and Optional Professional Work

A clinical recommendation for further assessment or an additional assessment component does not automatically add that work to the existing contract or create an obligation to purchase it. Where additional work can appropriately be incorporated into an assessment already underway, it may be added as an expressly agreed variation, with its scope, anticipated effect on the assessment arrangements or timescale, and any additional fee confirmed before the work begins.

A later service that remains separate from the original assessment, including an optional Feedback Appointment that was not included within the original pathway or an additional assessment pathway, forms a separate contract when it is booked and confirmed. Any cancellation, withdrawal, or financial consequence arising before or during a contracted service is governed by Cancellation, Withdrawal, Non-Attendance, and Refunds and, where applicable, Fees and Payment.

Nature and Limits of the Contracted Service

The contracted service is the particular professional consultation or assessment service agreed. Where an assessment is contracted, the agreement is for the professional assessment process and resulting clinical opinion within the agreed scope, rather than for a predetermined diagnostic conclusion or external outcome. Diagnostic formulation and assessment outcomes are governed by Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes, while decisions made by schools, public bodies, healthcare services, and other organisations are governed by Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions.

Each private contract is limited to the professional service agreed, and the work reasonably required to complete that service remains within the contract. The contract does not create an open-ended clinical-care relationship or an entitlement to later assessment, review of information received after completion, liaison, advocacy, consultation, additional professional correspondence, or other subsequent work unless that work is separately agreed or required by an applicable legal or professional obligation.

Later professional work and the ending of the active professional relationship are governed by Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries. Completion of one professional service does not oblige the family, young person, or Clinical Psychologist to enter into another.

H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments

The private contract-formation provisions in this section apply only to privately arranged services. An assessment commissioned and funded by the H.S.E. is not a private assessment purchased by the family and does not become one merely because the child, young person, or family participates in it; it does not place the child or young person on a private wait list or create an entitlement to work beyond the scope authorised by the H.S.E.

Any separate private service considered during or in connection with an H.S.E.-commissioned assessment must be genuinely separate, clinically appropriate, clearly distinguished from the commissioned work, and separately agreed before it begins. It must not be used to circumvent, unnecessarily duplicate, or extend the authorised H.S.E. scope. H.S.E.-commissioned referrals are governed by H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments and the applicable commissioning arrangements between All Kinds of Minds Assessments and the H.S.E., which are not varied or overridden by these public Terms.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments provides both privately commissioned assessments and assessments commissioned separately by the Health Service Executive. All assessment work is undertaken within the same evidence-based, neurodiversity-affirmative professional framework and is subject to the same core clinical, ethical, safeguarding, and quality standards. H.S.E.-commissioned assessments are additionally subject to the referral, contractual, governance, information-management, reporting, audit, and other requirements applying to the commissioned service.

For a private assessment, the service agreement is between the person arranging the service and All Kinds of Minds Assessments and is governed by these Terms and the assessment pathway agreed with the practice. Where an assessment is commissioned by the H.S.E., All Kinds of Minds Assessments provides the assessment as an independent service provider within the scope authorised by the H.S.E. The child’s, young person’s, or family’s participation in the assessment does not create a private assessment contract for the commissioned work.

The professional-practice provisions of these Terms apply to H.S.E.-commissioned work insofar as they are consistent with the applicable H.S.E. arrangements. These Terms do not amend or replace those arrangements. Where an aspect of a commissioned assessment is governed differently by an applicable H.S.E. requirement, including referral, scheduling, payment, authorised assessment scope, information governance, report circulation, audit, records management, or contractual case closure, the H.S.E. requirement governs that aspect of the commissioned service.

Fees and Scope of Commissioned Work

A child, young person, or family referred for an assessment commissioned and funded by the H.S.E. is not charged the private assessment fees described elsewhere in these Terms for that commissioned work. Payment is made by the H.S.E. to All Kinds of Minds Assessments under the applicable commissioning arrangements.

The assessment is limited to the work commissioned or otherwise authorised by the H.S.E. Where additional assessment is clinically indicated but falls outside the authorised scope, it will not be added to the commissioned assessment without the prior approval required under the applicable H.S.E. arrangements. The clinical report may identify the limits of the work completed, record the need for further assessment, or recommend an appropriate onward pathway where additional work has not been authorised.

Where a family enquires about a privately funded service while H.S.E.-commissioned work is active, any proposed private service must be genuinely separate, clinically appropriate, and clearly distinguished from the commissioned assessment. It must be separately agreed in accordance with Formation and Scope of the Service Contract and will not be used to circumvent H.S.E. authorisation requirements or unnecessarily duplicate work already commissioned by the H.S.E.

Referral, Acceptance and Scheduling

H.S.E.-commissioned referrals do not join the practice’s private wait lists. They are managed through the applicable H.S.E. referral and commissioning arrangements and according to the capacity, scheduling, communication, and completion requirements applying to that pathway.

Once an appropriate H.S.E. referral has been accepted, All Kinds of Minds Assessments communicates directly with the child, young person, and family as appropriate to arrange the assessment and obtain the information needed for it to proceed. Acceptance and progression of a referral remain subject to the authorised scope of the commission and to the professional competence, suitability, consent, participation, and safety requirements applicable to the assessment.

An H.S.E. referral or commission does not, by itself, establish valid consent for assessment. The applicable consent and guardianship requirements must be confirmed before the assessment proceeds in accordance with Consent, Guardianship and Family Circumstances and, where applicable, the H.S.E. National Consent Policy.

Clinical Independence

Clinical conclusions remain the independent professional responsibility of the assessing clinician or clinicians.

H.S.E. commissioning determines the professional service and assessment scope that have been authorised. It does not predetermine whether a diagnosis will be made, require a particular diagnostic conclusion, alter the applicable diagnostic threshold, or displace the clinician’s responsibility to evaluate and interpret the available evidence independently.

The report and recommendations are based on the individual child’s or young person’s assessed profile, strengths, differences, developmental context, functional needs, and the evidence available through the assessment. They are not directed towards a predetermined administrative, diagnostic, service-access, or resource-allocation outcome.

Location and Delivery

H.S.E.-commissioned assessments are ordinarily delivered from the practice’s independent clinical premises and in accordance with the accessibility, equipment, clinical, and assessment-delivery requirements applying to the commissioned service.

An assessment component may be completed remotely where this is clinically appropriate and permitted within the applicable H.S.E. pathway. Components requiring direct, in-person administration or observation are completed in person. The method used for each component is determined by its clinical purpose, the needs of the child or young person, professional judgement, and the requirements of the commission.

Assessment of Need

An H.S.E.-commissioned Autism assessment may be undertaken outside the statutory Assessment of Need process, may constitute the clinical assessment required within an Assessment of Need, or may contribute to a broader Assessment of Need. The position in an individual case is determined by the referral and the statutory pathway established under the Disability Act 2005.

Where the commissioned work forms part of an Assessment of Need, the clinical report and any required A.O.N. Summary documentation are completed and securely provided in accordance with the applicable H.S.E. requirements. The clinical report and A.O.N. Summary do not replace the statutory Assessment of Need report. Responsibility for the statutory process, the determinations required under that process, and the statutory report remains with the appointed H.S.E. Assessment Officer.

Reports and Feedback

H.S.E.-commissioned assessments include the clinical reporting and feedback authorised within the commissioned pathway.

For a younger child, formal feedback following an H.S.E.-commissioned assessment is provided to the appropriate parent or legal guardian rather than directly to the child. The child’s understanding of the assessment outcome should instead be supported gradually by their parent or caregiver through informal, developmentally appropriate conversations over time. Direct formal feedback may be offered to an older adolescent where appropriate and consistent with the young person’s wishes, legal capacity, consent, confidentiality rights, and the applicable H.S.E. arrangements.

Access to the final clinical report is managed separately in accordance with the child’s or young person’s age, legal capacity, consent, confidentiality rights, and the applicable H.S.E. arrangements. The report and any other documentation required under the commission are also securely provided to the nominated H.S.E. recipient through the H.S.E.-designated secure transfer route, currently ShareFile.

Any further circulation or disclosure of assessment information remains subject to the applicable H.S.E. pathway, valid consent or other lawful authority, and Confidentiality, Safeguarding and Required Disclosures.

Information Governance and Records

Information relating to an H.S.E.-commissioned assessment is processed in accordance with applicable data-protection law, professional confidentiality requirements, and the information-governance arrangements applying to the commissioned service.

The respective data-protection roles of the H.S.E. and All Kinds of Minds Assessments depend on the processing activity concerned. Where All Kinds of Minds Assessments processes personal data on behalf of the H.S.E., it acts in accordance with the H.S.E.’s documented instructions and the applicable Data Processing Agreement. Where All Kinds of Minds Assessments independently determines the purpose and means of processing required to meet a separate legal or professional responsibility, it may act as controller for that specific activity.

Access to H.S.E.-commissioned assessment information is restricted according to professional role and need. Appropriate confidentiality, information-security, record-handling, and incident-management safeguards are maintained throughout the assessment.

Assessment information and documentation are securely transferred, retained, returned, or deleted in accordance with the applicable H.S.E. contractual and data-processing requirements, subject to any independent legal or professional obligation requiring particular information to be retained. Further information is available in the Privacy Policy.

Safeguarding and Clinical Governance

The safeguarding responsibilities established under Confidentiality, Safeguarding and Required Disclosures and the Child Safeguarding Statement apply equally to H.S.E.-commissioned assessments.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments maintains clinical-governance, risk-management, safeguarding, consent, and quality-assurance processes appropriate to the commissioned work. The practice cooperates with governance, quality-assurance, and audit requirements arising under the applicable H.S.E. arrangements. Any access to confidential information for those purposes is limited to what is authorised, relevant, and necessary and remains subject to applicable confidentiality and data-protection requirements.

Feedback, Complaints and Review Routes

Feedback, concerns, and complaints relating to work undertaken by All Kinds of Minds Assessments may be raised through the practice’s Feedback and Complaints Policy.

Where the assessment has been commissioned by the H.S.E., an additional H.S.E. complaint, review, or escalation route may apply, including Your Service Your Say. Where the matter concerns the statutory Assessment of Need process, the separate Assessment of Need complaints and appeals process may apply.

The appropriate route depends on the subject of the concern and the commissioning or statutory arrangements governing the assessment. All Kinds of Minds Assessments will cooperate with any applicable H.S.E. complaint, review, or escalation process.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments is a specialist, Clinical Psychology-led assessment practice for children and young people who are at least six years old and have not reached their 18th birthday at the time of referral. The practice provides formal diagnostic assessment of Autism, A.D.H.D. and Specific Learning Disability (S.L.D.), including dyslexia and dyscalculia, together with standalone Cognitive Assessment. Adaptive Behaviour Assessment may be included where this is clinically indicated within an agreed assessment pathway.

Private assessment may address a single assessment question or, where clinically appropriate, more than one agreed question within the practice’s professional remit. The available combined pathways include Autism and Cognitive Assessment, Combined Autism and A.D.H.D. Assessment, Combined Autism and S.L.D. Assessment, Combined A.D.H.D. and S.L.D. Assessment, and Combined Autism, A.D.H.D. and S.L.D. Assessment. The pathway accepted in an individual case and its material scope are governed by Formation and Scope of the Service Contract and Determining Suitability and Wait-List Management.

Assessment is comprehensive, individualised and formulation-led. Its purpose is to determine whether the applicable diagnostic criteria are met and to develop a clinically coherent understanding of the child’s or young person’s strengths, neurodevelopmental differences, support needs, developmental course, everyday functioning and relevant context. The evidence considered and the professional reasoning through which conclusions are reached are governed by Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments and Reassessment and Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes.

Where these Terms refer to low-to-moderate support needs, the description concerns clinical suitability for a focused private assessment pathway rather than a diagnostic severity classification. It does not minimise the significance of the child’s or young person’s experiences or alter the diagnostic criteria or evidential threshold applying to any formal diagnosis.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments is an assessment-focused practice rather than a mental-health treatment, therapeutic, medical or crisis service. It does not provide medication consultation or prescribing, psychiatric management, psychotherapy, crisis intervention, ongoing behavioural intervention, general case management or the range of continuing multidisciplinary supports available through larger health and disability services. Where the child’s or young person’s assessment or support needs extend substantially beyond a focused assessment pathway, another professional or service may be better placed to provide the breadth of assessment, treatment or continuing support required.

Autism Assessment Within the Practice

The private Autism Assessment pathway is designed for children and young people whose current support needs fall within the low-to-moderate range and whose assessment can be appropriately completed within the All Kinds of Minds assessment model and Scope of Practice. Autism may be assessed as a standalone diagnostic question or as part of an agreed combined pathway, but no additional diagnostic assessment is included unless it is clinically appropriate and forms part of the service separately agreed following the Parent Consultation.

Autism assessment is ordinarily multidisciplinary and includes Speech and Language Therapy input contributing to the Autism formulation. This is subject to the limited private A.D.O.S.-2 Module 4 pathway undertaken by the Clinical Psychologist alone in the circumstances governed by Assessment Process, Participation, Access and Reasonable Adjustments.

A.D.H.D. Assessment Within the Practice

A Clinical Psychology-led A.D.H.D. Assessment is available as a standalone pathway and as part of an agreed combined assessment where the child’s or young person’s A.D.H.D.-related support needs fall within the low-to-moderate range, medication consultation is not being sought as part of the assessment pathway, and the assessment can be appropriately completed within the All Kinds of Minds assessment model and Scope of Practice. Moderate support needs are considered individually following the required Parent Consultation, with suitability considered in relation to the child’s or young person’s developmental history, the nature and pervasiveness of their attention and regulation differences, everyday functioning across relevant settings, co-occurring needs, existing supports, the purpose for which assessment is being sought and the type of professional input likely to be required.

Appropriately qualified Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatrists can diagnose A.D.H.D. within their respective professional competence, although their roles are not identical. The A.D.H.D. pathways provided by All Kinds of Minds Assessments are non-prescribing psychological assessment services and do not include medication consultation, prescribing or medical management. Where a Clinical Psychologist’s diagnosis is later provided to a medical prescriber, the prescriber considers it alongside the medical and clinical information required to determine whether medication is appropriate; the psychological diagnosis and the prescribing decision remain distinct professional conclusions.

Where medication consultation, psychiatric input, multidisciplinary involvement or a higher level of ongoing clinical support is likely to be required, a psychiatry-led or another appropriately resourced pathway will generally be more suitable. The wider circumstances in which another service may be more appropriate, together with relevant public and private onward pathways, are addressed below under When Another Service May Be More Appropriate.

Overlapping and Differential Presentations

Neurodevelopmental, learning, mental-health, medical and contextual presentations can overlap, and similar outward experiences may arise through different underlying processes. An Autism or A.D.H.D. assessment therefore considers clinically relevant alternative and co-occurring explanations rather than treating the diagnostic question identified at referral as a conclusion to be confirmed.

Within an Autism assessment, relevant considerations may include A.D.H.D., Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder, cognitive and learning differences, language and communication needs, sensory experiences, mental-health needs and other developmental or contextual factors. An A.D.H.D. assessment may similarly consider whether the reported presentation is more coherently associated with A.D.H.D., Autism, learning differences, mental-health experiences, sleep or physical-health factors, environmental demands or a combination of influences.

Considering a possible alternative or co-occurring presentation as part of the clinical formulation does not, by itself, amount to a formal diagnostic assessment of that presentation. A formal diagnostic conclusion will be made only where the diagnosis falls within the practice’s Scope of Practice, forms part of the agreed assessment pathway and is adequately supported by the assessment evidence. Where another diagnostic question becomes clinically relevant, an additional or combined assessment may be proposed where it can appropriately be provided, or assessment by another professional or service may be recommended.

A standalone S.L.D. Assessment has a more specific remit. It focuses on the cognitive, attainment, developmental and educational evidence relevant to dyslexia and dyscalculia and does not constitute a formal Autism or A.D.H.D. assessment. Meaningful indicators of another neurodevelopmental, developmental or mental-health presentation may contribute to the formulation and recommendations, but they will not be converted into a diagnosis outside the agreed scope of the assessment. The evidential requirements, treatment of differing information and professional reasoning governing differential and co-occurring formulation are set out under Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments and Reassessment and Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes.

When Another Service May Be More Appropriate

The most appropriate assessment pathway depends upon the child’s or young person’s overall developmental profile, current wellbeing, complexity of need and the nature of the professional input or support likely to be required following assessment. A focused private assessment may provide too narrow a response even where Autism, A.D.H.D., S.L.D. or another neurodevelopmental difference forms part of the clinical picture.

Where there are indicators of possible Intellectual Disability, significant global developmental or adaptive needs, or wider complex disability-related needs, a broader multidisciplinary disability pathway may be more appropriate. The private Autism Assessment pathway is also not suitable where a child or young person is non-speaking or where their communication, developmental, medical, adaptive or participation needs require specialist assessment, coordinated multidisciplinary input or continuing intervention beyond the remit of this practice. H.S.E. Children’s Disability Network Teams provide services for children and young people with complex disability-related needs, while other Primary Care, medical or private multidisciplinary pathways may be appropriate according to the individual presentation.

Cognitive Assessment and, where clinically indicated, Adaptive Behaviour Assessment can provide important information about a child’s or young person’s cognitive profile and everyday functioning. They do not, within this practice, constitute a standalone or definitive Intellectual Disability assessment. Where the findings raise a broader question concerning Intellectual Disability, substantial adaptive support needs or complex developmental disability, a multidisciplinary pathway may be required so that intellectual and adaptive functioning, communication, health, everyday participation and continuing support needs can be understood together.

The presence of mental-health needs does not automatically make neurodevelopmental assessment inappropriate. Autism, A.D.H.D., and S.L.D. can coexist with anxiety, low mood, distress, and other emotional or mental-health experiences. Where mental-health needs are sufficiently supported and do not materially interfere with safe and meaningful participation in assessment, they may be considered within the wider clinical context of the neurodevelopmental assessment.

Where a child or young person is experiencing significant current mental-health needs, significant distress, risk, or any other safety concerns, private neurodevelopmental assessment through All Kinds of Minds Assessments will not proceed until those needs have first been meaningfully assessed and supported through an appropriate healthcare or mental-health pathway. This reflects the need to prioritise the child’s or young person’s immediate wellbeing and safety and to ensure that any subsequent neurodevelopmental assessment can be undertaken safely, meaningfully, and within an appropriate overall care context. It does not mean that the neurodevelopmental assessment question is unimportant or that it cannot be reconsidered subsequently.

Depending upon the circumstances, the family or young person may be advised to consult their G.P. or treating professional, explore an appropriate private specialist service, or consider whether referral to H.S.E. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services or another public pathway is indicated. All Kinds of Minds Assessments does not determine whether another service will accept a referral or consider the child or young person eligible for its care. Once significant mental-health, distress, or safety needs have been sufficiently assessed and meaningfully supported, neurodevelopmental assessment may be reconsidered through the appropriate pathway where it remains clinically indicated and suitable.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments is not an emergency or crisis service. Where there is an immediate risk of harm or a mental-health emergency, families and young people should use the H.S.E. urgent mental-health support information, contact the appropriate emergency service, or attend an Emergency Department. Any confidentiality, safeguarding, or disclosure responsibilities arising when significant safety information becomes known during professional involvement are governed by Confidentiality, Safeguarding and Required Disclosures.

Presentations Outside the Formal Diagnostic Scope of the Practice

A comprehensive psychological assessment may identify or describe experiences and needs that fall outside the formal diagnostic scope of All Kinds of Minds Assessments. These experiences are not disregarded because the practice does not provide the corresponding diagnosis. Where relevant, they can contribute meaningfully to differential formulation, understanding of support needs and recommendations for further assessment or professional involvement.

The practice does not provide formal diagnostic assessment or treatment of mental-health, medical, neurological, motor, sensory-processing, feeding or attachment-related conditions. Such factors may nevertheless be clinically relevant to understanding a child’s or young person’s presentation. The following examples clarify how some commonly queried presentations are approached within the practice and are not an exhaustive account of every diagnosis or professional service falling outside its remit.

• Developmental Coordination Disorder (D.C.D./Dyspraxia): Motor-coordination differences may be reported or observed during psychological assessment, but D.C.D. is not formally diagnosed through this practice. Formal assessment requires direct evaluation of motor skills and their functional impact by an appropriately qualified professional and may involve Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Paediatric or other specialist input according to the child’s or young person’s presentation.

• Sensory Processing Differences: Sensory experiences are considered where relevant and may materially influence regulation, communication, comfort, learning and everyday participation. “Sensory Processing Disorder” is not diagnosed as a separate D.S.M.-5-TR condition through this practice. Where sensory differences require more detailed functional assessment, equipment recommendations or intervention, Occupational Therapy input may be recommended.

• Persistent Demand Avoidance or P.D.A.: A strong or persistent need to resist, negotiate, defer or avoid demands can be highly significant and should be understood rather than dismissed. “Pathological Demand Avoidance” is not a recognised standalone diagnosis within the D.S.M.-5-TR or I.C.D.-11, there is no established standardised diagnostic assessment for P.D.A., and its status as a distinct clinical entity remains contested. Demand-avoidant experiences are therefore described and formulated individually, with consideration given to autonomy and predictability, the child’s or young person’s neurodevelopmental profile, anxiety or threat responses, sensory and cognitive load, executive demands, environmental expectations, relationships and accumulated stress. This approach allows the experience itself to be taken seriously without assigning an additional diagnostic label that is not clinically established.

• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (O.D.D.): O.D.D. is a recognised diagnostic category but is not formally diagnosed through this specialist neurodevelopmental practice. Where a child’s or young person’s actions or responses are described as oppositional or defiant, the assessment considers what they may communicate or reflect, including distress, unmet needs, communication differences, executive or emotional-regulation demands, autonomy, predictability, environmental mismatch, relationship patterns and other developmental or mental-health factors. Where O.D.D. or broader behavioural and emotional needs remain an important diagnostic consideration, or substantial continuing intervention is required, a more comprehensive child mental-health or multidisciplinary pathway may be recommended.

• Eating Disorders: Formal assessment and treatment of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder and other specified feeding or eating disorders, fall outside the scope of All Kinds of Minds Assessments. These presentations can involve significant psychological and physical-health needs and require an appropriate specialist mental-health, eating-disorder or medical pathway. Families or young people concerned about a possible eating disorder should seek medical advice promptly, and further information is available from the H.S.E.. Where there is an immediate concern about physical stability or safety, urgent medical assessment may be required.

• Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (A.R.F.I.D.) and Significant Restrictive Eating: Restrictive or highly selective eating may be associated with sensory experiences, anxiety, interoceptive differences, a need for predictability, previous adverse experiences with food or wider neurodevelopmental needs. These experiences may be explored and described where relevant to an Autism or broader neurodevelopmental formulation, but A.R.F.I.D. is a recognised feeding and eating disorder and is not formally diagnosed or treated through this practice. Where the presentation raises concern about A.R.F.I.D., nutritional adequacy, growth, physical health or substantial interference with everyday life, medical, Dietetic, mental-health or multidisciplinary assessment should be considered.

• Developmental Language Disorder, Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Other Speech or Language Disorders: Formal assessment of speech, language and motor-speech disorders requires an appropriately trained Speech and Language Therapist and does not automatically form part of an Autism or psychological assessment. Childhood Apraxia of Speech requires relevant paediatric motor-speech expertise, with Paediatric, Neurology, Occupational Therapy or other professional input where indicated by the wider presentation. Speech and Language Therapy participation in a multidisciplinary Autism assessment remains limited to the contribution agreed for that assessment and does not create a separate speech or language assessment service.

• Auditory Processing Differences: Formal assessment and diagnosis of Central Auditory Processing Disorder fall primarily within Audiology. Speech and Language Therapy, Psychology, educational information and other professional disciplines may also contribute to differential assessment because listening difficulties can overlap with language, attention, cognition, hearing and learning differences.

• Attachment-Related Disorders, including Reactive Attachment Disorder (R.A.D.) and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder (D.S.E.D.): These diagnoses require detailed consideration of developmental and caregiving history, relationships, context and alternative explanations and are not formally diagnosed within this specialist neurodevelopmental practice. Where an attachment-related disorder is a significant diagnostic consideration, specialist child mental-health, multidisciplinary or social-care assessment may be more appropriate.

• Repetitive, Involuntary or Otherwise Clinically Significant Movements: Repetitive movement and stimming can be meaningful forms of sensory or emotional regulation and may appropriately be described within an Autism or broader neurodevelopmental assessment. Where there is concern about involuntary movements, tics, loss of previously established motor control, seizures or another possible neurological or medical presentation, Paediatric, Neurology or other medical assessment may be recommended.

• Personality Disorders and Other Complex Enduring Emotional or Relational Presentations: Formal assessment of Personality Disorder falls outside the scope of this child and adolescent neurodevelopmental practice. This scope boundary does not imply that Personality Disorder can never be diagnosed before adulthood. Where a young person presents with substantial and enduring difficulties involving emotional regulation, identity, relationships, behaviour, self-harm or risk that require specialist mental-health formulation and continuing intervention, an appropriate child and adolescent mental-health pathway is recommended.

The fact that a presentation falls outside the formal diagnostic scope of All Kinds of Minds Assessments does not mean that the child’s or young person’s experience is unimportant or that it cannot contribute meaningfully to the formulation. Where another professional discipline or service is better placed to provide the necessary diagnostic assessment, medical care, treatment, intervention or continuing multidisciplinary support, this will be explained and appropriate signposting may be provided. This approach reflects the P.S.I. Code of Professional Ethics, which requires psychologists to recognise the boundaries of their competence and to consult or refer where another professional is more likely to provide the competent service required.

Forensic and Court-Directed Assessment

All Kinds of Minds Assessments provides clinical and educational psychological assessment. It does not provide forensic, court-directed, parenting-capacity, child-welfare, voice-of-the-child or other specialist assessments whose primary purpose is litigation, family-law proceedings or determination of a legal dispute, and it does not accept instructions to act as an expert witness through its ordinary assessment pathways.

The fact that parents are separated or divorced does not, by itself, make a proposed assessment forensic. Nor does involvement in proceedings concerned only with adult financial matters that have no connection with the child or the proposed assessment. The consent, guardianship and family circumstances in which the practice can or cannot proceed are governed by Consent, Guardianship and Family Circumstances.

The practice does not accept instructions to undertake section 32, section 47 or other court-directed family-law assessments. An existing clinical report may nevertheless be used lawfully in later legal proceedings by a person entitled to use or disclose it. Such use does not retrospectively alter the purpose or scope of the assessment, convert the report into a forensic report or create an expert-witness relationship with All Kinds of Minds Assessments. The purpose and limitations of the report, its permitted disclosure and the distinction between clinical reporting and forensic expert evidence are governed by Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions.

H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments

The private scope described above defines the services that All Kinds of Minds Assessments elects to provide through its private pathways. H.S.E.-commissioned referrals are governed separately by the professional service and assessment scope authorised by the H.S.E., the applicable commissioning arrangements and H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments. Nothing in this section expands, varies or substitutes the scope authorised for an H.S.E.-commissioned assessment.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments reviews private referrals before they are accepted because a specialist assessment pathway should be appropriate to the child’s age, referral question, current circumstances, and needs and to the professional and service scope of the practice.

Suitability review is not a diagnostic assessment and does not predetermine the eventual assessment outcome. Its purpose is to determine whether the requested private pathway is an appropriate service to offer at that time.

Initial Suitability Review

A private referral begins with the Assessment Suitability Form. The information requested is used to establish whether the referral appears to fall within the age range and Scope of Practice, whether another service or pathway may need to take priority, and whether there is a reasonable basis for proceeding to the next stage of the private assessment process.

Where the referral appears appropriate, the family or young person, as applicable, will ordinarily be asked to complete the required Intake and Consent documentation. These documents must be received and reviewed before the child or young person is accepted onto the relevant private wait list.

Completion or submission of a form does not, by itself, mean that the referral has been accepted. The contractual status of an enquiry, suitability review, wait-list position, Parent Consultation, or later assessment booking is governed by Formation and Scope of the Service Contract.

Factors Considered in Determining Suitability

Suitability is considered individually. Relevant considerations may include:

• whether the child or young person is within the age range served and the referral question falls within the Scope of Practice;

• the nature and complexity of the assessment being sought;

• the child’s or young person’s current neurodevelopmental, learning, communication, sensory, emotional, and support needs insofar as they affect whether this practice is an appropriate assessment setting;

• whether current mental-health, medical, safeguarding, or other safety needs require a different assessment, treatment, or support pathway to take priority;

• whether a history or current pattern of clinically meaningful physical aggression, violence, serious threats, or other behaviour reasonably indicates a material risk of harm that cannot be safely accommodated within the premises, staffing, resources, and assessment model of the practice;

• whether the assessment can otherwise be undertaken safely within the physical, clinical, and multidisciplinary resources available;

• whether the child or young person is likely to be able to participate sufficiently for the assessment to provide valid and clinically meaningful information, after appropriate reasonable adjustments have been considered;

• whether another current or planned assessment substantially overlaps with the proposed work;

• whether sufficient relevant information is available, or can reasonably be obtained, to undertake the proposed assessment responsibly;

• whether the required consent can be freely and validly established under Consent, Guardianship and Family Circumstances, without unresolved guardian disagreement or reliance on compelled consent outside the scope of the practice;

• whether family or legal circumstances create a material concern about consent, confidentiality, professional objectivity, the child-centred clinical purpose of the assessment, or the likelihood of the practice being drawn into an unresolved dispute; and

• whether the purpose for which the assessment is being sought is consistent with the clinical purpose of the service rather than a forensic, court-directed, or other dispute-determination purpose.

No consideration is applied mechanically where an individual professional judgement is required. A diagnostic label, disability, communication style, or need for reasonable adjustment does not, by itself, make a referral unsuitable.

Physical Aggression and Injury to Others

All Kinds of Minds is a specialist private assessment practice. It does not provide crisis management or a clinical environment designed to manage physical aggression towards others.

A private referral will not be accepted where the young person has a known history of physical aggression towards another person or behaviour that has caused injury to another person. A meaningful history may involve a pattern of such behaviour or an individual incident of sufficient seriousness to create a genuine physical-safety concern within this assessment setting.

This boundary is not intended to encompass developmentally typical minor conflict or behaviour that does not create a meaningful physical-safety concern. The relevant questions are whether the assessment can be undertaken safely and whether the young person can participate meaningfully for professionally responsible conclusions to be reached.

Of course, physical aggression may arise in a context that is developmentally, emotionally, environmentally, or neurodevelopmentally understandable. That context remains important to understanding the child or young person, but it does not remove the practice’s responsibility to maintain a physical-safety boundary appropriate to its setting, staffing, and available resources.

Where a history meeting this boundary is known during the suitability process, the private referral will not be accepted. Where information establishing the boundary becomes apparent only after professional work has begun, the assessment will be discontinued.

Suitability decisions are made consistently with the P.S.I. Code of Professional Ethics, including the requirement to practise within professional competence and to refer where another service is better placed to provide the support required. Disability-related reasonable accommodation is considered in accordance with section 4 of the Equal Status Act 2000 and its statutory limits. Where there is a concern about harm to the person or to others, any different treatment on safety grounds is limited to what is reasonably necessary to prevent that harm.

The assessment-participation requirements, available reasonable adjustments, and circumstances in which sufficient participation cannot be achieved are governed by Assessment Process, Participation, Access and Reasonable Adjustments.

Suitability Is Distinct From Diagnostic Outcome

Acceptance of a referral means that the requested pathway appears appropriate to pursue on the information reasonably available at that stage. It does not mean that a particular diagnosis is expected or that the available evidence will ultimately support progression through every possible assessment component.

For Autism and A.D.H.D. pathways that include a Parent Consultation, the Parent Consultation provides a further clinical decision point. Information obtained before or during that consultation may indicate that a full assessment is appropriate, that a different or broader pathway should be considered, or that further assessment is not clinically justified at that time.

Where a full assessment is not recommended, this does not make the Parent Consultation incomplete or unsuccessful. The Parent Consultation remains the separate professional service contracted under Formation and Scope of the Service Contract. Any diagnostic conclusion is governed by Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes.

Changes in Circumstances or New Information

Suitability is determined from the information reasonably available at the relevant time. A referral that appeared appropriate when first reviewed may need to be reconsidered if material circumstances change or significant new information becomes available before the assessment begins.

The person arranging the service is responsible for informing All Kinds of Minds Assessments promptly of any material change known to them that could affect the appropriateness or safe planning of the assessment. This may include a substantial change in mental-health, medical, safeguarding, or safety needs; a new assessment or diagnosis; the involvement of another service in substantially overlapping work; a significant change in family or legal circumstances affecting consent, confidentiality, objectivity, or professional boundaries; or other information that would reasonably have been relevant to the original suitability decision.

New information is not treated as wrongdoing merely because it was not previously known. Where it indicates that the private pathway may no longer be appropriate, the referral will be reviewed and the resulting decision explained to the extent professionally and legally appropriate.

Where an active professional service has already begun and discontinuation becomes necessary, Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries applies. Any financial consequences are governed by Cancellation, Withdrawal, Non-Attendance and Refunds.

Information That Is Unavailable, Withheld or Misrepresented

Families and young people are expected to provide, to the best of their knowledge, information that is accurate and not materially misleading and that is reasonably required to determine suitability and undertake the assessment responsibly.

Parents, legal guardians, consenting young people, and other adults providing referral information must disclose any known history of physical aggression, violence, credible threats of physical harm, or behaviour resulting in injury to another person where that information is relevant to the safety or suitability of the proposed assessment. Accurate disclosure allows the practice to determine whether its outpatient assessment setting is appropriate before the child or young person is asked to participate.

Relevant information should not be withheld because the behaviour occurred in another setting, has reduced over time, or has an understandable developmental, emotional, environmental, or neurodevelopmental explanation. Those circumstances may be important to understanding the behaviour, but the practice still requires the information to assess suitability and safety responsibly.

Families are not expected to predict future behaviour or attach clinical significance to developmentally ordinary childhood incidents. Information that genuinely becomes known only after the assessment has begun is not treated as having been withheld.

Not every historical record or potentially useful source must be available before a referral can proceed. The relevant question is whether sufficient information is available to make an appropriate suitability decision and, subsequently, to undertake the agreed assessment to an appropriate professional standard.

Where information necessary to establish suitability, consent, or safety is unavailable, the referral may remain pending while reasonable clarification is sought or may be unable to proceed.

A different issue arises where material information known to be relevant to suitability, consent, or safety is knowingly withheld or materially misrepresented. This may independently undermine the professional basis on which the referral was accepted. Where the omission or misrepresentation affects whether the service can appropriately be offered, the referral may be declined or reconsidered. Where the information also establishes the physical-safety boundary above after an active professional service has begun, the assessment will be discontinued. Any resulting discontinuation is governed by Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries, and any financial consequences are governed by Cancellation, Withdrawal, Non-Attendance and Refunds.

Where a Private Referral Is Not Suitable

Where the available information indicates that the requested private assessment is not appropriate within the scope, competence, or resources of All Kinds of Minds Assessments, the referral will not proceed through that pathway.

The family or young person will ordinarily be given a concise explanation of the reason, insofar as this is professionally and legally appropriate. Where another pathway appears reasonably identifiable, appropriate signposting may be provided. This may include advising the family to discuss H.S.E. Primary Care or children’s disability services, a Children’s Disability Network Team, C.A.M.H.S., or another specialist service with their G.P. or to consider an appropriately qualified private professional.

Signposting does not mean that All Kinds of Minds Assessments can determine eligibility for another service, secure acceptance by that service, or assume continuing case-management responsibility.

Private Wait-List Management

A child or young person is added to the relevant private wait list only after the required preliminary information and consent documentation have been received, reviewed, and accepted.

A wait-list place records the child’s or young person’s position within the relevant private pathway. It does not guarantee an exact appointment date or indicate that the eventual assessment outcome has been determined. Waiting times and scheduling may be affected by available Clinical Psychology capacity, the assessment pathway required, the clinical and administrative work associated with existing cases, and, where applicable, multidisciplinary availability.

The practice may close a wait list to new referrals when available capacity has been reached and may reopen it when further capacity becomes available. Closing a wait list to new referrals does not, by itself, remove children and young people who have already been accepted onto that wait list.

Families and young people already on a wait list may be contacted to confirm that they still wish to proceed, obtain updated information where reasonably necessary, reconsider suitability following a material change, or arrange the next stage when capacity becomes available. They are responsible for keeping their contact details reasonably up to date.

Where reasonable attempts to make contact receive no response, All Kinds of Minds Assessments may give a reasonable final opportunity to reply before closing the wait-list position.

If assessment is sought after a wait-list position has been closed, the referral may need to enter the suitability process again according to the service scope and available capacity at that time.

Changes to future published fees while a child or young person is waiting are governed by Fees and Payment. Changes to these Terms are governed by Changes to These Terms.

H.S.E.-Commissioned Referrals

H.S.E.-commissioned referrals are separate from the private suitability, purchasing, and wait-list pathway. A private wait-list position does not create priority or entitlement within an H.S.E.-commissioned pathway, and an H.S.E.-commissioned referral does not place a child, young person, or family on a private wait list.

The H.S.E. determines the authorised referral and commissioned scope under the applicable arrangements. H.S.E.-commissioned referrals are governed by H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments.

General Consent Principles

Valid consent is fundamental to every assessment undertaken by All Kinds of Minds Assessments. Consent must be informed, voluntary, given by the person or persons who have lawful authority to provide it, and supported by sufficient ability to understand the decision being made.

Consent is an ongoing process rather than a single administrative event. Before an assessment proceeds, the person providing consent must receive sufficient information about the nature and purpose of the proposed assessment, what participation is likely to involve, the material limits of the service, how information will ordinarily be used and shared, the possible range of assessment outcomes, and the right to ask questions or withdraw consent.

A completed Consent Form records the consent process but does not replace it. Where clarification is required, consent will be discussed before the assessment proceeds. Material changes to the nature or purpose of the agreed service will be explained, and further consent will be obtained where required. Clinically appropriate refinement of individual assessment components within an agreed pathway is governed by Formation and Scope of the Service Contract.

Consent is managed in accordance with applicable Irish law, professional obligations, and the H.S.E. National Consent Policy.

Children Under 16

For every planned assessment of a child under 16, All Kinds of Minds requires the informed and freely given consent of every person who holds legal guardianship of the child. This consent must be established before the referral is accepted into the private assessment pathway or wait list and before assessment-related professional work begins.

An exception applies where an existing court order, statutory authority, or other valid lawful arrangement establishes a different legal consent structure, such as where one person has sole guardianship or sole authority to make the relevant decision, another person’s guardianship has been removed or limited, or Tusla holds applicable statutory authority. The practice must be satisfied that the arrangement is legally effective and that the proposed assessment otherwise remains appropriate within its Scope of Practice.

The requirement for consent from every legal guardian is a condition of offering an elective assessment through this practice. It applies even where another healthcare provider might lawfully adopt a different consent process. It applies regardless of where the child ordinarily lives, which parent provides most of the child’s day-to-day care, whether the guardians live together, and whether one guardian has limited contact with the child.

Consent is not inferred from silence, failure to respond, payment of a fee, completion of forms by another person, or the consent of one guardian alone. Where another legal guardian cannot be contacted, has not responded, disagrees with the assessment, or has not freely consented, the referral cannot be accepted or progressed unless an existing lawful arrangement clearly establishes that their consent is not required.

The practice must be informed of every person who holds legal guardianship. Where the guardianship or consent position is uncertain, disputed, incomplete, or unusual, appropriate documentary evidence may be required. The assessment will not proceed while the legal authority to consent remains materially unclear.

All Kinds of Minds does not rely on the consent of a child under 16 as the sole legal basis for an elective assessment. The child’s own views, wishes, questions, communication, developing autonomy, and willingness to participate nevertheless remain central. Information will be provided in a manner appropriate to the child’s age, maturity, developmental profile, and communication needs, and their assent will be actively sought.

Legal consent from an adult does not mean that a child is expected to participate passively or can appropriately be compelled through assessment activities. If a child does not wish to participate, becomes significantly distressed, or communicates a need to pause or stop, this will be responded to respectfully. The implications for the assessment will be considered in accordance with Assessment Process, Participation, Access and Reasonable Adjustments.

What Legal Guardianship Means

Legal guardianship concerns responsibility for a child’s upbringing and welfare and the authority to participate in important decisions affecting the child. It is distinct from custody, access, residence, contact, financial maintenance, and the practical provision of day-to-day care.

Custody generally concerns the child’s day-to-day care and where the child lives. Access or contact concerns the relationship and time a child has with a parent or another person. Neither custody nor access necessarily determines who holds legal guardianship or who must consent to an assessment.

The guardianship position depends on the child’s individual family and legal circumstances. Common routes to guardianship include the following:

• A child’s birth mother is ordinarily an automatic legal guardian, subject to any later adoption order or other legal arrangement affecting that status.

• Where the child’s parents were married to one another when the child was born, both parents are ordinarily legal guardians. Where the parents marry after the child’s birth, the child’s father ordinarily becomes a legal guardian. Separation or divorce does not, by itself, end either parent’s guardianship.

• An adoptive parent becomes a legal guardian in accordance with the applicable adoption order and legislation.

• An unmarried father may acquire guardianship automatically where he has lived with the child’s mother for at least 12 consecutive months, including at least three months with the mother and child following the child’s birth. Only qualifying periods of cohabitation occurring on or after 18 January 2016 count towards this statutory route.

• An unmarried father who does not qualify through cohabitation may become a guardian through a statutory declaration agreed with the child’s mother or through appointment by the Court.

• Parentage and guardianship arising through donor-assisted human reproduction depend on whether the statutory conditions applicable to the conception and birth have been satisfied. Where those conditions apply, a mother’s spouse or civil partner may be recognised as a legal parent and guardian. Different requirements may apply to a cohabiting parent or where the statutory donor-assisted reproduction framework does not govern the circumstances.

• A step-parent, civil partner, cohabitant, or other eligible adult does not become a legal guardian merely because they live with the child or participate extensively in the child’s care. They may acquire guardianship through a Court appointment where the statutory conditions are met.

• An adult who has provided the child’s day-to-day care for the required period may, in particular circumstances, apply to the Court for guardianship where no parent or guardian is willing or able to exercise guardianship responsibilities.

• A temporary guardian may be appointed through the applicable legal process where an existing guardian is unable to exercise their responsibilities because of serious illness or injury.

• A testamentary guardian may be appointed to act following the death of a parent or guardian, subject to the applicable legal requirements and any Court involvement that may be necessary.

• Adoption, donor-assisted reproduction, surrogacy, parentage orders, testamentary or temporary appointments, Tusla involvement, and other family arrangements may create more complex guardianship questions. In those circumstances, the practice will rely on the operative legal arrangements and supporting documentation rather than making assumptions based on biological relationships, family roles, or living arrangements.

Further general information is available from the Courts Service guidance on guardianship and the H.S.E. National Consent Policy.

Being a child’s biological parent, being named on a birth certificate, paying maintenance, holding custody or access rights, living with the child, or providing most of the child’s care does not necessarily establish the complete guardianship position. Equally, an existing legal guardian does not cease to be a guardian merely because they no longer live with the child, have limited involvement, do not exercise access, or are separated or divorced from the child’s other parent.

Establishing the Guardianship Position

Parents and guardians are responsible for providing complete and accurate information about the child’s guardianship circumstances, identifying every person who holds legal guardianship, and disclosing any order or arrangement that affects authority to consent.

Where reasonably necessary, All Kinds of Minds may request documentary evidence sufficient to establish the consent position. Depending on the circumstances, this may include a birth or adoption certificate, statutory guardianship declaration, guardianship or family-law order, care order, written confirmation of Tusla authority, parentage documentation, or another relevant legal record.

Only information reasonably necessary to establish the applicable authority will be requested. Where a broader court order contains unrelated personal or financial information, the practice may accept an appropriate certified extract or other reliable confirmation where this is sufficient to establish the operative provisions.

A statement that a person is the child’s sole guardian must be supported by an identifiable legal basis where the circumstances indicate that another person may also hold guardianship. A parent’s absence, lack of contact, limited involvement, disagreement, or failure to respond is not evidence that their guardianship has ended.

All relevant orders and restrictions must be disclosed, including provisions concerning guardianship, decision-making authority, custody, access, contact, care status, or the obtaining and circulation of professional reports. The practice will act on the legal arrangements currently in force rather than on informal understandings, anticipated court outcomes, or one person’s interpretation of an order.

All Kinds of Minds does not provide family-law advice or determine disputed questions of guardianship. Where the legal position cannot be established from the available information, the family may need to obtain independent legal advice or authoritative confirmation before the referral can be considered further.

Knowingly withholding or materially misrepresenting information about guardianship, consent, a relevant dispute, or an applicable court order may result in a referral being declined or reconsidered. Where professional work has already begun, the position will be managed under Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries.

Separated or Divorced Parents and Family-Law Proceedings

Separation, divorce, an ongoing separation or divorce process, or the existence of family-law proceedings does not automatically prevent an assessment. Proceedings concerned only with adult financial or property matters and having no material connection with the child or proposed assessment do not, by themselves, make a referral unsuitable.

An assessment may be considered where every person whose consent is required freely agrees that the assessment should proceed, the referral has an appropriate clinical purpose, and the family or legal circumstances do not create an unresolved issue that materially affects the child’s welfare, the validity of consent, confidentiality, the reliability or availability of relevant information, professional objectivity, or the non-forensic nature of the service.

Where one legal guardian objects to the assessment, disputes that it should occur, declines to consent, or cannot freely provide consent because of pressure, intimidation, or unresolved conflict, the referral will not be accepted through this private practice. The consent of another guardian, including a guardian with primary custody or day-to-day care, does not override that position.

All Kinds of Minds does not mediate disputes between guardians, seek consent on one guardian’s behalf, advise either person about family-law proceedings, or provide an opinion about how a guardianship dispute should be resolved.

Where consent for the particular assessment would need to be established by asking a court to override an active objection, compel participation, or direct that the disputed assessment take place, the referral falls outside the ordinary scope of this private practice. A court’s legal authority to make decisions concerning a child does not require All Kinds of Minds to accept a referral that has become contested, court-directed, or materially connected with family-law litigation.

This is distinct from an existing order that already establishes sole guardianship, removes or limits another person’s guardianship, assigns the relevant decision-making authority to a particular person, or otherwise determines who may lawfully consent. Such an order may establish the legal consent position, but the referral remains subject to the ordinary Scope of Practice and suitability requirements.

If a disagreement is genuinely resolved and every required guardian subsequently provides free and informed consent without the assessment becoming court-directed or forensic in purpose, a new suitability decision may be made on the circumstances then existing. No previous enquiry or wait-list position guarantees that the referral will be accepted.

Significant acrimony may remain relevant even where signatures have been obtained. The practice may decline a referral where the circumstances create a material and reasonable concern that consent is not genuinely voluntary, that the child may be placed within an unresolved adult dispute, that the assessment process or report is likely to be used to advance conflicting legal positions, or that the Clinical Psychologist may be drawn into a role beyond her competence and the clinical scope of the practice.

The boundaries concerning forensic, court-directed, and litigation-related work are addressed under Scope of Practice and Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions.

Young People Aged 16 and 17

Young people aged 16 and 17 provide their own informed and voluntary consent to assessment at All Kinds of Minds.

Section 23 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 recognises the legally effective consent of a person aged 16 or 17 to treatment, including procedures undertaken for diagnosis, without requiring additional parental or guardian consent. The H.S.E. National Consent Policy applies the same consent position to young people of these ages.

A parent or guardian may initiate an enquiry, assist with administration, pay for an assessment, provide relevant developmental information, or support the young person’s participation. These actions do not substitute for the young person’s own consent and do not give the parent or guardian authority to require the assessment to proceed against the young person’s wishes.

Developmental and neurodevelopmental assessment ordinarily requires relevant background and contextual information from a parent, caregiver, school, or another appropriate source. The young person will be informed about the involvement reasonably required for their particular assessment. Where they do not consent to involvement or information-sharing that is clinically necessary for a sufficiently informed and responsible assessment, the practice may be unable to offer, continue, or complete that assessment.

A young person’s information remains their confidential information. A parent or guardian does not acquire an unrestricted entitlement to the assessment report, appointment content, clinical records, or other confidential information merely because they initiated the enquiry, completed administrative forms, attended an appointment, provided information, or paid the fee.

Information concerning a 16- or 17-year-old will not ordinarily be shared with a parent or guardian without the young person’s consent unless another lawful basis or professional obligation permits or requires disclosure. Confidentiality, safeguarding, serious-risk circumstances, and disclosures required or permitted by law are governed by Confidentiality, Safeguarding and Required Disclosures and the Child Safeguarding Statement.

Consent ability is considered in relation to the particular assessment decision. Information will be communicated accessibly, and reasonable support will be provided to help the young person understand, use, and weigh the relevant information and communicate their decision.

Where there is a specific and reasonable concern that a young person cannot provide valid consent even with appropriate support, All Kinds of Minds will consider the applicable legal authority and whether the proposed assessment can responsibly be provided within this practice. The practice will not assume that another person may automatically consent on the young person’s behalf. As the service is elective and assessment-focused, it may be unable to proceed where a sufficiently clear and lawful consent basis cannot be established.

If a young person aged 16 or 17 does not consent to the assessment or withdraws consent, the elective assessment will not proceed or continue.

Children and Young People in the Care of Tusla

The consent position for a child or young person in the care of the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, depends on the young person’s age, the legal basis of the care arrangement, the terms of any applicable order, and the particular decision being made.

Where a child is in voluntary care, their parent or existing legal guardian ordinarily retains guardianship and consent responsibilities unless another lawful arrangement applies.

Where a full care order is in force, Tusla has statutory responsibilities and may hold authority to consent to examinations, assessments, or treatment necessary to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. The consent arrangements for emergency, interim, special-care, or other orders may differ and must be determined from the order and applicable statutory framework.

A foster carer or residential-care provider does not automatically become the child’s legal guardian because they provide day-to-day care. They may have delegated authority for particular decisions or may separately have been appointed as a guardian, but the nature and extent of that authority must be established.

All Kinds of Minds may require a copy of the relevant care order, written confirmation from an authorised Tusla representative, or other sufficient documentation before proceeding. Where Tusla holds the relevant authority, consent and information-sharing arrangements will be established with an appropriately authorised representative.

For a young person aged 16 or 17 who is in care, their own informed consent remains essential. The ordinary consent and confidentiality principles applying to young people of those ages continue to apply.

A referral from Tusla, the H.S.E., a foster carer, a residential service, or another professional does not itself constitute consent. The lawful consent arrangements must be established separately before assessment proceeds. Relevant statutory provisions are contained in the Child Care Act 1991, as amended.

Court Orders and Other Legal Authority

A court order may appoint or remove a guardian, limit a guardian’s authority, assign decision-making responsibility, authorise a particular person or statutory body to consent, or otherwise affect the legal arrangements concerning a child.

Where reliance is placed on an order, All Kinds of Minds may require a complete copy or a sufficiently authenticated copy or extract showing the operative provisions. The practice will act only on the authority actually conferred by the order.

The existence of proceedings, correspondence from a solicitor, an application awaiting determination, or one party’s statement about what a court has decided does not alter the consent position. An anticipated or proposed order is not treated as though it were already in force.

Where the meaning, validity, scope, or continuing effect of an order is materially unclear, the assessment will not proceed until sufficient authoritative clarification has been obtained. The practice will not interpret competing legal submissions or adjudicate disagreements about the meaning of an order.

Recognition of a person’s lawful authority to consent does not, by itself, require All Kinds of Minds to accept or continue a referral. The assessment must also remain clinically appropriate, capable of being undertaken independently, and within the professional and service scope of the practice.

All Kinds of Minds does not provide assessments commissioned or directed for the purpose of family-law or child-care proceedings, expert-witness work, parental-capacity assessment, voice-of-the-child reporting, or the resolution of disputes concerning guardianship, custody, access, contact, or parenting arrangements. An order obtained for the purpose of compelling or authorising a disputed assessment does not convert that work into an assessment that this practice is professionally required to undertake.

Withdrawal and Changes in Consent

Consent to continue an assessment may be withdrawn at any stage.

For a child under 16, withdrawal by any person whose consent is required means that no further elective assessment work will proceed unless an existing court order, statutory authority, or other lawful arrangement establishes a different consent position and the assessment remains within the Scope of Practice. Where the withdrawal reflects an active dispute or would require court intervention to overcome, the assessment will not continue through the ordinary private pathway.

For a young person aged 16 or 17, withdrawal of their consent means that the assessment will not continue.

Withdrawal of consent does not retrospectively invalidate professional work already undertaken. The practice may take reasonable steps to bring the active service to a safe and orderly conclusion, maintain an appropriate record, comply with safeguarding or other legal obligations, and communicate information where disclosure is lawfully required.

Consent to participate in an assessment is distinct from the lawful basis for processing and retaining information already received or created. The handling of personal information following withdrawal is governed by the Privacy Policy. Any financial consequences of withdrawal are governed exclusively by Cancellation, Withdrawal, Non-Attendance and Refunds.

Parents, guardians, and young people must inform the practice promptly of any material change affecting consent or legal authority. This includes the young person reaching the age of 16 before the assessment begins or while it is underway, a change in guardianship, a new or varied court order, a change in care status, the emergence of a guardianship dispute, or the withdrawal of consent by a person whose consent is required.

Where such a change occurs, the consent position and continuing suitability of the service will be reviewed before further assessment work proceeds.

Assessment at All Kinds of Minds Assessments is undertaken in a manner intended to obtain clinically meaningful information while respecting the rights, dignity, communication, comfort and individual needs of the child or young person. Different parts of an assessment may require different forms of participation. The evidential basis of assessment and the way information is integrated are addressed separately under Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments and Reassessment.

Meaningful Participation by Children and Young People

Children and young people are not required to communicate, move, interact or regulate themselves in a neurotypical manner in order to participate meaningfully in assessment.

Anxiety, uncertainty, communication differences, sensory needs, A.D.H.D.-related movement or regulation differences, reduced or variable eye contact, stimming, limited speech, a need for additional processing time, a need to move, initial reluctance or difficulty remaining seated do not, in themselves, make a child unsuitable for assessment.

Children and young people may require breaks, movement, sensory supports, reassurance, additional processing time, reduced unnecessary verbal or social demand, clearer preparation, or other individualised supports. The aim is to create conditions in which the child or young person can participate as naturally and comfortably as reasonably possible while allowing the assessment to remain clinically meaningful.

The child or young person's own experience of the assessment matters. The legal and practice requirements concerning consent are addressed under Consent, Guardianship and Family Circumstances. Within this elective assessment service, however, valid guardian consent does not mean that a child will be pressured or coerced through an assessment procedure where they are communicating significant distress, sustained unwillingness to continue or a clear wish for the activity to stop.

Children and young people will be supported to understand what is happening in a manner appropriate to their age, development and communication style. Their verbal and non-verbal communication will be taken seriously throughout the assessment.

Difficulty participating is not treated as misconduct or non-attendance. A child who becomes tearful, needs to move, seeks sensory regulation, requires a break, declines a task, shuts down, communicates frustration or otherwise finds part of the assessment difficult will be responded to according to their individual needs and the clinical context. The first consideration will be whether the assessment can appropriately be supported, adapted, paused, rescheduled or approached differently.

Reasonable Adjustments and Assessment Validity

Parents, caregivers and young people are encouraged to tell All Kinds of Minds about communication, sensory, physical-access, regulation or other needs that may affect participation. Early information can assist with planning, but failure to identify a need in advance does not prevent an adjustment being considered when that need becomes apparent.

All Kinds of Minds will consider disability-related reasonable accommodation in accordance with applicable equality law and will also use clinically appropriate adjustments more broadly where these support fair and meaningful participation.

Depending on the individual child or young person and the assessment being undertaken, adjustments may include planned or additional breaks, movement opportunities, sensory supports, additional processing time, clearer preparation about what to expect, adjustments to pacing or sequencing, reduced unnecessary social or verbal demands, or other individualised arrangements.

Reasonable adjustment does not require a child or young person to suppress their natural communication, movement or regulation differences simply to conform to a standardised assessment environment. Equally, some psychological procedures have standardised administration requirements that cannot be substantially altered without changing what is being measured or affecting the validity or interpretability of the results.

Where a proposed adjustment could materially affect a standardised procedure, the Clinical Psychologist will determine whether the procedure can still be used and interpreted appropriately. Depending on the circumstances, this may involve using an alternative source or method of obtaining relevant information, modifying the sequence or setting where this can be done appropriately, interpreting findings more cautiously or qualitatively, or deciding not to complete that particular procedure.

The purpose of assessment is not simply to obtain a score or complete every planned procedure. Information relied upon in reaching a clinical conclusion must be sufficiently valid, meaningful and fair to the child or young person.

Parent-Focused Appointments and Child Attendance

Parent Consultation Appointments, parent developmental-history or interview appointments and Parent Feedback Appointments are ordinarily intended to take place without the child or young person present.

These appointments may involve detailed developmental history, family circumstances, health or mental-health information, different observations or concerns reported by adults, and other information that may be sensitive or developmentally inappropriate for a child to hear discussed about themselves in that format. Parents and caregivers also require an appropriate private space in which to speak openly, ask questions and provide relevant information.

Unless expressly agreed in advance, the child or young person being assessed should therefore not attend or be within hearing of a parent-focused appointment. This applies to both in-person and remote appointments.

For remote appointments, the participating adult should arrange a sufficiently private environment in which the discussion cannot ordinarily be overheard by the child or young person. If appropriate privacy cannot be achieved, or a child or young person is unexpectedly present throughout a parent-focused appointment, the appointment may need to be rearranged.

This arrangement does not exclude children and young people from their own assessment or diminish the importance of their perspective. Their experience and views are considered through developmentally and clinically appropriate parts of the assessment process.

For an older adolescent, participation in a parent-focused discussion or feedback appointment may sometimes be appropriate. This should be discussed and agreed in advance and must be consistent with the young person's own consent and confidentiality rights.

Clinic Access and Physical Accessibility

All Kinds of Minds operates by prearranged appointment only and does not provide a walk-in service. Families should attend at the scheduled appointment time and ordinarily no more than five minutes beforehand. This supports privacy between families and reduces unnecessary overlap within the clinic.

All required child-focused assessment appointments take place in person at the All Kinds of Minds clinic in Sligo. Some parent- or caregiver-focused components may be completed remotely where this is clinically appropriate and consistent with the agreed assessment pathway. Families and young people considering the service must nevertheless be able to travel to Sligo for the required in-person appointments.

The clinic is located on the first floor at 10 Stephen Street, Rathquarter, Sligo, F91 V2XR and is reached by stairs. There is no lift or step-free access. The child or young person and any parent, caregiver, or other person whose attendance is required must therefore be able to reach the first-floor clinic by stairs. Current travel, parking, and arrival information is available on the Location page.

All Kinds of Minds cannot relocate a required in-person assessment component to another premises or replace it with a remote appointment where direct in-person administration is clinically necessary. Where the child or young person, an accompanying adult, or another required participant cannot access the clinic by stairs, the practice will be unable to provide the required in-person component and may be unable to offer or continue the assessment pathway.

This physical limitation is distinct from the communication, sensory, regulation, pacing, and other reasonable adjustments that may be made within the clinic. Those adjustments will continue to be considered individually in accordance with the preceding provisions concerning Reasonable Adjustments and Assessment Validity. Where an assessment cannot begin or continue because an essential in-person component cannot be undertaken, any resulting financial adjustment is governed solely by Cancellation, Withdrawal, Non-Attendance and Refunds.

Communication, Language and Interpreting

Clinical appointments and Psychological Reports at All Kinds of Minds are ordinarily provided in English. Communication used during assessment must nevertheless be sufficiently accessible to support valid consent, meaningful participation and clinically reliable information gathering.

Where a parent, caregiver, child or young person requires an interpreter or another form of communication support, the practice should be informed as early as reasonably possible. The appropriate arrangement will depend on the person's needs and on the nature of the assessment component.

Where spoken-language interpretation is required for a private assessment and the need does not arise from a disability-related communication requirement, the family will ordinarily be asked to arrange a suitably qualified and independent professional interpreter, unless another arrangement has been expressly agreed. Any associated interpreter cost will ordinarily be the responsibility of the family in those circumstances.

Communication support required because of disability will be considered separately in accordance with applicable reasonable-accommodation obligations.

Children and young people will not be expected to interpret clinical information for a parent or another adult. Family members and friends are not ordinarily appropriate substitutes for a professional interpreter during informed-consent discussions, developmental or diagnostic interviews, feedback involving sensitive clinical information, or other substantive assessment procedures. Accuracy, independence, confidentiality and the ability of participants to discuss sensitive information freely may otherwise be compromised.

Any interpreter participating in an assessment must be able to work accurately, impartially and confidentially within the clinical context.

The use of an interpreter in direct standardised assessment requires particular consideration. Some tests and procedures cannot validly be translated, interpreted or modified in real time. Where interpreting would materially alter what a procedure measures or prevent responsible interpretation of the results, that procedure will not be administered in that form. Another appropriate source or method of assessment will be considered where available.

Psychological Reports are prepared in English. Where a family independently arranges translation of a report, the English-language report remains the original report issued by All Kinds of Minds. The practice cannot verify the accuracy or completeness of a translation produced independently by another person or service. Where a translated report is required for formal use, an appropriately qualified translator should be used.

Interpreter and communication-support arrangements for H.S.E.-commissioned assessments are additionally subject to the requirements applicable to the commissioned referral.

Accompanying Adults During Child Appointments

For an in-person assessment appointment involving a child under 16, a parent or other responsible caregiver must ordinarily remain on the premises and be readily available throughout the appointment unless a different arrangement has been expressly agreed in advance.

The accompanying adult will usually remain in the adjacent waiting area while direct assessment takes place unless their presence in the assessment room is clinically appropriate or specifically requested by the clinician.

Parents and caregivers remain responsible for the child outside periods of direct clinical assessment and for supervising any other child whom they bring to the premises.

Young people aged 16 or 17 may attend appropriate assessment appointments independently where this has been agreed and is consistent with the arrangements for their assessment.

Safety During an Assessment Appointment

The presence of distress, dysregulation, movement, refusal, shutdown, sensory needs, frustration or differences in communication is not, in itself, treated as dangerous or unacceptable behaviour.

If physical behaviour arises during an appointment that creates an immediate or escalating risk of harm to the child, young person or another person, the assessment activity will stop. The immediate priority will be safety and regulation rather than completion of the planned procedure.

A parent or caregiver may be asked to assist the child to leave the assessment space or premises where this can be done safely. Where an immediate danger cannot safely be managed within the clinic, appropriate emergency assistance may be sought.

Stopping an assessment activity because of an immediate safety concern is not a judgement about the child's intentions, character or neurodevelopmental profile. The broader circumstances in which significant safety concerns or patterns of behaviour may affect whether the practice can continue an assessment are addressed under Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries.

When an Assessment Cannot Be Completed

Participation can be difficult to predict in advance. An unexpected difficulty during assessment is not treated as a failure by the child or family.

Where participation becomes difficult, the Clinical Psychologist will first consider whether reasonable adjustment, additional preparation, a pause, rescheduling, a different sequence or another clinically appropriate approach could allow the assessment to continue.

There may nevertheless be circumstances in which an assessment or particular assessment component cannot be completed safely, meaningfully or to an appropriate professional standard. This may occur where continuing would place the child or young person under unreasonable distress, where they clearly communicate that they do not wish to continue, where sufficient participation cannot be achieved despite appropriate support and adjustment, or where the available conditions would not permit sufficiently valid and responsible conclusions to be drawn.

Where this occurs, the reasons will be explained to the family and, where appropriate, another assessment, review or support pathway may be recommended. The Clinical Psychologist will not force completion of a procedure merely because it formed part of the original assessment plan.

Any decision about formal discontinuation of the assessment relationship is governed by Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries. Any resulting fee, outstanding balance or refund is governed by Cancellation, Withdrawal, Non-Attendance and Refunds.

Psychological assessment at All Kinds of Minds Assessments is based on the careful integration of relevant information rather than on any single test, questionnaire, observation, informant, or source.

The nature and amount of evidence required depend on the assessment question, the child or young person’s age and developmental history, the clarity and complexity of their presentation, the information already available, and the requirements of the agreed assessment pathway. Assessment is individualised and is not governed by an inflexible requirement to collect the same information or administer the same measures in every case.

Professional assessment work must have a clear clinical purpose, remain within the competence and service capacity of the practice, and offer a reasonable prospect of providing useful information without unnecessary duplication or avoidable burden. These principles reflect the requirements concerning competence, limits of procedures, responsibility, and avoidance of harm within the P.S.I. Code of Professional Ethics.

Sources and Weight of Assessment Evidence

Depending on the assessment pathway and clinical question, relevant evidence may include the child or young person’s own account and communication, information from parents or legal guardians, developmental and family history, educational and medical information, information from teachers or other people who know the young person well, previous professional reports and records, direct interaction and observation, standardised psychological measures, cognitive or attainment assessment, questionnaires and rating scales, and information contributed by other clinicians participating in an agreed multidisciplinary assessment.

These sources provide different kinds of information. They are not treated as votes for or against a particular conclusion. No source automatically determines the outcome merely because it agrees or disagrees with another source.

The Clinical Psychologist considers the relevance, quality, and limitations of the available information. This includes the context in which the information was obtained, the person’s opportunity to observe the experiences being described, the purpose and psychometric properties of any measure used, the conditions under which an assessment procedure was completed, the consistency of the evidence over time, and any other factor materially affecting interpretation.

Standardised scores and classification thresholds are interpreted within this wider evidential context. They are not treated as self-interpreting facts. A questionnaire, screening measure, individual psychometric score, observation, or automated output is not used in isolation to establish or exclude a diagnosis.

The professional integration of evidence, application of diagnostic criteria, management of uncertainty, and resulting diagnostic formulation are governed by Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes.

Information Across Settings

Understanding a child or young person’s experiences across relevant contexts can be important in neurodevelopmental assessment. Information from an educational setting is commonly sought where it is likely to add meaningful evidence to the assessment.

A teacher questionnaire, school report, school observation, or direct contact with a school is not an inflexible requirement in every assessment. The information required is determined clinically according to the assessment question, the applicable diagnostic framework, the evidence already available, the young person’s circumstances, and whether further information is reasonably likely to improve the quality of the assessment.

Where sufficiently informative evidence about relevant contexts is already available through other sources, additional school contact or repeated information gathering may not be necessary. Where evidence concerning the young person’s presentation or functioning in another context is required to answer the assessment question responsibly, the Clinical Psychologist may need to obtain further information before reaching a conclusion.

Professional guidance and assessment protocols inform these decisions but do not operate as rigid checklists independently of the individual child or young person. The Clinical Psychologist remains responsible for ensuring that the assessment evidence is sufficient, valid, and appropriate for the conclusions reached.

Where applicable, Autism assessment is informed by the H.S.E. National Protocol for Autism Assessment and Intervention Pathways, which matches the intensity of assessment to the complexity of the presentation and places the selection of the appropriate assessment approach within the professional judgement of the assessing clinician or clinicians.

Differences Between Sources of Information

It is common for children and young people to present differently across home, school, clinical, and social environments. Parents, young people, teachers, and professionals may also report different experiences or observe different aspects of the young person’s presentation.

A difference between sources is not automatically treated as evidence that one person’s account is inaccurate or that one source should override another. Different people may observe the young person under different demands, relationships, supports, and environmental conditions. They may also have access to different aspects of the young person’s internal experience, communication, or functioning.

Contextual variation may be particularly relevant where a child or young person uses substantial effort to manage demands, masks or compensates in some environments, experiences different levels of sensory or social demand across settings, or receives supports that substantially affect how their needs are expressed.

Where accounts or findings differ materially, the Clinical Psychologist will consider whether the difference can be understood from the available evidence or whether further information is required. This may involve clarification with an informant, review of another source, additional observation or assessment, or recognition that a limitation remains within the available evidence.

Where material evidence remains unavailable or cannot adequately be reconciled, this may affect the extent or confidence of the conclusions that can responsibly be drawn. The diagnostic significance of conflicting, incomplete, or contextually variable evidence is governed by Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes.

Previous Assessments, Diagnoses and Reports

Previous psychological, educational, developmental, medical, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, psychiatric, or other relevant assessments may provide important information about the child or young person’s developmental history, previous functioning, identified strengths and needs, earlier diagnostic conclusions, and changes over time.

Families are required to disclose relevant previous assessments and, where reasonably available, provide copies of the resulting reports. This supports an informed assessment, allows the Clinical Psychologist to understand work already undertaken, and reduces the risk of unnecessary or psychometrically inappropriate repetition.

Previous reports are considered as part of the evidence available to the current assessment. The relevance and weight given to a previous report depend on its purpose, scope, recency, professional source, methods, available supporting information, and relationship to the current assessment question.

An established diagnosis made by an appropriately qualified professional is ordinarily recognised as part of the child or young person’s clinical history. It is not automatically invalidated because a later questionnaire, observation, or individual assessment measure produces a different result, or because the young person presents differently at another point in development or in another context.

Recognition of an existing diagnosis does not require the Clinical Psychologist to adopt every interpretation, recommendation, or descriptive statement contained in an earlier report. The Clinical Psychologist remains independently responsible for the formulation and conclusions reached within the service provided by All Kinds of Minds.

The existence of a previous diagnosis does not prevent clinically relevant information concerning the young person’s current profile from being considered. Any later revision of a diagnostic formulation must arise from a legitimate current clinical purpose and sufficiently persuasive evidence. It will not be undertaken through this practice as an appeal against, audit of, or requested reversal of another professional’s conclusion.

Where an earlier report is unavailable, this does not automatically prevent assessment. The Clinical Psychologist will consider whether sufficient alternative information is available. If a missing report or record is materially necessary to understand previous assessment activity, avoid inappropriate retesting, or answer the current assessment question responsibly, the assessment may need to remain pending until the information is obtained.

Use of Existing Findings and Avoidance of Unnecessary Repetition

Assessment should add useful information rather than unnecessarily repeat professional work that has already been completed.

Where suitable recent assessment findings are available, they may be incorporated into the current assessment rather than repeated. This may include cognitive, attainment, adaptive, language, attention, or other relevant findings where the earlier assessment remains sufficiently applicable to the current clinical question.

The suitability of previous findings is determined individually. Relevant considerations may include the measure used, the child or young person’s age and developmental stage when it was administered, the time that has elapsed, the purpose of the original assessment, the quality and completeness of the available report, significant developmental or educational change, subsequent intervention or support, and whether the earlier findings answer the present assessment question.

There is no general rule that a psychological assessment ceases to have clinical value solely because a particular period has passed. Older findings will not be relied upon uncritically where meaningful developmental change or the purpose of the current assessment requires updated evidence.

Repeat administration of psychological measures may be affected by practice effects, familiarity with test content, prior exposure to protected assessment materials, publisher-specified retest intervals, changes in applicable norms, and other psychometric considerations. These factors will be considered when deciding whether a measure can appropriately be repeated and how any resulting findings may be interpreted.

The Clinical Psychologist may decline to repeat a recent or equivalent assessment procedure where repetition is not clinically justified, is unlikely to provide meaningful additional information, would create unnecessary burden for the child or young person, or could compromise the validity or interpretation of the results.

Concurrent or Overlapping Assessments

All Kinds of Minds does not undertake a private assessment of a neurodevelopmental, cognitive, or learning question while another psychologist, psychiatrist, multidisciplinary team, private provider, or public service is actively assessing the same or a materially overlapping question.

This boundary applies where an assessment of Autism, A.D.H.D., S.L.D., cognitive functioning, or a materially overlapping neurodevelopmental presentation is already underway or has been arranged to begin through another professional or service. Relevant services may include C.A.M.H.S., a C.D.N.T., another H.S.E. service, an independent psychologist or psychiatrist, or another private assessment provider.

An assessment is considered active where another professional or service has begun, or is imminently due to begin, substantive assessment work concerning the same or a materially overlapping question. This may include developmental or diagnostic interviews, direct assessment, psychometric testing, structured information gathering, multidisciplinary formulation, or preparation of a diagnostic conclusion.

A referral that is merely awaiting consideration or remains on a general service wait list is not automatically treated as an active assessment. The circumstances will be clarified where necessary. A scheduled assessment with another provider, or a referral that another service has accepted and is actively progressing, must be disclosed before All Kinds of Minds accepts the private referral.

Concurrent assessment of the same or a materially overlapping question can create unnecessary demands for the child or young person. It can also result in repeated exposure to assessment materials, practice effects, incompatible assessment timeframes, fragmented clinical responsibility, duplication of information gathering, differing instructions to families or schools, and uncertainty about which clinician is responsible for integrating the evidence and reaching the relevant conclusion.

Parallel assessments may also place a child or family in the position of participating in two developing formulations before either assessment has been completed. This can compromise clinical clarity and create pressure for one professional to reconcile, endorse, or challenge another professional’s unfinished work. All Kinds of Minds does not accept that role.

Consent to communication between professionals does not remove this boundary. Coordination cannot fully address the validity, role-clarity, duplication, and professional-responsibility concerns created by two services independently assessing the same or a materially overlapping question at the same time.

This boundary does not automatically prevent assessment merely because the child or young person receives therapy, educational support, medical care, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, mental-health support, or another service that is not assessing the same or a materially overlapping diagnostic question. Routine screening, school-based support planning, or completion of a questionnaire by another service is not, by itself, treated as a concurrent diagnostic assessment.

Families must inform All Kinds of Minds before referral if another relevant assessment has been requested, accepted, scheduled, or commenced. They must also inform the practice promptly if another professional or service begins materially overlapping assessment work after the All Kinds of Minds referral has been accepted.

Where concurrent or imminent overlapping assessment is identified before acceptance, the private referral will not proceed. The family may return for a new suitability review after the other assessment has concluded and its written outcome is available. A later referral is considered according to the practice’s scope, capacity, and suitability requirements at that time and is not guaranteed acceptance.

Where overlapping assessment activity becomes apparent after professional work has begun, All Kinds of Minds will not continue the assessment in parallel. The work may be paused while the position is clarified or formally discontinued where the overlap cannot be resolved consistently with this boundary. Any formal discontinuation is governed by Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries. Any financial consequence is governed by Cancellation, Withdrawal, Non-Attendance and Refunds.

Where an H.S.E.-commissioned referral materially overlaps with assessment already being undertaken by another service, the matter will be referred to the relevant H.S.E. commissioning contact for clarification. The commissioned assessment will not begin or continue in parallel unless the overlap has been authoritatively resolved and the work remaining for All Kinds of Minds is clinically coherent, clearly authorised, and consistent with the applicable H.S.E. arrangements.

Reassessment

Reassessment is not automatically required because an earlier assessment exists, because a particular period has elapsed, or because a child or young person has moved to a different educational stage.

A reassessment must have a defined current clinical, developmental, educational, or functional question and a reasonable prospect of providing useful additional information. It will not be undertaken merely to repeat an earlier assessment, seek a different diagnostic outcome, satisfy dissatisfaction with a previous conclusion, or obtain a report from another professional expressing a preferred view.

Reassessment may be considered where substantial new information has emerged, the child or young person’s presentation or functional needs have meaningfully changed, the earlier assessment could not be completed and circumstances now support valid participation, the original evidence was materially limited and a genuinely new evidential basis is now available, or updated cognitive, attainment, adaptive, or other information is clinically required to answer a new question.

The extent of any reassessment is determined by the question being asked. A complete repetition of the earlier assessment pathway is not automatically necessary or appropriate. Existing valid information will be retained and built upon where clinically suitable.

All Kinds of Minds may decline a reassessment where the proposed work lacks a sufficiently distinct and clinically justified purpose, would substantially duplicate a recent or adequate assessment, would require psychometrically inappropriate retesting, or is primarily intended to revisit another professional’s conclusion without meaningful new evidence or developmental change.

Where another organisation requires an assessment or evidence of a particular type or recency for its own administrative purposes, that requirement does not oblige the Clinical Psychologist to undertake repetition that she considers professionally unjustified. Third-party eligibility and evidential requirements are governed by Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions.

Second Opinions and Reviews of Other Professionals’ Work

All Kinds of Minds does not provide second-opinion, appeal, adjudication, validation, audit, or peer-review assessments concerning work completed by another psychologist, psychiatrist, multidisciplinary team, or service.

A referral will not be accepted where its primary purpose is to confirm, reject, overturn, or challenge another professional’s diagnosis or assessment conclusion. The same applies where the purpose is to determine which of two professional opinions is correct, obtain a preferred diagnostic outcome, evaluate whether another professional’s assessment met an appropriate standard, support a complaint against another provider, or produce a report intended to displace or undermine an earlier report.

All Kinds of Minds will not review raw assessment data, protected test records, clinical notes, or another professional’s working materials for the purpose of auditing their assessment, identifying errors in their practice, or expressing an opinion on their professional competence. The practice will not enter correspondence or professional liaison whose purpose is to debate or adjudicate another clinician’s conclusion.

These services require a distinct professional remit, a specifically agreed evaluative role, and careful management of conflicts, records, test security, evidential limitations, and responsibilities to each person or professional affected. They are not part of the ordinary child and adolescent assessment pathways offered by All Kinds of Minds.

The existence of a previous assessment does not, by itself, prevent a later assessment through this practice. A genuinely new assessment may be considered where the earlier work has concluded, the current referral has a distinct and clinically justified purpose, there has been meaningful developmental change or substantial new evidence, and the proposed work is not primarily an attempt to appeal or reverse the earlier conclusion.

Where a later assessment is accepted, the previous report remains relevant evidence and must be disclosed. It will be considered fairly and in context. The assessment will address the agreed current clinical question and will not proceed on the assumption that the earlier conclusion was either correct or incorrect.

Families seeking a formal second opinion, review of professional practice, or adjudication between competing assessments should approach an appropriately qualified professional or service that expressly offers that form of work. Concerns about the conduct or service of another provider should be raised through that provider’s complaints procedure or another applicable professional, regulatory, contractual, or legal route.

The professional principles governing diagnostic uncertainty, later diagnostic revision, and reasonable differences of professional opinion are set out under Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes. The handling and transfer of secure psychological test materials are governed by Intellectual Property and Assessment Materials.

Where Necessary Evidence Is Unavailable

Not every potentially useful source of information will be available in every assessment. The absence of a particular questionnaire, school report, historical record, or previous professional report does not automatically make an assessment invalid or prevent it from proceeding.

The relevant consideration is whether the evidence that is available is sufficient to answer the assessment question responsibly.

Where clinically important information is unavailable, the Clinical Psychologist will consider whether another suitable source can reasonably address the same question and whether any remaining limitation can be reflected appropriately in the interpretation and report.

The absence of evidence is not automatically treated as evidence that a particular experience, difference, or need is absent. At the same time, a conclusion will not be reached where the available evidence is insufficient to support it responsibly.

Where information necessary for a sufficiently informed and professionally responsible assessment cannot be obtained, the assessment may be unable to proceed to completion. Any resulting diagnostic limitation is governed by Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes. Formal discontinuation is governed by Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments uses a formulation-led approach to psychological and neurodevelopmental assessment. The purpose of assessment is to develop a clinically coherent understanding of the child or young person, including their strengths, neurodevelopmental differences, areas of need, developmental course, everyday functioning, relevant context, and any co-occurring or alternative explanations that are important to understanding their presentation.

A diagnostic conclusion is one part of that formulation. Where a formal diagnosis falls within the Scope of Practice, it will be made only where the Clinical Psychologist concludes that the applicable diagnostic criteria are met and that the conclusion is adequately supported by the assessment as a whole.

Participation in an assessment does not guarantee a diagnosis. All Kinds of Minds provides an independent professional assessment and clinical opinion. It does not provide a predetermined diagnostic outcome.

How Diagnostic Conclusions Are Reached

Diagnostic conclusions require professional clinical judgement. Standardised assessment measures, questionnaires, rating scales, structured interviews, and observational tools can provide important information, but no individual measure determines the diagnosis independently.

The sources of evidence considered, the weight given to different forms of evidence, the treatment of previous assessments and diagnoses, and the approach to incomplete, unavailable, unreliable, or differing information are governed by Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments and Reassessment. Diagnostic formulation is the clinical process of determining what the evidence means when considered together and whether it supports a particular diagnosis, a different explanation, more than one co-occurring diagnosis, no formal diagnosis, or a conclusion that genuine uncertainty remains.

The Clinical Psychologist considers evidence that supports a possible diagnosis and evidence that may point away from it. A diagnostic formulation is not produced by counting supportive observations, averaging questionnaire scores, requiring every source to provide an identical account, or automatically prioritising one test, informant, or setting. Evidence is interpreted according to its quality, reliability, relevance, context, and relationship to the applicable diagnostic requirements.

The conclusion must be one that the Clinical Psychologist can explain and professionally support. This includes identifying the evidence relied upon, considering material evidence that does not fit with the proposed conclusion, and evaluating reasonable alternative and co-occurring explanations. These responsibilities reflect the principles of competence, responsibility, integrity, and respect contained in the P.S.I. Code of Professional Ethics.

Diagnostic Criteria and Clinical Thresholds

Neurodiversity-affirmative practice governs how a child or young person’s differences, experiences, strengths, and needs are understood, communicated, and supported. It does not lower, broaden, or informally redefine the criteria for a formal diagnosis.

The presence of some characteristics associated with Autism, A.D.H.D., dyslexia, dyscalculia, or another neurodevelopmental profile does not necessarily mean that the complete diagnostic criteria for that profile are met. Characteristics can be genuine and clinically important without collectively reaching the formal diagnostic threshold. The formulation must distinguish a developmentally coherent diagnostic pattern from individual variation and from characteristics more appropriately accounted for by another neurodevelopmental, learning, mental-health, medical, relational, or contextual explanation.

The absence of a particular characteristic in one setting, on one assessment measure, or during one appointment does not automatically rule out a diagnosis. The significance of that absence depends on the diagnostic requirements, the quality and breadth of the available evidence, the context in which the child or young person was observed, and the coherence of the wider formulation.

A child or young person can have meaningful sensory, communication, attention, executive-functioning, social, learning, emotional, or regulation needs without meeting the criteria for every diagnostic category that may have been considered. Recognition of those needs does not depend upon assigning a diagnosis that the evidence does not support.

Autism Formulation

Autism assessment considers whether the child or young person’s developmental pattern meets the applicable diagnostic criteria for Autism when their developmental history, current presentation, everyday functioning, direct assessment, and wider context are considered together. Autism does not require an identical presentation in every environment or complete agreement between all informants. Children and young people may communicate, interact, regulate, and manage demands differently according to familiarity, predictability, sensory conditions, social expectations, relationships, perceived safety, level of support, and the effort required to cope within a particular setting.

The developmental requirement for Autism does not mean that Autism must have been obvious or formally recognised in early childhood. Relevant characteristics originate during the developmental period, but their nature or significance may become clearer as social, communication, organisational, sensory, or independence demands increase. Earlier information is interpreted in its developmental context and is not limited to whether an adult used Autism-related terminology at the time.

An Autism diagnosis requires meaningful convergence across the assessment evidence and full satisfaction of the applicable diagnostic criteria. The assessment will ordinarily require broadly accordant information from at least two distinct and informed sources. These may include a parent, teacher, the young person where developmentally appropriate, or a previous professional with sustained knowledge of the child or young person. Their accounts do not have to be identical or describe every relevant characteristic in the same way, but they must materially accord in supporting a coherent developmental pattern.

Agreement between two informants, or accordant results across rating measures, is corroborative rather than diagnostic. It does not establish an Autism diagnosis where those accounts or results are not supported by the developmental history, direct clinical evidence, everyday functioning, and wider formulation. Direct assessment does not have to reproduce every characteristic in precisely the same form described elsewhere, but it must provide evidence that is clinically consistent with the proposed formulation. Where accordant informant accounts or measures conflict materially with the direct evidence, the assessment evidence does not form a coherent diagnostic pattern, or the full diagnostic criteria are not met, an Autism diagnosis will not be made.

Where only one person with sustained knowledge of the child or young person provides a reliable account of the relevant developmental pattern, strong direct clinical evidence must provide the necessary corroboration. This may include evidence from the A.D.O.S.-2, a clinical interview with the child or young person, their presentation during other assessment procedures, a school observation, or other relevant direct clinical observation. The longitudinal account and direct clinical evidence, considered together with the remaining assessment information, must support the full diagnostic criteria.

School information that is largely unremarkable does not automatically exclude Autism. A diagnosis may still be supported where the parent developmental history, the young person’s own account where developmentally appropriate, direct assessment, and other available evidence provide strong and mutually coherent affirmative evidence of the required developmental pattern. The significance of school information depends on its quality, the length and nature of the school’s knowledge of the child or young person, the demands and supports within that environment, and its relationship to the evidence as a whole.

Masking, compensation, learned strategies, and supportive environments may reduce the external visibility of relevant characteristics or alter how they are expressed. Masking is considered where there is a clinically grounded basis for doing so. Relevant information may include the young person’s description of deliberate or effortful strategies, the developmental history, patterns described by people who know them well, differences associated with context or familiarity, and the functional or emotional consequences of sustained compensation.

Masking is not itself evidence that the diagnostic criteria for Autism are met. It will not be assumed solely because accounts differ, because a characteristic was not observed during an appointment, or because the anticipated diagnostic evidence is otherwise absent. It cannot be used speculatively to fill an evidential gap, disregard materially inconsistent direct evidence, or make all conflicting information diagnostically supportive.

Where the developmental history, information from regular observers, educational information, direct assessment, and everyday functioning provide no affirmative evidence of the required developmental pattern, the absence of that evidence will not be attributed to exceptionally successful masking as a substitute for positive diagnostic support. The conclusion must remain grounded in evidence of a developmentally coherent pattern rather than in an assumption that the required characteristics were present but concealed from every available source.

No Autism-specific instrument is treated as a stand-alone diagnostic test. Structured and standardised instruments are methods of gathering clinically relevant information. Their findings are integrated with developmental, contextual, functional, and observational evidence and interpreted through professional clinical judgement. This approach reflects the P.S.I. Professional Practice Guidelines for the Assessment, Formulation, and Diagnosis of Autism in Children and Adolescents, the H.S.E. National Protocol for Autism Assessment and Intervention Pathways, and applicable NICE guidance on Autism in children and young people.

Where an assessment is multidisciplinary, the diagnostic formulation draws upon the respective professional contributions of the clinicians involved. Each clinician remains professionally responsible for their own work. The multidisciplinary conclusion is reached through integration of the relevant assessment findings and professional perspectives rather than through any single assessment component.

A.D.H.D. Formulation

A.D.H.D. assessment requires a full clinical formulation and is not based on rating-scale elevations or isolated observations alone. The assessment considers whether the applicable characteristics are persistent, developmentally significant, present across the required areas of everyday life, associated with meaningful functional impact, and more coherently accounted for by A.D.H.D. than by another explanation.

The expression of attention, activity level, impulsivity, and executive functioning can vary according to structure, interest, novelty, individual support, consequences, environmental stimulation, familiarity, and the effort involved in compensation. A child or young person may function differently in a highly structured or engaging activity than in circumstances requiring sustained independent organisation, inhibition, attention, or regulation.

Contextual variation does not remove the diagnostic requirement for evidence across more than one important setting. The relevant characteristics do not have to appear with identical frequency or intensity in each environment, and different informants do not have to produce matching rating-scale scores. The overall evidence must nevertheless support the required cross-context developmental pattern and meaningful functional consequences.

A.D.H.D. will not be diagnosed where the available evidence is limited to a rating-scale elevation, accordant rating-scale results that are not supported by the wider assessment evidence, difficulties arising in only one context without an adequate basis for understanding them as part of a wider pattern, or characteristics that are more coherently explained by another presentation. Applicable NICE guidance on A.D.H.D. requires diagnosis to be based on a full clinical and psychosocial assessment, developmental history, observer information, and assessment of functioning across everyday settings. It expressly provides that diagnosis should not be based solely on rating scales or observational data.

Specific Learning Disability Formulation

A diagnosis of S.L.D., including dyslexia or dyscalculia, is based on the formulation of a meaningful and developmentally coherent learning profile rather than on a single low score or a prescribed numerical discrepancy between cognitive ability and attainment. S.L.D. can occur across a range of cognitive profiles, and average or higher cognitive ability is not a prerequisite for diagnosis. Cognitive findings nevertheless remain relevant to understanding the nature and specificity of the child or young person’s learning profile.

The Clinical Psychologist considers the nature, pattern, persistence, and functional significance of the child or young person’s academic difficulties. Relevant evidence may include their developmental and educational history, standardised attainment findings, learning opportunities, cognitive profile, response to previous teaching or support where known, and linguistic, sensory, medical, emotional, attentional, or contextual factors that could reasonably contribute to the presentation.

A low attainment score can be clinically important without automatically establishing a diagnosis. A broader pattern of evidence may also remain diagnostically meaningful where performance is not uniformly weak across every related task. The conclusion depends on whether the assessment as a whole supports the applicable diagnostic requirements and whether another explanation provides a more coherent account of the learning profile.

Where attainment is broadly consistent with the child or young person’s wider cognitive and learning profile, that correspondence may weigh against concluding that the academic difficulties represent an S.L.D., particularly where the wider profile provides a more coherent explanation. This is an evidential consideration rather than an automatic exclusion or a requirement for a fixed discrepancy between scores. It is considered alongside the nature and persistence of the academic difficulties, the child or young person’s learning opportunities, their response to appropriate teaching and support, and the complete pattern of assessment findings.

Differential and Co-Occurring Formulation

Neurodevelopmental, learning, mental-health, medical, and contextual presentations can overlap. Similar outward experiences may arise through different underlying processes, and more than one explanation may be relevant for the same child or young person.

Difficulties involving attention, social engagement, communication, emotional regulation, flexibility, motivation, sensory experience, sleep, school attendance, organisation, or everyday participation are not specific to a single diagnosis. Depending on the individual circumstances, relevant alternative or contributing explanations may include anxiety, social anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive experiences, trauma-related distress, chronic stress, sleep disturbance, language or learning needs, physical-health factors, environmental demands, relational circumstances, or another neurodevelopmental profile.

The possibility of an alternative explanation is not used to dismiss a child or young person’s experiences. It is examined to determine which account, or combination of accounts, most coherently explains the developmental pattern and current functioning.

Co-occurrence is considered where supported by the evidence. Autism and A.D.H.D. can coexist, and learning differences may coexist with either. Mental-health needs may arise independently, may coexist with a neurodevelopmental profile, may influence how that profile is expressed, or may develop partly in response to the demands placed upon the child or young person.

The Clinical Psychologist remains open to alternative and co-occurring explanations throughout the assessment rather than treating the original referral question as a conclusion to be confirmed. A formulation may support the diagnosis originally queried, a different diagnosis or developmental explanation, two or more co-occurring presentations, a combination of neurodevelopmental and contextual factors, or a meaningful profile of strengths and needs that does not meet criteria for a formal diagnosis.

Where a potentially relevant diagnosis falls outside the formal diagnostic remit of All Kinds of Minds, it may be considered as a possible or contributing explanation without being formally diagnosed through the practice. The diagnostic boundaries applying to such presentations are governed by Scope of Practice.

Non-Diagnostic Outcomes

An assessment may appropriately conclude that the criteria for the diagnosis being considered are not met. A non-diagnostic outcome does not mean that the referral was inappropriate, that the assessment was unsuccessful, that the child or young person’s experiences were not genuine, or that they have no support needs. The assessment may clarify why a diagnosis is not supported, identify important strengths and needs, distinguish between possible explanations, or indicate that another form of assessment, support, or professional involvement would be more appropriate.

Where clinically meaningful characteristics are present but do not collectively reach the threshold for a formal diagnosis, they may still be described and reflected in the formulation and recommendations. The child or young person’s support needs will be considered on their own evidence and significance rather than being disregarded solely because a diagnosis has not been made.

Where the evidence supports a clear non-diagnostic conclusion, that conclusion will be communicated. A diagnosis will not be assigned because it was anticipated, strongly preferred, understood as validating, or considered useful for access to a particular service, accommodation, financial payment, benefit, or scheme.

Diagnostic Uncertainty

There are circumstances in which the most professionally responsible conclusion is that genuine diagnostic uncertainty remains. Psychological and neurodevelopmental diagnoses are clinical classifications rather than the result of a single definitive biological test. They depend on professional interpretation of developmental patterns, current presentation, everyday functioning, and sufficiently complete, relevant, and reliable information within established diagnostic frameworks.

A careful and comprehensive assessment can reduce uncertainty but cannot remove every possibility of error or later refinement. Uncertainty may remain where material information is incomplete or unavailable, where its reliability cannot be established, where important evidence cannot be sufficiently corroborated, where the presentation is still developing, where the evidence is finely balanced, where apparently relevant characteristics do not yet form a sufficiently coherent diagnostic pattern, or where complex co-occurring factors prevent a sufficiently confident distinction between plausible explanations.

Uncertainty will not be resolved by assigning a diagnosis merely because a definite answer is preferred. The conclusion will reflect the level of certainty that the available evidence can responsibly support.

Depending on the circumstances, the report may identify information that would assist future clarification, recommend monitoring by the child or young person’s G.P. or another involved service, recommend support directed towards the needs already established, recommend assessment by another discipline, or indicate that later assessment may become appropriate following further development or the emergence of material new evidence. Any later assessment or professional work must be separately agreed where applicable and is governed by Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments and Reassessment and Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries.

False-Positive and False-Negative Outcomes

Absolute diagnostic accuracy cannot be guaranteed in neurodevelopmental assessment. A false-positive outcome occurs where a diagnosis is made even though the full diagnostic criteria are not met. A false-negative outcome occurs where a diagnosis is not identified even though the diagnostic criteria are met.

All Kinds of Minds seeks to reduce both possibilities through comprehensive assessment, appropriate use of established diagnostic frameworks, consideration of alternative and co-occurring explanations, professional integration of the available evidence, and avoidance of reliance upon any single assessment measure. Neither type of diagnostic error can be eliminated entirely, and undertaking a greater number of tests does not by itself remove the uncertainty inherent in clinical assessment.

Diagnostic clarity can be affected by the sensitivity and specificity of available assessment methods, the complexity of overlapping presentations, contextual variation, masking or compensation, developmental stage, the limits of what can be observed during a finite assessment process, the completeness, quality, and reliability of the available information, and the professional judgement required to distinguish between plausible explanations.

These limitations do not reduce the standard of professional skill, care, and diligence required in conducting the assessment. The conclusion must remain one that the clinician can reasonably and professionally support on the evidence available at the time.

Developmental Change, New Information and Later Diagnostic Revision

A diagnostic formulation represents the professional understanding reached at a particular point in the child or young person’s development. It is clinically meaningful but may be refined when development, circumstances, or available knowledge materially change.

Children and adolescents continue to develop, environmental expectations and available supports change, and a young person’s capacity to describe their internal experience may increase. New developmental or contextual information may emerge, co-occurring needs may become clearer, and later assessment or the young person’s response to support may provide information that was not available during the original assessment.

A later appropriately qualified clinician may confirm an earlier diagnosis, refine the formulation, identify an additional diagnosis, or conclude that a previous diagnostic understanding should be revised. A later revision does not, by itself, establish that the earlier assessment was inadequately undertaken. The relevant question is whether the earlier conclusion was professionally supportable on the evidence and diagnostic framework available at that time.

An earlier diagnosis is not automatically displaced because one later measure falls below a threshold, the child or young person presents differently during a later appointment, or another professional reaches a different conclusion. Earlier assessments must be considered in their proper developmental, evidential, and clinical context.

The treatment of previous diagnoses and later reassessment is governed by Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments and Reassessment. The provision of new information after a completed service does not automatically reopen the assessment, require amendment of the report, or create an obligation to undertake further professional work. Any review of later information must fall within an existing agreed service or be separately accepted in accordance with Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries.

Reasonable Differences of Professional Opinion

Diagnostic formulation involves professional judgement, and appropriately qualified clinicians considering a complex presentation may sometimes reach different conclusions even where each has undertaken substantial assessment and acted competently. A reasonable difference of professional opinion is not the same as an unsupported or arbitrary conclusion. Each clinician should be able to identify the evidence, diagnostic criteria, and professional reasoning supporting their view and account for material evidence that does not fit with the conclusion reached.

A family or young person may disagree with a diagnostic opinion and may seek an independent assessment from another appropriately qualified provider who offers that service. All Kinds of Minds does not provide second-opinion assessments. Its position concerning previous assessments, repeated assessment, and second-opinion work is governed by Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments and Reassessment.

A later difference of opinion does not retrospectively require All Kinds of Minds to alter its recorded professional conclusion where that conclusion remains the Clinical Psychologist’s professionally held view. A factual error may be corrected without changing a professional conclusion, while material new evidence may be considered only within an appropriate and agreed professional process.

Diagnostic uncertainty or professional disagreement does not prevent a family or young person from raising concerns about the quality, accuracy, or professional conduct of an assessment through the Feedback and Complaints Policy.

Clinical Independence

Diagnostic conclusions remain the independent professional responsibility of the clinician or clinicians undertaking the assessment. A diagnosis will not be made, withheld, added, removed, or altered because a parent, legal guardian, young person, school, referring professional, solicitor, insurer, funding body, H.S.E. commissioner, or another person wants a particular outcome.

The importance attached to a diagnosis by a family or young person does not add evidential weight. The possible usefulness of a diagnosis for educational accommodations, disability supports, services, financial benefits, validation, or another external purpose does not alter the diagnostic threshold. Those matters may be important to the family and may form part of the wider context, but the diagnostic conclusion must remain the conclusion supported by the clinical formulation.

Families and young people are entitled to ask questions about the reasoning, identify factual information they believe is inaccurate, provide additional relevant evidence, and seek another professional opinion. These actions do not compromise clinical independence. Pressure to reach an outcome that the clinician does not consider professionally supportable cannot determine the conclusion.

H.S.E. commissioning does not alter this principle. Commissioning arrangements determine the professional service and authorised assessment scope. They do not predetermine whether a diagnosis will be made or what the diagnostic conclusion will be. The wider arrangements applying to commissioned work are governed by H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments.

Confidentiality is fundamental to psychological practice. Information obtained through an enquiry, consultation, or assessment is treated as confidential and handled with respect for the privacy, dignity, autonomy, and welfare of the child or young person.

Confidentiality is not absolute. Information may be shared where this forms an appropriate and understood part of the agreed professional service, where valid consent or another lawful basis permits the sharing, or where disclosure is required or otherwise lawfully justified for safeguarding, serious safety, legal, or professional reasons.

The Clinical Psychologist will take reasonable care to ensure that children, young people, parents, and legal guardians understand the relevant limits of confidentiality from the outset. The P.S.I. Code of Professional Ethics requires psychologists to respect privacy, treat information obtained through their work as confidential subject to applicable legal requirements, and support clients to understand the professional actions proposed.

The collection, storage, retention, access, and other processing of personal information are governed by the Privacy Policy.

Ordinary Information Sharing

Information is not ordinarily disclosed outside the assessment relationship merely because another person or organisation would find it useful. Any disclosure must have an appropriate professional purpose and lawful basis.

For a privately arranged assessment, information may be shared with a school, G.P., health or social-care professional, educational professional, or another relevant person where valid consent has been obtained or another lawful basis permits the disclosure. Information sharing is limited to what is appropriate for the purpose for which consent or other authority has been established.

Ordinary clinical information sharing is distinct from the issue and subsequent sharing of the complete private assessment report. All Kinds of Minds Assessments does not routinely send the complete private report directly to a school, G.P., or other professional merely because information sharing with that person has been authorised. The arrangements governing issue of the private report and any subsequent decision to provide it to another person or organisation are set out under Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions.

Where an Autism assessment includes multidisciplinary Speech and Language Therapy input, clinically relevant information may be shared between the clinicians contributing to the agreed assessment so that each clinician can undertake their professional role and the findings can be integrated appropriately. Each clinician remains subject to their own professional confidentiality obligations.

Relevant assessment information may be discussed with an appropriately qualified professional supervisor or clinical consultant where this is reasonably required to support competent and ethical practice. Identifying information will be minimised wherever reasonably practicable, and the professional receiving the information must be subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.

Confidential information may also be disclosed to an appropriate legal adviser or professional indemnity insurer where this is lawful and reasonably necessary to obtain professional or legal advice, respond to a complaint or claim, or establish, exercise, or defend legal rights. Any such disclosure will be limited to information reasonably required for that purpose.

A request from a family member, school, solicitor, insurer, employer, or another third party does not, by itself, override confidentiality or create an entitlement to clinical information. The subsequent use of a completed assessment report by a family or external organisation is governed by Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions.

Children and Young People

For a child under 16, parents or legal guardians ordinarily have an important role in the assessment and in receiving the information needed to understand the findings and support the child. Their involvement remains subject to the consent and guardianship arrangements established under Consent, Guardianship and Family Circumstances.

Legal guardianship does not create an automatic entitlement to every statement made by the child or every item of information provided by another person. The child’s privacy, welfare, and developing autonomy remain relevant, together with the purpose for which the information was provided, the rights of other people, applicable data-protection law, and the clinician’s professional obligations.

Children are given developmentally appropriate information about confidentiality and its limits. Where information shared by a child can responsibly remain private, that privacy will be respected. Absolute secrecy will not be promised where information may need to be disclosed for safeguarding, serious safety, or another lawful reason.

A young person aged 16 or 17 who consents to their own assessment has corresponding confidentiality rights within that professional relationship. Information concerning them will not ordinarily be shared with a parent or legal guardian without their consent merely because the parent or guardian initiated the enquiry, arranged appointments, supplied information, attended part of the assessment, or paid for the service.

Parents and legal guardians may remain closely involved where the young person agrees, and their contribution may be necessary for a sufficiently informed developmental assessment. Ordinary information sharing must nevertheless respect the young person’s consent and confidentiality rights. The consent, family-involvement, and capacity arrangements applying to young people aged 16 and 17 are governed by Consent, Guardianship and Family Circumstances and reflect the H.S.E. National Consent Policy.

Where safeguarding, serious risk, a binding legal requirement, or another lawful basis permits or requires disclosure without the young person’s consent, relevant information may be shared in accordance with the provisions below.

Safeguarding and Children First

Safeguarding disclosure is distinct from ordinary consent-based information sharing. Refusal of consent by a child, young person, parent, or legal guardian does not prevent a report or other disclosure where it is required or otherwise lawfully justified for safeguarding purposes.

The Clinical Psychologist and the Speech and Language Therapist undertaking relevant assessment work through All Kinds of Minds Assessments are Mandated Persons under the Children First Act 2015. Each Mandated Person has an individual obligation to report to Tusla where they know, believe, or have reasonable grounds to suspect that a child has been harmed, is being harmed, or is at risk of being harmed to the statutory threshold. The Act also applies to relevant direct disclosures made by a child and permits Tusla to request proportionate information and assistance from a Mandated Person when assessing a concern that has been the subject of a mandated report.

The statutory threshold for a mandated report is not the only basis on which a child-protection or welfare concern may be reported. Where information does not reach that threshold but gives rise to reasonable grounds for concern about a child’s protection or welfare, a report may be made in accordance with Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children and the practice’s safeguarding procedures.

Safeguarding information may arise through referral information, developmental history, questionnaires, school or professional information, previous reports, direct observation, electronic communication, or information communicated by the child or another person. A formal disclosure is not required before relevant information can be considered from a safeguarding perspective.

A psychological or neurodevelopmental assessment does not become an investigation into whether abuse or neglect occurred. Where safeguarding information emerges, the clinician’s role is to listen appropriately, avoid unnecessary or leading questioning, record relevant information objectively, consider immediate safety, and fulfil the applicable reporting and disclosure responsibilities.

The practice’s Child Safeguarding Statement sets out the safeguarding framework and procedures in greater detail. A child-friendly version is also available so that children and young people can understand how the practice seeks to keep them safe and what may happen if a safeguarding concern arises.

Informing Children, Young People and Families

Where it is appropriate and safe to do so, the child or young person and the relevant parent or legal guardian will ordinarily be informed that a safeguarding report or disclosure is being made and given an appropriate explanation of the reason. Consent is not required before a disclosure that the clinician is legally required or otherwise lawfully justified to make.

Advance notice or full details may not be provided where doing so could increase risk to the child or another person, interfere with Tusla’s assessment of the concern, prejudice a lawful safeguarding process, expose the person who provided the information to a relevant risk, or otherwise undermine the protective purpose of the disclosure. The nature and timing of any explanation will reflect the child or young person’s age, understanding, circumstances, and safety.

Serious Risk to the Child, Young Person or Another Person

Confidential information may be disclosed where there is a serious and sufficiently immediate risk of significant harm to the child or young person or to another person and disclosure is necessary and lawfully justified to respond to that risk. The decision will be based on the circumstances and information reasonably available at the time.

Where circumstances allow, the clinician will ordinarily seek the person’s involvement in obtaining appropriate support and explain the proposed disclosure. Consent may not be sought, or refusal of consent may not prevent disclosure, where the seriousness or immediacy of the risk requires protective action.

Relevant considerations include the nature, seriousness, and immediacy of the risk, the person or people who may be affected, whether disclosure is necessary to reduce that risk, the appropriate recipient, and whether the same protective purpose can reasonably be achieved through a less intrusive measure. Any information disclosed will be limited as far as reasonably practicable to what the recipient requires for the relevant safety purpose.

Where a child may be in immediate danger and Tusla cannot be contacted in time, information may be provided to An Garda Síochána or another appropriate emergency or statutory service where necessary. The practice’s detailed response to safeguarding and immediate-safety concerns is governed by the Child Safeguarding Policy.

Retrospective Disclosures of Childhood Abuse

An adult may provide information about abuse experienced during their own childhood. Such a disclosure is considered in accordance with the current Children First guidance on adult retrospective disclosures of childhood abuse and the practice’s safeguarding procedures.

A mandated report under section 14 of the Children First Act 2015 may be required where the information provides reasonable grounds to suspect that a person who is currently a child has been harmed, is being harmed, or is at risk of being harmed. Where there is no identified current or future risk to a child, an adult’s retrospective disclosure does not, by itself, require a mandated report under that provision, although any other applicable legal or professional responsibility must still be considered.

Court Orders, Statutory Requirements and Other Compulsory Disclosure

Confidentiality does not override a valid legal requirement to disclose information. All Kinds of Minds Assessments may disclose information where required by a valid court order or another binding direction having legal effect, a statutory reporting or information-sharing obligation, a lawful requirement of Tusla, An Garda Síochána, or another competent statutory authority acting within its powers, or another applicable enactment or rule of law.

A request from a solicitor or another person involved in legal proceedings does not, without further lawful authority, have the same status as a court order or other compulsory legal requirement. Confidential information will not be disclosed merely because it has been requested for use in a dispute or legal proceeding.

Where a legal demand for confidential information is received, the practice may seek appropriate legal, professional, or indemnity advice concerning its validity, scope, and the information that must be supplied. Where disclosure is required, the information provided will be confined to the scope of the lawful requirement as far as the circumstances permit.

The fact that assessment information may become subject to compulsory disclosure does not convert an ordinary psychological assessment into a forensic or court-directed assessment and does not create an expert-witness relationship. The limitations applying to the purpose and later legal use of an assessment report are governed by Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions.

Necessary and Proportionate Disclosure

A lawful reason to disclose confidential information does not ordinarily require the entire clinical record to be shared. Except where the applicable legal process requires otherwise, the practice will disclose only information that is relevant and reasonably necessary for the purpose concerned.

Psychological and health information constitutes sensitive special-category personal data and is subject to additional protection under the G.D.P.R. The Data Protection Commission’s data-protection principles require personal information to be adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary for the purpose for which it is processed.

Where confidential information is disclosed without ordinary consent, the recipient, purpose, nature of the information shared, and applicable legal or professional basis will be documented as appropriate. Any disclosure decision will distinguish between information that is relevant to the lawful purpose and information that can properly remain confidential.

H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments

An H.S.E.-commissioned assessment involves the information sharing authorised and required within the applicable commissioned pathway, including secure provision of the assessment report and any other required documentation to the appropriate H.S.E. recipient. The reporting, information-governance, records-management, and contractual arrangements governing that work are set out under H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments.

Those arrangements do not remove the clinician’s independent duties of confidentiality or their statutory and professional safeguarding responsibilities. Where a safeguarding concern arises during commissioned work, any applicable H.S.E. notification or governance requirement is followed in addition to the individual reporting and disclosure obligations arising under Children First or other applicable law.

Confidentiality After Assessment or Case Closure

Professional confidentiality continues after an assessment has been completed, discontinued, or otherwise closed. Ending the active professional relationship does not make clinical records or information available for unrestricted disclosure.

Information may continue to be retained, used, or disclosed after closure where this is necessary for lawful record keeping, safeguarding, responding to a complaint or legal process, complying with an applicable statutory or H.S.E. requirement, or another legitimate professional or legal purpose. Continued storage and processing, data-protection rights, access requests, and applicable retention arrangements are governed by the Privacy Policy.

The Psychological Report is the formal written record of the assessment completed by All Kinds of Minds Assessments. It brings together the assessment findings, clinical formulation, diagnostic conclusions where applicable, identified strengths and support needs, and recommendations arising from the assessment.

The report is prepared for the purpose of the assessment that was agreed. Its findings, conclusions, and recommendations must be understood within that purpose, the information available at the time, and any limitations expressly identified within the report.

The Report as an Integrated Professional Opinion

A Psychological Report is intended to be read as a whole. Individual scores, observations, statements, diagnostic conclusions, or recommendations form part of an integrated professional opinion and may be misleading if separated from the context in which they were interpreted.

Feedback provided during the assessment process is intended to explain and contextualise the findings. The final issued report is the practice’s formal written account of the completed assessment. Where an informal or preliminary explanation is subsequently refined through clinical integration, the final report represents the concluded professional opinion.

Where another person or organisation quotes, summarises, or extracts information from a report, the original meaning should be represented accurately and in context. A form, letter, summary, or other document created by a third party remains that party’s document and must not be represented as an opinion issued or endorsed by All Kinds of Minds Assessments unless it accurately reflects the report and the practice has expressly confirmed any claimed endorsement.

Copyright, permitted sharing, secure assessment materials, and related intellectual-property matters are governed by Intellectual Property and Assessment Materials.

Report Preparation

Reports are prepared predominantly using a library of professional templates authored, developed, and maintained by the Clinical Psychologist. The templates provide the report structure and may contain established general material concerning assessment methods, neurodevelopmental profiles, relevant research, professional guidance, educational provisions, and commonly applicable recommendations. The Clinical Psychologist prepares each report individually by selecting, adapting, and integrating material that accurately reflects the child’s or young person’s assessment evidence, developmental context, strengths, needs, formulation, and assessment outcome.

AI-assisted tools may be used on a limited and supplementary basis to assist with the research, review, organisation, and refinement of general, non-client specific material. This may include material concerning relevant literature, legislation, statutory provisions, current government circulars, educational arrangements, and related general information. Client records, assessment materials, reports, correspondence, raw assessment data, and identifiable or private information concerning a child, young person, family, or other person involved in an assessment are never entered into these tools. Furthermore, all information is excluded from model training through account controls.

Assessment findings, clinical interpretation and formulation, diagnostic conclusions, and individualised recommendations remain the work and professional responsibility of the Clinical Psychologist. Relevant claims, references, research findings, legislation, statutory guidance, professional standards, and Department circulars are always checked against appropriate sources and revised or excluded where they cannot be adequately verified. The Clinical Psychologist remains responsible for the report’s accuracy, clinical reasoning, conclusions, recommendations, and compliance with applicable legal, ethical, confidentiality, data-protection, and professional requirements.

Issue and Control of Private Reports

For a privately arranged assessment, the final report is issued to the appropriate parent or legal guardian of a child under 16 or to the young person where they are 16 or 17, in accordance with the consent, guardianship, and confidentiality arrangements established for the assessment.

The issued copy belongs to the recipient for their lawful personal use. They may retain it and decide whether to provide it to a G.P., school, educational professional, healthcare service, public body, solicitor, insurer, or another appropriate third party.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments retains a secure copy of the report as part of its clinical record in accordance with applicable data-protection law, professional record-keeping responsibilities, and the retention arrangements described in the Privacy Policy. The practice also retains the professional authorship and intellectual-property rights identified under Intellectual Property and Assessment Materials. Those rights do not prevent the family or young person from sharing the complete issued report for the child’s or young person’s care, education, support, lawful application, or another legitimate purpose.

The practice does not routinely send private reports directly to a child’s G.P., school, teacher, Special Education Teacher, or another educational professional. The parent, legal guardian, or young person receiving the report decides whether to provide it to those parties.

Where the assessment identifies a safety concern requiring monitoring or support from the child’s or young person’s G.P. or another appropriate healthcare professional, relevant information may be shared directly where valid consent has been obtained or where disclosure without consent is necessary and lawfully justified. The full report will not be disclosed merely because some safety-related information requires communication where a more limited disclosure is sufficient. Any such sharing is governed by Confidentiality, Safeguarding, and Required Disclosures.

A third party does not acquire an entitlement to a private report merely because it referred the family, contributed information, funded part of the private service, or may make a later decision concerning the child or young person. Any direct request received by the practice remains subject to the applicable consent, confidentiality, data-protection, contractual, and professional requirements.

Secure Delivery and Subsequent Sharing

Private reports are provided electronically as passcode-protected P.D.F. documents. Passcode protection reduces the risk of unauthorised access if a file is intercepted or accessed unintentionally, but recipients should continue to take reasonable care when storing, forwarding, printing, or otherwise sharing the report.

Once a recipient has voluntarily provided the report to another person or organisation, that recipient is responsible for deciding whether the disclosure is appropriate and for using a reasonably secure method of transfer. The receiving person or organisation becomes responsible for handling its copy in accordance with its own legal, professional, and information-governance obligations.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments cannot control onward circulation, storage, extraction, or use undertaken by another recipient after the report has been lawfully provided to them. This does not affect the practice’s responsibility to use appropriate safeguards when preparing, retaining, and initially delivering the report.

Where only part of a report is provided to a third party, care should be taken to ensure that the extract is not misleading without the omitted context. Sharing the complete, unaltered report will ordinarily provide the clearest account of the assessment and its conclusions.

Factual Accuracy, Corrections, and Clarification

All Kinds of Minds Assessments takes responsibility for preparing its reports accurately and with appropriate professional care and skill. Where a confirmed factual, transcription, attribution, calculation, or administrative error is identified in a report issued by the practice, it will be corrected appropriately.

Correctable matters may include an incorrect name, date, school, score, transcription of information, or attribution of information to the wrong source. Where a corrected report is issued, it may identify that it supersedes the earlier version so that the authoritative report can be distinguished from the version containing the error.

A factual error is distinct from disagreement with a professional interpretation, formulation, diagnostic conclusion, or recommendation. A request to change a clinical opinion because a family, professional, or third party disagrees with it is not a request to correct inaccurate factual information.

Where a report accurately records that a particular person or source provided specified information, a later disagreement with that account does not necessarily make the report factually inaccurate. Where appropriate, the source, status, or context of the information may be clarified without retrospectively changing what was reported during the assessment.

Information that first becomes available after the assessment has been completed is also distinct from an error in the original report. Its possible significance, the circumstances in which later information may be considered, and the relationship between new evidence and later diagnostic revision are governed by Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments, and Reassessment; Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes; and Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct, and Professional Boundaries.

Data-protection rights concerning access to personal information and correction of factually inaccurate personal data are governed by the Privacy Policy. Those rights do not require a professionally held clinical opinion to be replaced merely because another person takes a different view.

Recommendations

Recommendations contained in a Psychological Report are based on the child’s or young person’s assessed profile, demonstrated functional needs, strengths, developmental circumstances, and the environments in which they are expected to participate. They are intended to translate the assessment findings into practical and individualised supports.

Recommendations are not based on diagnosis alone, and the presence of a diagnosis does not automatically determine which accommodations, resources, services, or interventions are appropriate for an individual child or young person. Where a particular educational, healthcare, or other support is professionally justified, All Kinds of Minds Assessments will state this clearly and will not withhold the recommendation merely because another organisation ultimately controls access to that support.

A professional recommendation is not a direction to another organisation and does not itself create an entitlement under a statutory, educational, administrative, healthcare, insurance, or funding scheme. The responsible organisation retains its own legal functions, eligibility criteria, evidential requirements, resources, and decision-making authority.

Acceptance by the H.S.E. and Department of Education and Youth

Psychological Reports issued by All Kinds of Minds Assessments are prepared by a P.S.I. Chartered Clinical Psychologist and are accepted by the H.S.E. and the Department of Education and Youth as professional psychological reports. They may be used to support clinical and educational planning and relevant applications, including consideration of the child’s or young person’s assessed profile, identified needs, diagnosis where applicable, functional experience, and recommended supports.

Reports can provide relevant professional evidence to schools, the H.S.E., the Department of Education and Youth, the National Council for Special Education, the State Examinations Commission, higher-education institutions, Government Departments, and other appropriate organisations.

Acceptance of a report as professional psychological evidence is distinct from the outcome of any application or decision for which the report is used. The H.S.E., the Department of Education and Youth, schools, the National Council for Special Education, the State Examinations Commission, higher-education institutions, and other organisations remain responsible for decisions falling within their respective functions.

This distinction applies to school-based supports and accommodations, Special Education Teacher or Special Needs Assistant provision, assistive technology, exemption from the study of Irish, R.A.C.E. examination accommodations, D.A.R.E. eligibility, access to public healthcare or disability services, and applications for statutory payments or supports such as Domiciliary Care Allowance or Disability Allowance.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments may identify a need, provide relevant assessment evidence, and make a clear professional recommendation. Acceptance of the report does not, by itself, require the responsible organisation to approve, fund, or implement a particular recommendation where that organisation must apply separate statutory responsibilities, eligibility criteria, evidential requirements, or decision-making processes.

The criteria applied by an external organisation may differ from clinical diagnostic criteria. A diagnosis or professional recommendation therefore does not necessarily establish eligibility under a separate educational, administrative, healthcare, insurance, or statutory scheme.

For example, exemption from the study of Irish is determined through the school-management process under the applicable Department of Education and Youth requirements. R.A.C.E. applications are determined under the State Examinations Commission’s applicable scheme and instructions. D.A.R.E. applies its own evidence-of-disability and educational-impact requirements. Domiciliary Care Allowance and Disability Allowance are determined by the Department of Social Protection under the respective Domiciliary Care Allowance and Disability Allowance criteria.

The independent authority of an external organisation does not reduce the practice’s responsibility for the professional quality, accuracy, and evidential basis of its own assessment, conclusions, and recommendations.

External Criteria and Changes Over Time

Where a report addresses an external scheme, accommodation, or application, any relevant recommendation is made in light of the information and requirements reasonably available at the time of assessment. External organisations may subsequently change their eligibility criteria, evidential requirements, application procedures, or rules concerning the age or recency of supporting documentation.

A Psychological Report does not acquire a universal expiry date merely because time has passed. Its findings remain a record of the assessment undertaken at that time. Another organisation may nevertheless require more recent evidence for a particular purpose, and the relevance of earlier findings may change as the young person develops or as the question being considered changes.

Whether updated psychological assessment is clinically justified is governed by Assessment Evidence, Previous Assessments, and Reassessment. An external administrative requirement for newer documentation does not, by itself, mean that the earlier report was clinically invalid or create an obligation for All Kinds of Minds Assessments to undertake updated assessment, amend the report, or complete additional forms.

Families and young people should check the current requirements of any scheme, application, or organisation for which they intend to use the report. All Kinds of Minds Assessments cannot guarantee that a report will continue to satisfy criteria introduced or changed after it has been issued.

Use of Reports in Legal Proceedings

Reports produced by All Kinds of Minds Assessments are clinical psychological assessment reports. They are not prepared as forensic, medico-legal, parenting-capacity, custody, welfare, voice-of-the-child, or other specialist reports for litigation or family-law proceedings.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments does not accept instructions to undertake section 32, section 47, or other court-directed family-law assessments. Its ordinary assessment pathways do not include acting as an expert witness, providing litigation strategy, preparing a report specifically for legal proceedings, resolving disputed factual allegations, or offering an opinion on questions outside the purpose and scope of the assessment undertaken.

A family or young person may lawfully provide a report they hold to a solicitor, court, or another relevant person. If an existing report is subsequently used in legal proceedings, its original clinical purpose, scope, evidential basis, and limitations do not change because it has been placed before a court.

Later use of a report in proceedings does not place All Kinds of Minds Assessments or the Clinical Psychologist in the role of an instructed expert witness. It does not create an obligation to prepare additional statements, answer questions arising from litigation, communicate with legal representatives, attend court, or undertake further professional work.

Any binding legal requirement to provide records, information, or evidence will be addressed in accordance with applicable law and Confidentiality, Safeguarding, and Required Disclosures. Compliance with such a requirement does not expand the original assessment into a forensic service or create a continuing expert-witness relationship.

H.S.E.-Commissioned Reports

Reports arising from H.S.E.-commissioned assessments are prepared and circulated in accordance with the reporting and information-governance requirements applicable to the commissioned referral. Unlike a privately arranged report, circulation is not determined solely by the family because the H.S.E. has commissioned the assessment and requires the completed report and associated documentation to be returned through the authorised pathway.

The authorised scope, report format, recipients, feedback arrangements, secure transfer, information governance, records management, and case-completion requirements applying to commissioned work are governed by H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments. Clinical conclusions and recommendations remain the independent professional responsibility of the clinician or clinicians involved and are not predetermined by the H.S.E.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments aims to ensure that families understand the cost of a private service and the applicable payment arrangements before committing to it. The fee, assessment pathway, and payment arrangement applicable to an individual service will be confirmed before the relevant professional work begins.

Current fees are published on the Website and are also set out below. Published fees may change from time to time for future services, including while a family is waiting for assessment capacity to become available. Placement on a wait list does not fix the assessment fee. The applicable fee is the fee confirmed and accepted when the relevant appointment or assessment service is booked or otherwise agreed.

Once a private service and fee have been agreed, a later change to the generally published fee will not retrospectively alter that agreement. Where an assessment pathway is subsequently expanded by agreement, any additional professional work and associated fee will be explained and expressly agreed before that additional work is undertaken.

Except where a fee is expressly allocated to a particular appointment, assessment fees relate to the agreed professional service as a whole rather than only to time spent in direct appointments. Depending on the pathway, the professional work reflected in the fee may include review of information and records, preparation for assessment, assessment administration and scoring, clinical analysis and formulation, multidisciplinary input where applicable, integration of findings and recommendations, feedback where included within the pathway, and preparation of the Psychological Report.

Current Private Assessment Fees

The Parent Consultation fee is €200. A Parent Consultation is required before private Autism, A.D.H.D., and related combined neurodevelopmental assessment pathways proceed. It is separately booked and paid in full when booked. The Parent Consultation is a separate professional service and contract; its fee is not a deposit or part-payment towards any later assessment.

If a separate assessment contract is subsequently formed, the applicable assessment fee below is payable in addition to the Parent Consultation fee. The contractual distinction is explained under Formation and Scope of the Service Contract.

Autism Assessment: The assessment fee is €2,200. The total amount payable across the separate Parent Consultation and Autism Assessment services is €2,400.

Autism and Cognitive Assessment: The assessment fee is €2,700 where Cognitive Assessment is clinically indicated and has been agreed as part of the Autism pathway. The total amount payable across the separate Parent Consultation and Autism and Cognitive Assessment services is €2,900.

A.D.H.D. Assessment: The assessment fee is €1,400 and applies to the agreed A.D.H.D. Assessment pathway as a whole. The total amount payable across the separate Parent Consultation and A.D.H.D. Assessment services is €1,600.

Combined Autism and A.D.H.D. Assessment: The combined assessment fee is €2,700 and applies to the agreed integrated pathway as a whole. The total amount payable across the separate Parent Consultation and Combined Autism and A.D.H.D. Assessment services is €2,900.

Combined Autism and S.L.D. Assessment: The combined assessment fee is €3,000 where a new Cognitive Assessment is required. The total amount payable across the separate Parent Consultation and Combined Autism and S.L.D. Assessment services is €3,200. Where sufficiently recent and clinically suitable Cognitive Assessment findings are already available and do not need to be repeated, any applicable reduced assessment fee will be confirmed before the combined assessment is agreed.

Combined A.D.H.D. and S.L.D. Assessment: The combined assessment fee is €1,700. This pathway includes the Cognitive and Attainment Assessment work required for the S.L.D. component within the integrated assessment. The total amount payable across the separate Parent Consultation and Combined A.D.H.D. and S.L.D. Assessment services is €1,900.

Combined Autism, A.D.H.D. and S.L.D. Assessment: The combined assessment fee is €3,000. This pathway includes the relevant Cognitive and Attainment Assessment work required for the S.L.D. component within the integrated assessment. The total amount payable across the separate Parent Consultation and Combined Autism, A.D.H.D. and S.L.D. Assessment services is €3,200.

Standalone S.L.D. Assessment: The assessment fee is €800 and includes assessment for dyslexia and/or dyscalculia. The fee is divided across the two principal assessment appointments, with €400 payable when each appointment is booked. An optional Feedback Appointment may be booked separately following receipt of the report for €200.

Standalone Cognitive Assessment: The assessment fee is €600 and is payable in full when the assessment is booked. An optional Feedback Appointment may be booked separately following receipt of the report for €200.

Cognitive and Adaptive Behaviour Assessment: The assessment fee is €1,000. This pathway includes a comprehensive Cognitive Assessment and a multi-informant Adaptive Behaviour Assessment examining everyday conceptual, social, and practical functioning, with the findings integrated into a single Psychological Report. The Cognitive Assessment component is €600, and the Adaptive Behaviour Assessment component is €400. The fee is payable in full when the assessment is booked. An optional Feedback Appointment may be booked separately following receipt of the report for €200.

Where Cognitive, S.L.D., Adaptive Behaviour, or another assessment component forms part of a broader agreed pathway, the applicable combined fee may differ from the corresponding standalone or separately listed fee because relevant professional information, assessment work, formulation, feedback, and reporting can be integrated across the pathway.

Any assessment component that is not listed as a standard pathway will be considered only on an individual basis and where it is clinically appropriate and falls within the Scope of Practice. Its purpose, scope, professional requirements, and fee will be explained and expressly agreed before any additional work is undertaken. No assessment component carrying an additional charge will be undertaken without the express agreement of the person responsible for the private payment arrangement.

Payment Arrangements

The Parent Consultation is payable in full when booked.

For Autism, A.D.H.D., and related combined assessments, the subsequent assessment fee may be spread across an agreed payment schedule rather than being paid in full at the outset. Invoices are ordinarily issued monthly in 4–6 instalments, although a different reasonable timeframe may be agreed where needed.

The payment schedule will be confirmed before the assessment proceeds so that the person responsible for payment knows the overall assessment fee, the amount of each payment, and the relevant due dates. Payments made under an instalment arrangement are payments towards the single agreed assessment fee. They do not divide the assessment into separate monthly clinical services or alter the scope of the assessment contract.

Standalone S.L.D. Assessment, standalone Cognitive Assessment, and Cognitive and Adaptive Behaviour Assessment follow the payment arrangements specified above for those pathways rather than the monthly instalment arrangement. Optional Feedback Appointments are separate professional services and are booked and paid for when requested.

Invoices, Due Dates and Receipts

Invoices are issued electronically and should be paid by the due date stated on the invoice or booking request.

Receipts can be provided for payments made, including individual payments made under an agreed instalment arrangement. Where a receipt is required for a private health-insurance or tax-relief claim, the practice can provide appropriate factual information concerning the payment, child or young person, professional service, and practitioner.

Overdue Payments

Where an agreed payment remains overdue after reasonable notice, All Kinds of Minds may pause further non-urgent professional work, defer subsequent assessment appointments, or defer completion or contractual release of the final Psychological Report until the outstanding payment arrangement has been addressed.

Any decision to pause or defer work will be made reasonably and proportionately, having regard to the stage of the assessment, the professional work already undertaken, and any applicable professional or legal obligation. Where there is an unresolved payment issue, the practice may contact the person responsible for payment to clarify the position and, where appropriate, agree how the outstanding balance will be addressed before further work proceeds.

The financial consequences of cancellation, withdrawal, or discontinuation of a partly completed assessment are governed separately under Cancellation, Withdrawal, Non-Attendance and Refunds.

Release of the Psychological Report

The final Psychological Report is ordinarily released once the agreed assessment has been completed and the full agreed fee for that assessment has been paid.

Where an agreed instalment schedule extends beyond completion of the clinical assessment, contractual release of the report will ordinarily take place once the final agreed payment has been received, unless a different arrangement has been expressly agreed. Families choosing an extended payment arrangement should take this into account when agreeing the payment schedule.

These provisions concern delivery of the Psychological Report as the final professional deliverable under the private assessment contract. They do not condition the exercise of any applicable data-protection right on payment, restrict any statutory consumer right or remedy, or alter the separate arrangements governing access to personal data under the Privacy Policy.

Private Health Insurance and Tax Relief

Private health-insurance reimbursement and tax relief are arrangements between the family or person making the claim and the relevant insurer or Revenue. They do not form part of the assessment contract and do not alter the agreed fee or payment schedule.

Eligibility for reimbursement or relief depends on the applicable rules at the relevant time. Insurance cover may vary according to the insurer, individual plan, assessment type, practitioner or referral requirements, benefit limits, and other policy terms. Tax relief is determined under Revenue requirements. All Kinds of Minds can provide appropriate receipts and factual information concerning the assessment and practitioner, but cannot determine a person’s eligibility, interpret an insurance policy or Revenue rules on their behalf, obtain prior authorisation, submit a claim for the family, or guarantee reimbursement or tax relief.

Families for whom reimbursement is important should check their individual policy directly with their insurer. The Health Insurance Authority comparison tool provides independent information about private health-insurance plans, and current information concerning tax relief for health expenses is available through Revenue.

Assessment fees remain payable in accordance with the agreed private payment arrangement irrespective of whether an insurance or tax-relief claim is subsequently accepted, partly accepted, or declined.

Payment Processing and Personal Information

Private payments are made through the electronic payment arrangements provided by the practice. Personal and payment-related information is handled in accordance with the Privacy Policy and applicable data-protection requirements.

H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments

The private fees and payment arrangements above do not apply to professional work commissioned and funded by the H.S.E. Families are not charged a private assessment fee for work falling within the authorised H.S.E. commission.

Where a genuinely separate private service is requested and can appropriately be provided, it must be separately agreed before any private charge arises. The relationship between private and H.S.E.-commissioned work is governed by H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments recognises that illness, family circumstances, school commitments, and other unexpected events may affect a family’s or young person’s ability to attend or continue an assessment. Appointments may be cancelled or rearranged, and a family or young person may decide not to continue with a private assessment. As much notice as reasonably practicable should be provided so that clinical time can be reorganised and, where appropriate, offered to another family.

The financial consequences of cancellation, withdrawal, or discontinuation depend on the professional service that has been supplied and the work that will no longer be undertaken. A payment does not become non-refundable merely because it was made in advance. Equally, cancellation or withdrawal does not retrospectively undo professional work already properly supplied as part of the agreed service.

Cancelling or Rearranging an Appointment

A family or young person who cannot attend a scheduled appointment should contact All Kinds of Minds as soon as reasonably possible using the contact details provided with the booking. Cancellation of an individual appointment will not ordinarily be treated as withdrawal from the assessment unless the family or young person states that they do not wish to continue or the circumstances subsequently make continuation impracticable.

All Kinds of Minds does not impose a separate late-cancellation charge. An appointment may be rearranged subject to clinical availability, but a replacement appointment cannot be guaranteed within the same timeframe as the original booking. Cancellation or rearrangement may delay later assessment appointments, clinical formulation, feedback, or completion of the report.

Where an appointment has been paid for in advance and no professional service attributable to that payment has been supplied, the payment may be transferred to an agreed replacement appointment. If the appointment will not be rearranged and the corresponding service will not be supplied, the amount attributable to that unprovided service will be refunded.

Psychological assessment also involves professional work outside direct appointments. Depending on the assessment pathway and the stage reached, this may include reviewing developmental and clinical information, previous reports, educational records, questionnaires, and assessment measures, preparing for assessment procedures, scoring and interpreting results, undertaking clinical analysis and formulation, consulting with a multidisciplinary clinician, integrating findings, and preparing the report. Where such work has already been undertaken as part of the agreed service, a reasonable and proportionate amount attributable to the professional work supplied may remain payable even though a later appointment is cancelled.

Non-Attendance and Late Arrival

All Kinds of Minds does not impose a separate non-attendance or no-show charge, and a missed appointment does not automatically close an assessment pathway. Where the family or young person wishes to continue, a replacement appointment may be offered subject to availability, but the practice is not required to preserve the original assessment timetable or provide an immediate replacement.

A person who arrives late will be seen where sufficient time remains to undertake the planned work appropriately. Some psychological assessment procedures require adequate uninterrupted administration time and particular standardised conditions. Where the remaining time is insufficient to complete the planned work responsibly, the affected component may need to be rearranged. No separate late-arrival charge is imposed, although any professional work already supplied remains subject to the ordinary payment provisions in these Terms.

Repeated cancellation, non-attendance, late arrival, or inability to progress required appointments may eventually make it impracticable to continue reserving clinical capacity for the assessment. The circumstances in which an assessment may then be paused or closed, and the communication that will ordinarily precede that decision, are governed by Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries.

Attending an appointment but finding an assessment difficult to complete is not treated as non-attendance. A child or young person will not be penalised because they require additional processing time, movement, sensory support, breaks, reduced verbal demand, another reasonable adjustment, or an alternative appointment arrangement. Participation, distress, communication differences, reasonable adjustments, and circumstances in which a child or young person cannot appropriately continue are governed by Assessment Process, Participation, Access and Reasonable Adjustments.

Withdrawal From an Assessment

A parent, legal guardian, or consenting young person may decide not to continue with a private assessment after it has begun. Clinical work will not continue where the consent legally required for the assessment has been validly withdrawn. The child’s or young person’s expressed wishes and continuing participation will also be considered in accordance with Consent, Guardianship and Family Circumstances and Assessment Process, Participation, Access and Reasonable Adjustments.

Where an assessment ends before completion, the account will be reconciled by reference to the agreed assessment service, the professional work already supplied, and the work that will no longer be undertaken. Payments made under an instalment arrangement are payments towards one agreed assessment contract and are not the price of separate monthly services. Whether a particular instalment has fallen due does not, by itself, determine the amount payable following withdrawal.

Where the value reasonably attributable to professional work already properly supplied is less than the amount paid, the appropriate balance will be refunded. Where the professional work supplied exceeds the amount paid to date, an appropriate outstanding amount may remain payable. Any amount retained or charged will be reasonable and proportionate to the nature and extent of the service supplied, will not exceed the agreed overall fee for that service, and will not include assessment work that will no longer be undertaken.

A Parent Consultation, feedback appointment, or other service identified under Fees and Payment as separately booked is treated as a distinct professional service. Where that service has been completed, its agreed fee remains payable even if the family or young person subsequently decides not to proceed with, or complete, a separate assessment pathway. This remains subject to any statutory right or remedy arising if the separately booked service was not supplied in conformity with the contract.

Once an agreed professional service has been fully supplied, any outstanding agreed balance for that completed service remains payable. A completed assessment is not refundable merely because the diagnostic formulation or assessment outcome differs from what was anticipated, because a diagnosis is not made, or because another professional later reaches a different opinion. This does not restrict any right or remedy arising where the service was not supplied in conformity with the contract or with the standard required by law. The clinical principles governing diagnostic conclusions and reasonable differences of professional opinion are addressed under Diagnostic Formulation and Assessment Outcomes.

Cancellation or Discontinuation by All Kinds of Minds

All Kinds of Minds may occasionally need to cancel or rearrange an appointment because of clinician illness, multidisciplinary availability, or another unforeseen circumstance affecting the ability to provide the appointment appropriately. The family or young person will be informed as soon as reasonably practicable, and a replacement appointment will ordinarily be offered. Where the practice cancels an appointment and the family or young person does not wish to, or cannot reasonably, rearrange it, any amount paid for professional work that will not be supplied will be refunded or otherwise adjusted as appropriate.

Different considerations apply where the practice pauses or discontinues an assessment for a substantive clinical, consent, safety, professional-boundary, non-engagement, or other reason described under Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries. Professional work already properly supplied may remain chargeable, while fees attributable to work that will no longer be supplied will be refunded or removed from any outstanding balance. The financial adjustment will reflect the stage reached and the professional work supplied rather than automatically treating the entire assessment fee as either payable or refundable.

Where cancellation or discontinuation results from a failure by All Kinds of Minds to supply the contracted service in accordance with applicable consumer law, the family’s or young person’s statutory rights and remedies take precedence over the ordinary withdrawal arrangements in this section. Nothing in these Terms limits a remedy that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.

Online Booking and the Statutory Cancellation Period

The psychological and neurodevelopmental assessment and consultation services provided by All Kinds of Minds are healthcare services supplied by a health professional to assess a child’s or young person’s psychological, developmental, or neurodevelopmental presentation. Under section 97 of the Consumer Rights Act 2022, the statutory provisions concerning healthcare contracts do not include the general right to cancel a distance or off-premises contract contained in Chapter 5 of Part 5 of that Act.

Booking or paying for an appointment online does not create a separate statutory 14-day change-of-mind cancellation period for these healthcare services. Families and young people remain free to cancel an appointment or withdraw from a private assessment under the fair and proportionate arrangements in this section. The absence of the statutory 14-day cancellation period does not affect the separate rights and remedies that may arise where a service is not supplied, is not supplied in conformity with the contract, or otherwise fails to meet an applicable legal requirement.

Refunds and Financial Adjustments

Where a refund or account adjustment is required, All Kinds of Minds will explain how it has been calculated. In a partly completed assessment, this may require consideration of professional work undertaken across several components rather than simply counting appointments attended or instalments paid. The calculation will remain proportionate to the agreed overall fee and the professional work properly supplied.

Any refund due will be processed without undue delay and will ordinarily be returned through the method by which the original payment was made unless another arrangement is agreed. Where legislation requires reimbursement within a particular period or by a particular method, that statutory requirement will apply. These Terms do not require payment for a professional service that has not been supplied, impose a blanket non-refundable payment, or exclude any statutory right or remedy available under applicable Irish consumer law.

H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments

Families and young people do not purchase or pay the private assessment fee for work commissioned by the H.S.E., and the private refund provisions in this section do not apply to the H.S.E.-funded assessment itself. Cancellation, non-attendance, withdrawal, and discontinuation within an H.S.E.-commissioned pathway are managed in accordance with the clinical requirements of these Terms and the applicable H.S.E. referral, scheduling, contractual, and case-closure arrangements.

Where a separately agreed private service is provided in connection with, or alongside, H.S.E.-commissioned work, that service remains distinct from the H.S.E. commission. Its cancellation, payment, and refund arrangements are governed by the provisions applicable to that separately agreed private service.

Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries

All Kinds of Minds Assessments provides defined, assessment-focused professional services rather than an open-ended clinical-care relationship. An active case continues for the particular consultation or assessment service that has been agreed and closes when that service has been completed or is otherwise brought to an end under these Terms.

Where an assessment has begun, All Kinds of Minds will not discontinue it arbitrarily. Where circumstances reasonably allow, the Clinical Psychologist will consider whether a difficulty can be resolved before ending the service. There are nevertheless circumstances in which continuing would be unsafe, unlawful, inconsistent with valid consent, outside the appropriate scope or capacity of the practice, incompatible with professional obligations, or otherwise not in the child’s or young person’s interests.

Case Closure Following Completion

A case closes when the professional service agreed under Formation and Scope of the Service Contract has been completed. A Parent Consultation that does not proceed to a separate assessment contract is a completed professional service in its own right. Where an assessment contract has been formed, the active case closes when the components included within that contract have been supplied or the service has otherwise ended in accordance with these Terms.

Case closure does not prevent reasonable administrative communication concerning the completed service. A child, young person, parent, or legal guardian may still raise a concern or complaint, request correction of a confirmed factual error, exercise applicable data-protection or statutory rights, or seek reasonable clarification of a specific matter contained within the completed assessment.

Closure does not create an indefinite entitlement to further clinical work. Later consideration of new information, further assessment, revised recommendations, meetings, liaison with schools or other professionals, advocacy, additional letters, addendum opinions, form completion, or other substantive professional activity may require a separately agreed service where that work falls within the scope and capacity of the practice.

Factual corrections and the status and use of the final report are governed by Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions. Continuing obligations concerning records, confidentiality, safeguarding, and required disclosure remain in effect after case closure under Confidentiality, Safeguarding and Required Disclosures and the Privacy Policy.

Where a Family or Young Person Ends an Assessment

A parent, legal guardian, or consenting young person may decide not to continue with a private assessment. Clinical work will also end where the consent legally required for the assessment has been validly withdrawn.

Consent and withdrawal of consent are governed by Consent, Guardianship and Family Circumstances. Where a child or young person communicates that they do not wish to continue with an assessment activity, their participation and welfare will be considered under Assessment Process, Participation, Access and Reasonable Adjustments. A child’s difficulty participating will not be treated as non-engagement or misconduct.

Withdrawal brings the active assessment relationship to an end once any clinically or administratively necessary closing arrangements have been completed. Any resulting fee, outstanding balance, refund, or financial adjustment is governed solely by Cancellation, Rearrangement, Non-Attendance, Withdrawal and Refunds.

When All Kinds of Minds May Discontinue an Assessment

All Kinds of Minds may discontinue an active assessment where the agreed professional service can no longer appropriately or responsibly be provided. This may arise where valid consent has been withdrawn or cannot be established, material new information shows that the service is no longer within the Scope of Practice or applicable suitability requirements, necessary assessment information cannot be obtained, or the objectives of the agreed assessment can no longer reasonably be achieved.

Discontinuation may also be necessary where significant safety or mental-health needs require another form of care to take priority or the child’s or young person’s presentation requires a level or combination of multidisciplinary assessment and support that this practice cannot provide. The physical-safety boundary, the requirements concerning disclosure of safety-relevant information, and the treatment of information that was unavailable, genuinely unknown, knowingly withheld, or materially misrepresented are governed by Determining Suitability and Wait-List Management. Where the physical-safety boundary established under that section becomes apparent after professional work has begun, the assessment will be discontinued.

Other grounds may include material misrepresentation or knowing omission of information relevant to consent, suitability, safety, professional boundaries, or assessment integrity, an unmanageable conflict of interest or dual relationship, prolonged non-engagement, unresolved non-payment, or serious adult conduct that makes continued professional involvement untenable.

Except where the nature or urgency of the issue requires the service to end, the existence of a difficulty does not automatically result in discontinuation. Where the matter can appropriately be resolved without compromising valid consent, professional standards, confidentiality, safety, assessment integrity, or the child’s or young person’s interests, reasonable steps may be taken to allow the assessment to continue.

Clinical difficulties relating to a child’s or young person’s participation are considered separately from adult conduct. Distress, sensory or regulation needs, shutdown, refusal, movement, communication differences, reduced tolerance for assessment demands, and other participation difficulties are governed by Assessment Process, Participation, Access and Reasonable Adjustments and are not treated as misconduct.

Emerging Risk, Mental-Health Needs and Clinical Complexity

All Kinds of Minds is an assessment-focused practice and does not provide crisis intervention, emergency mental-health care, psychiatric treatment, risk management, ongoing clinical monitoring, or care coordination. Where significant current risk or mental-health needs become apparent after an assessment has begun, the immediate clinical question is whether it remains safe and professionally appropriate for the assessment to continue within this setting.

An assessment may be paused or discontinued where the child or young person requires urgent assessment, treatment, monitoring, or stabilisation that should take priority, or where continuing would be unsafe, clinically inappropriate, or likely to interfere with access to more suitable care. Any safeguarding or required disclosure responsibilities arising from the information will be addressed under Confidentiality, Safeguarding and Required Disclosures.

Where moderate-to-severe or complex mental-health needs indicate that specialist multidisciplinary mental-health care may be required, consultation with the child’s or young person’s G.P. and possible referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services may be recommended. C.A.M.H.S. determines whether its own referral and acceptance criteria are met, and a recommendation or referral from All Kinds of Minds does not guarantee access to that service.

A high degree of complexity does not, by itself, mean that a child or young person is unsuitable for assessment. Discontinuation may nevertheless be necessary where the interaction of developmental, disability, communication, medical, mental-health, behavioural, safeguarding, or functional needs requires coordinated multidisciplinary assessment or intervention beyond what can responsibly be provided through this assessment-focused practice.

Where the available information indicates complex disability-related needs requiring coordinated multidisciplinary support, the family may be directed towards the H.S.E. Children’s Disability Network Team pathway or another appropriate service. A C.D.N.T. is responsible for determining whether the child meets its access criteria, and signposting or recommending referral does not establish eligibility or create an obligation on that service to accept the child.

The identification of another service as more appropriate does not diminish the validity of the child’s or young person’s experiences or needs. It reflects the professional responsibility to recognise when a different clinical setting, broader multidisciplinary team, or treatment-focused service is required to understand and support the child safely and comprehensively.

Non-Engagement

All Kinds of Minds does not apply an automatic rule that an active assessment closes merely because a fixed period has passed without contact. Assessment nevertheless requires sufficient engagement from the relevant adults and, where applicable, the young person to allow the agreed professional work to progress.

Where information, questionnaires, appointments, consent documentation, payment, or another necessary step remains outstanding, the practice may contact the family or young person, explain what is required, and provide a reasonable opportunity to respond. The timing and form of that communication may reflect the stage of the assessment, the nature of the outstanding requirement, and any relevant clinical or practical circumstances already known to the practice.

Where reasonable attempts to progress the assessment have been unsuccessful and the steps necessary for the assessment to continue remain outstanding, the practice may conclude that the agreed service can no longer reasonably progress and close the case. Where assessment is sought again following closure, previous appointment availability, sequencing, pricing, or clinical capacity cannot be guaranteed, and a new suitability review or service agreement may be required.

Conduct of Parents, Legal Guardians and Other Adults

Parents, legal guardians, and other adults involved in an assessment are entitled to ask questions, request clarification, disagree with a professional opinion, question an administrative decision or invoice, identify a possible error, provide critical feedback, seek another professional opinion, or make a formal complaint. None of these actions is, in itself, inappropriate conduct or a reason to discontinue an assessment.

Professional work must nevertheless be able to proceed safely and appropriately. Threatening behaviour, threats of violence or retaliation, physical intimidation, harassment, discriminatory or personally abusive communication, deliberate interference with another family’s privacy or safety, deliberate damage to property, or other conduct that materially prevents professional work from being undertaken will not be accepted.

The practice will not accept coercion, threats, or improper pressure intended to require a clinician to reach, remove, or alter a diagnosis, score, formulation, recommendation, or other professional conclusion contrary to the assessment evidence and professional judgement. This is distinct from appropriately questioning the evidential basis of a conclusion, disagreeing with it, seeking another professional opinion, or requesting correction of a factual error.

Where conduct is inappropriate but does not require immediate discontinuation, the relevant boundary will ordinarily be explained and the person may be given a reasonable opportunity to alter the conduct. Communication may be restricted to a designated professional channel, limited to matters necessary for completion of the service, or made subject to another proportionate boundary where this is needed to protect the professional process.

Where conduct is serious, threatening, intimidating, persistently abusive after an appropriate boundary has been made clear, or otherwise makes continued professional involvement untenable, the assessment may be discontinued. The practice is not required to continue in-person contact or other direct communication where doing so would create a genuine safety concern.

Professional Boundaries and Dual Relationships

The relationship between the Clinical Psychologist and the child, young person, and family is a professional relationship established for a defined assessment purpose. Clear boundaries are necessary to protect confidentiality, professional objectivity, assessment integrity, and the interests of the child or young person.

Where the Clinical Psychologist has a pre-existing or concurrent personal, familial, close social, financial, supervisory, employment, business, therapeutic, or other relationship with the child, young person, parent, or legal guardian that constitutes a meaningful dual relationship, conflict of interest, or reasonable concern about professional objectivity or confidentiality, the referral will not be accepted. The practice will not relax this boundary because the family would prefer the assessment to proceed or because another provider may be less convenient.

The P.S.I. Code of Professional Ethics requires psychologists to deal actively with conflicts of interest, recognise the limits of their professional role, and avoid using professional relationships inappropriately. Incidental familiarity cannot always be avoided, particularly in smaller communities, and merely recognising a person, living in the same locality, or having a distant connection does not automatically constitute a meaningful dual relationship. The nature, closeness, recency, and likely professional effect of the connection will be considered in determining whether this boundary is engaged.

Where a meaningful dual relationship or conflict is identified before assessment begins, the referral will be declined. Where it becomes apparent only after professional work has begun, the Clinical Psychologist will discontinue the assessment rather than continue within a compromised professional relationship. Any closing arrangements will be managed with appropriate regard for the child’s or young person’s welfare, confidentiality, and need for alternative assessment.

A clinician contributing to a multidisciplinary assessment must similarly disclose any relationship or conflict that could reasonably affect professional objectivity, confidentiality, or the child’s or young person’s interests. That clinician will not participate where a meaningful dual relationship or conflict exists. The multidisciplinary assessment may continue only where an appropriately qualified alternative clinician can be engaged within the agreed professional, consent, contractual, and practical arrangements.

Personal and Social Boundaries

The professional relationship does not extend to friendship, social involvement, private business arrangements, personal advocacy unrelated to the agreed assessment, or another personal arrangement that could blur or compromise the professional role. Communication concerning the assessment should ordinarily take place through the designated professional channels and remain directed towards the agreed service.

The Clinical Psychologist will not use the professional position, assessment relationship, or trust arising from it for personal benefit or to establish another relationship inconsistent with the professional role. Appropriate boundaries continue after the active case has closed to the extent necessary to protect confidentiality, professional integrity, and the interests of the child or young person.

Incidental encounters outside the clinic will be handled discreetly. To protect the family’s confidentiality, the Clinical Psychologist may not initiate acknowledgement of a child, young person, or family in a public or social setting unless they first choose to do so.

Non-Payment

Invoices, payment schedules, due dates, and the management of overdue payments are governed by Fees and Payment. Where an outstanding payment remains unresolved after reasonable notice and further professional work cannot reasonably proceed under the agreed payment arrangement, the assessment may be paused or discontinued.

Any financial reconciliation following discontinuation is governed solely by Cancellation, Rearrangement, Non-Attendance, Withdrawal and Refunds. Discontinuation for non-payment does not create an entitlement to charge for professional work that will not be supplied or restrict any applicable consumer right or remedy.

How Practice-Initiated Discontinuation Is Managed

Where All Kinds of Minds determines that an assessment cannot appropriately continue, the family or young person will ordinarily be informed of the decision and the principal reason for it. Written confirmation will be provided where appropriate, although the information given may be limited where fuller disclosure would be unlawful, unsafe, inconsistent with another person’s confidentiality, or professionally inappropriate.

Where circumstances permit, reasonable notice will be given and reasonable steps will be taken to minimise avoidable harm arising from the ending of the service. More immediate discontinuation may be necessary where valid consent no longer exists, a significant safety concern or physical-safety boundary has been established, serious threatening or violent conduct has occurred, a meaningful dual relationship or conflict of interest has arisen, or another legal or professional circumstance means that continuing would itself be inappropriate.

Where another professional or service appears better suited to the child’s or young person’s needs, appropriate signposting may be provided. Signposting identifies a potentially relevant pathway but does not constitute an ongoing referral, guarantee that another service will accept the child, or create a case-management responsibility for All Kinds of Minds.

Where the Clinical Psychologist agrees to make a formal professional referral rather than provide general signposting, the referral will be made with the consent or other lawful authority required for the disclosure. Any responsibility associated with that referral will be limited to the professional action agreed and will not convert the assessment service into ongoing clinical care or coordination.

Effect of Closure or Discontinuation

Case closure or discontinuation ends the active professional assessment relationship. It does not remove continuing obligations concerning confidentiality, safeguarding, record keeping, or required disclosure, and it does not prevent a child, young person, or family from exercising applicable data-protection, complaint, consumer, or other statutory rights.

Where an assessment ends before sufficient evidence has been obtained to support a responsible final conclusion, All Kinds of Minds is not required to issue a completed diagnostic report representing an assessment that was not completed. Depending on the professional work undertaken and the stage reached, it may sometimes be appropriate to provide a limited written summary, record of findings to date, or another document that accurately reflects the work completed.

Any limited document will be confined to information and conclusions that can responsibly be supported and will not imply that the full assessment pathway was completed. The decision whether such a document can appropriately be issued remains a matter of professional judgement, informed by the nature and sufficiency of the work undertaken.

Any fee, outstanding balance, refund, or financial adjustment arising where an assessment ends before completion is governed solely by Cancellation, Rearrangement, Non-Attendance, Withdrawal and Refunds. Closure or discontinuation does not alter the family’s or young person’s rights where a service was not supplied in conformity with the contract or applicable law.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments takes reasonable care to ensure that information published on the Website about the practice and its services is accurate, clear, and appropriately maintained.

General educational or explanatory Website content is not an individual psychological assessment, diagnosis, clinical opinion, or recommendation concerning a particular child or young person. Individual clinical opinions are provided only within an agreed professional service and on the basis of information sufficient to support that opinion.

Information describing a particular assessment service should be read together with these Terms and any service-specific information or individual arrangements provided in connection with that service. Nothing in this section limits the contractual effect that applicable consumer law gives to statements about a service. Under section 80 and section 81 of the Consumer Rights Act 2022, a service must, in the circumstances specified by the Act, conform to relevant oral or written statements on which a consumer relied and to applicable public statements made by or on behalf of the trader.

Visiting the Website, reading its content, submitting an enquiry, or contacting the practice does not, by itself, establish an assessment relationship or a contract for professional services. Contract formation is governed under Formation and Scope of the Service Contract.

Website content may be updated prospectively as the practice, its services, professional guidance, legal requirements, or other relevant arrangements develop. A later change to Website content does not, by itself, vary an existing private service contract. Changes to these Terms and their effect on an existing service contract are governed under Changes to These Terms. Changes to published fees are governed under Fees and Payment.

The Website may occasionally be unavailable or affected by maintenance, technical problems, third-party service interruption, or circumstances outside the reasonable control of the practice. Temporary Website unavailability does not alter an existing service contract or any applicable statutory right.

E-Mail and Electronic Communication

E-mail is used for routine professional and administrative communication, including enquiries, appointment arrangements, assessment correspondence, and other communication reasonably connected with an agreed service.

E-mail and other electronic communication may also form part of booking, agreeing, or varying a professional service where this occurs in accordance with Formation and Scope of the Service Contract. The Electronic Commerce Act 2000recognises the legal effect of contracts concluded electronically and permits offers, acceptances, and related contractual communications to be made by electronic communication, unless the parties have agreed otherwise.

Sending an e-mail or other electronic message does not, by itself, create an entitlement to clinical advice, assessment, consultation, review of information, or another professional service that has not been agreed.

E-mail, Website enquiries, and other routine practice communication channels are not monitored continuously and must not be relied upon for urgent mental-health, safeguarding, or safety needs. All Kinds of Minds is an assessment-focused service rather than an emergency or crisis service, as described under Scope of Practice.

Electronic communication carries inherent risks, including delay, non-delivery, interception, misdirection, and unauthorised access. All Kinds of Minds uses appropriate professional, technical, and organisational safeguards when handling electronic information, but no method of electronic communication can eliminate all risk. The Data Protection Commission has identified misdirected e-mail as a common source of personal-data breaches and emphasises the importance of appropriate safeguards when personal or health information is transmitted electronically.

Where the practice provides a secure client portal, document-upload facility, or another designated secure method for submitting sensitive documents or information, families and professionals should use that method where reasonably practicable rather than sending the same material through ordinary e-mail.

All Kinds of Minds may verify a person’s identity, authority, e-mail address, or other relevant details before releasing confidential information or acting on an instruction where this is reasonably necessary to protect the child or young person, another person, or the confidentiality and security of the information concerned.

The collection, use, storage, disclosure, and security of personal information received through the Website, e-mail, or other electronic systems are governed by the Privacy Policy and applicable data-protection law.

External Links and Third-Party Information

The Website may contain links to the H.S.E., Government Departments, professional organisations, educational bodies, support services, published guidance, research, or other third-party websites and resources.

External websites and services are operated independently of All Kinds of Minds. Unless expressly stated otherwise, a link is provided because the external resource may assist a reader in obtaining information or accessing another organisation. Inclusion of a link does not mean that All Kinds of Minds owns or controls the external website, endorses every statement, service, or resource available through it, or assumes responsibility for decisions made by the external organisation.

External organisations may change their content, eligibility criteria, procedures, services, privacy practices, terms, or Website availability without notice to All Kinds of Minds. A link may therefore become outdated or unavailable despite reasonable efforts to maintain Website information. Where current information about another organisation’s services, criteria, procedures, or requirements is important to a family or young person, the relevant organisation should be consulted directly.

Where All Kinds of Minds describes, summarises, or relies upon an external source in its own Website content, the practice remains responsible for representing that source appropriately within the context in which it is used. The fact that information originates from an external organisation does not remove the practice’s responsibility for the accuracy and professional appropriateness of statements it makes about its own services.

The separate responsibilities of schools, public bodies, insurers, healthcare services, and other organisations for decisions concerning supports, accommodations, services, eligibility, and implementation are addressed under Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments uses both original materials created in the course of the practice and standardised psychological assessment materials developed and owned by third-party publishers. Different intellectual-property, professional, and test-security requirements apply to these materials. Those requirements are distinct from the rights of a child or young person in relation to their own personal data.

Practice-Created Materials and Psychological Reports

Unless otherwise stated, copyright in original Website content, explanatory materials, forms, templates, written guidance, and other original materials created by All Kinds of Minds remains with the relevant author or other rights-holder. Material provided to a family for the purpose of an assessment may be used, completed, downloaded, or printed as reasonably required for the purpose for which it was supplied. This does not transfer ownership of the underlying material or authorise its republication, sale, commercial adaptation, or use as the basis for another service or product without permission or another lawful basis.

Copyright in the original wording and presentation of a Psychological Report remains with its author or authors, subject to any rights belonging to third parties in material incorporated within it. Ownership or control of the issued copy by its recipient, as described under Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions, does not transfer that copyright.

Copyright in the report, and the separate intellectual-property and test-security restrictions applying to psychological assessment materials, do not prevent the child or young person, or those lawfully acting on their behalf, from retaining, printing, copying, and lawfully sharing the report, including the complete issued report, for the child’s or young person’s healthcare, education, support, welfare, administrative, or legal purposes in accordance with Reports, External Use and Third-Party Decisions. This permission does not, of itself, authorise commercial republication, public posting, use of the report or substantial parts of it as a template for another person or service, or other unrelated reuse without the permission of the relevant copyright owner, except where the use is otherwise permitted by applicable law.

Secure Psychological Assessment Materials

Many of the standardised psychological instruments used by All Kinds of Minds contain copyrighted, proprietary, and security-sensitive material supplied subject to requirements governing who may access, administer, reproduce, retain, distribute, and interpret them. Secure assessment material may include test items and questions, stimulus books and materials, administration instructions, manuals, record forms, response forms, scoring keys, scoring algorithms, item-level content, restricted publisher-generated outputs, and other material from which protected assessment content can be identified or reconstructed.

Access to assessment material for the purpose of completing a questionnaire or participating in an assessment does not transfer any right to reproduce, retain, distribute, publish, or otherwise use the assessment material beyond the purpose for which access was provided.

Secure or proprietary psychological test materials themselves are not ordinarily provided to parents, legal guardians, children or young people, schools, or other persons who are not appropriately qualified and authorised to receive them. This includes completed record or response forms where supplying a copy would reproduce or reveal secure test content. These restrictions protect the intellectual-property rights of test publishers, the security and continuing validity of psychological instruments, the fairness and integrity of future assessment, and the child’s or young person’s responses from inappropriate or unqualified interpretation.

This does not mean that assessment findings are withheld from children, young people, or families. Standardised scores and clinically relevant results are reported and interpreted within the Psychological Report, together with the information necessary to understand their significance within the assessment as a whole.

Secure test content must not be photographed, filmed, audio-recorded, screen-captured, copied, transcribed, uploaded, posted online, or otherwise reproduced or distributed without appropriate authorisation. This applies equally to paper and digital assessment materials. Where recording or reproduction during an assessment would compromise test security, intellectual-property rights, or the validity or interpretability of the procedure, that activity must stop, and the Clinical Psychologist may discontinue the affected assessment component.

Access to Personal Assessment Information

Test security and copyright do not remove or displace a person’s rights under the G.D.P.R. and applicable Irish data-protection law. Requests for access to personal data are considered in accordance with the Privacy Policy and the applicable legal requirements.

A right of access to personal data is distinct from ownership of, or an unrestricted right to receive a reproduction of, every document in which those data appear. Some assessment records contain both personal data relating to the child or young person and copyrighted, proprietary, security-sensitive, or third-party information. Where these interests intersect, All Kinds of Minds will consider the person’s right of access alongside the rights and freedoms of others, including relevant privacy, intellectual-property, and test-security interests.

Where necessary to protect those rights while still giving meaningful access to the personal data to which the person is entitled, information may be provided in an extracted, redacted, transcribed, or otherwise intelligible form rather than by supplying an unrestricted reproduction of the secure assessment document itself. Any limitation will be confined to what is reasonably necessary and legally justified. Copyright or test security will not be relied upon as a basis for withholding personal data where the applicable data-protection law requires that information to be provided.

Professional Review and Required Disclosure

Where an appropriately qualified professional requires secure assessment material for a legitimate professional review, reassessment, or second opinion, relevant material may, where clinically appropriate, lawful, and permitted under the applicable publisher requirements, be transferred directly from professional to professional. Any such transfer must preserve confidentiality, data protection, and appropriate test security. Secure assessment materials will not ordinarily be routed through a parent, family member, or other person who is not authorised to receive them.

Nothing in this section prevents disclosure required by law, a valid court order, or another binding legal process. Where such a requirement involves secure psychological assessment material, All Kinds of Minds will comply with the applicable legal obligation while taking reasonable steps, where lawful and practicable, to limit unnecessary dissemination and preserve confidentiality, intellectual-property rights, and test security.

H.S.E.-commissioned assessments are additionally subject to any applicable H.S.E. requirements concerning ownership, use, transfer, retention, reporting, information governance, audit, and records management. Those arrangements are governed under H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments, and nothing in this section alters them.

All Kinds of Minds Assessments may review and update these Terms from time to time. Changes may be made to reflect developments in applicable law, safeguarding or professional requirements, H.S.E. arrangements, evidence and professional guidance, the organisation of the practice, services offered to future clients, administrative processes, or to improve the accuracy, clarity, and accessibility of the Terms.

Revised Terms are intended to operate prospectively unless a different position follows from applicable law or another binding requirement. Publication of a revised version does not, by itself, alter a private service contract that has already been formed. The current version will be published on the Website and will identify when it was last updated.

Terms Applicable to a Private Service Contract

A private service contract is governed by the version of these Terms made available before, and applicable when, that particular contract is formed, together with the other information and specific arrangements that form part of the agreement under Formation and Scope of the Service Contract.

Publication of revised Terms on the Website does not, by itself, vary an existing private service contract. Silence, continued use of the Website, continued correspondence with the practice, payment under an existing arrangement, or attendance at an appointment under an existing contract will not, by itself, be treated as agreement to a material change in that contract.

Where a later professional service forms a separate private contract, the Terms applicable to that later service will be those made available before that contract is formed.

Changes Affecting an Existing Private Contract

Where All Kinds of Minds proposes a material change to an existing private service contract that is not required by applicable law or another binding legal or professional requirement, the proposed change and its relevant effect will be explained clearly and will take effect only where it is validly agreed.

A material change to the agreed assessment scope or the addition of separately chargeable professional work is governed by Formation and Scope of the Service Contract and Fees and Payment. A revised version of these Terms cannot, by itself, impose a new private charge, materially expand the professional service purchased, or remove or restrict a contractual or statutory right relating to a service already agreed.

Where a proposed change is not agreed, the existing contract will continue on its existing terms where this remains lawful, clinically appropriate, and reasonably practicable. Declining an optional contractual variation does not, by itself, provide a basis for discontinuing an assessment. Where circumstances independently mean that the agreed service can no longer appropriately be provided, any decision concerning discontinuation is governed by Case Closure, Discontinuation, Conduct and Professional Boundaries, and any resulting financial adjustment is governed by Cancellation, Withdrawal, Non-Attendance and Refunds.

Changes Required by Law or Professional Obligations

Nothing in these Terms or an existing private service contract requires All Kinds of Minds or a clinician contributing to an assessment to act contrary to applicable law, safeguarding obligations, professional or ethical requirements, or another binding requirement applying when the professional service is provided.

Where such a requirement arises or changes during an active assessment and materially affects how the agreed service can lawfully or professionally be provided, the family or young person will be informed as soon as reasonably practicable. Where compliance with the requirement does not depend upon contractual agreement, it will not be treated as optional merely because an earlier version of these Terms or an existing service arrangement was agreed before the requirement arose. Any resulting change to the service will be limited to what is reasonably necessary to comply with the relevant requirement.

Ordinary clinical refinement of an assessment plan within the agreed assessment pathway is not an amendment of these Terms or, of itself, a material variation of the assessment contract. The circumstances in which an assessment plan may be clinically refined, and the distinction between clinical refinement and a materially different or additional service, are addressed under Formation and Scope of the Service Contract.

Publication and Notice of Changes

The latest version of these Terms will be published on the All Kinds of Minds Website. Before entering into a new private service contract, the person arranging the service will be given a reasonable opportunity to review the Terms applicable to that service.

A material change that is intended to affect an existing private contract will not be communicated solely by expecting the family or young person to monitor the Website. Where such a change is relevant to an active service, it will be communicated directly as reasonably practicable and, where agreement is required, will not take effect merely because revised Terms have been published.

Minor editorial corrections, formatting changes, updated hyperlinks, corrections of typographical errors, updated contact information, and other changes that do not materially alter the parties’ rights or obligations or the agreed professional service may be made without individual notification.

Changes to generally published fees are addressed under Fees and Payment. Changes to general Website information are addressed under Website, E-Mail and External Links.

H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments

Changes to these public Terms do not amend, replace, or override the contractual or commissioning arrangements between All Kinds of Minds Assessments and the H.S.E. and do not, by themselves, alter the authorised scope of an H.S.E.-commissioned referral.

Where an applicable H.S.E. requirement changes during a commissioned assessment, the commissioned service will be managed in accordance with the relevant H.S.E. arrangements and H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments.

These Terms and private service contracts entered into with All Kinds of Minds Assessments are governed by Irish law. This choice of law does not deprive a consumer of any mandatory protection that applies under applicable conflict-of-laws rules, including any protection that cannot lawfully be displaced by agreement.

All Kinds of Minds remains responsible for complying with the legal and professional obligations applicable to the services it provides. Nothing in these Terms requires the practice, the Clinical Psychologist, or another clinician contributing to an assessment to act contrary to applicable law or to the professional, ethical, safeguarding, or other binding obligations governing their work.

Statutory Consumer Rights

Nothing in these Terms excludes, restricts, replaces, or makes subject to an additional condition any statutory right, protection, or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted.

Private services supplied by All Kinds of Minds are subject to applicable Irish consumer law, including the Consumer Rights Act 2022. Under the Act, a service must be supplied in conformity with the service contract. The trader must have the necessary skill to supply the service, must supply it with reasonable care and skill and in accordance with applicable law, and must satisfy the other contractual and statutory requirements that apply to the service. Where a service is not supplied in conformity with the contract, the consumer has the remedies provided by law.

The Act expressly prevents a trader from excluding or restricting liability for the statutory service obligations protected by section 94, including the requirements concerning supply and conformity of the service, contractual statements, reasonable care and skill, and the other obligations specified in that section.

The clinical, professional, and practical boundaries described elsewhere in these Terms define the nature, scope, and limitations of the professional service being offered and agreed. They do not remove responsibility for supplying that agreed service in conformity with the contract and to the standard required by law.

Where a statutory right or remedy applies, it takes effect irrespective of any provision of these Terms that would otherwise purport to exclude, restrict, or make the exercise of that right or remedy subject to an unlawful condition.

Professional and Legal Obligations

Psychological assessment is undertaken within applicable legal, professional, ethical, safeguarding, confidentiality, data-protection, equality, and other relevant obligations.

Where a mandatory legal requirement applies to a professional service, that requirement takes precedence over any inconsistent contractual provision to the extent required by law. Similarly, nothing in a service contract requires a clinician to depart from an applicable professional, ethical, safeguarding, or regulatory obligation in order to comply with a request, expectation, or contractual provision.

The effect of a new or changed legal or binding professional requirement arising during an active service is addressed under Changes to These Terms.

Concerns, Complaints and Legal Remedies

All Kinds of Minds provides a Feedback and Complaints process through which a child, young person, parent, or legal guardian may raise a concern about the service.

Use of that process is not a condition of exercising a statutory right or pursuing another legal remedy. A person remains free to seek independent advice, exercise any applicable statutory complaint or enforcement mechanism, or bring proceedings before a court of competent jurisdiction where they are entitled to do so.

These Terms do not require a consumer to submit a dispute to private arbitration or otherwise exclude or hinder lawful access to legal action or a legal remedy. Section 132 of the Consumer Rights Act 2022 provides that a consumer-contract term is always unfair where its object or effect is to exclude or hinder a consumer’s right to take legal action or exercise a legal remedy, including through an arbitration requirement of the kind specified in that section.

Nothing in this section prevents the parties from seeking to resolve a concern directly, using an appropriate complaints process, obtaining independent advice, or agreeing to use a lawful alternative dispute-resolution procedure where participation is genuinely voluntary and does not remove any right that cannot lawfully be excluded.

If a Term Is Unfair, Unlawful or Otherwise Not Binding

If an individual provision of these Terms is unfair, unlawful, invalid, or otherwise not binding, it will not bind the consumer to the extent required by law.

Under section 129 of the Consumer Rights Act 2022, an unfair consumer-contract term is not binding on the consumer. Where the contract is capable of continuing without that term, the remainder of the contract continues to bind the parties.

A provision that is not binding will not be interpreted, modified, or applied for the purpose of depriving a consumer of a statutory protection that would otherwise apply. Nothing in this section prevents a consumer from relying upon an unfair term where applicable law permits the consumer to choose to do so.