Advice(s) needed: relocation to the UK with an autistic child

Hi there! I really need your help to gather as much information as possible.

Here is my case

I have an autistic son (7yo), a really heavy ASD case. Almost non-verbal (tens of words, couple of phrases). Can't serve himself. We live in eastern Europe.

We are attending ~15-20hrs of ABA therapy from the age of one and a half. This autumn we planned to try to put our son in a special school near our home, at least for a couple hours per day.

Now I have an offer to London. Really good one. And I have no idea about what I'll be able to provide for my son in the UK.

I've found some information from Google, but it's very fragmented and I can't build the whole picture.

1) As I understood, first of all, we'll need to have a local autism assessment in the UK. And government-based autism assessment could take up to several years.

Is this correct? Is it possible to pay for a private, paid, but fast autism assessment? Will it be equal to the government-based one?

2) After #1, we'll have to get an ECH plan somewhere. At local authority? Does this mean that different London districts or different cities could give very different ECH plans? How long could it take and how difficult is this process?

3) After getting an ECH plan, we can apply to some school or special school. Here is kind of some impenetrable fog for me :) I don't know anything about UK schooling.

- can we apply to any school? Or probably only to the nearest schools in a place where we will rent something?

- are any of the nearest schools obligated to accept our application?

- basically I even don't know what should we look for: special schools, schools with inclusive classes, or anything else

- I've found several really great-looking special schools for autistic children. How can I understand will I be able to put my kid in some of these schools, will they have classes, are they free or paid, etc, etc. No information about such kind of things on any school site :(

- where the situation with such special schools is better: in London itself, or maybe in small cities around London?

Basically, if I understand correctly, I should aim on some school first, and only then select a place to rent something near this school. But how to select something without all this information?

Any advices are very welcome! And thank you in advance :)

Another questions:

- are there enough ABA services in the UK? How much do they cost?

- how much do nanny services cost in London? Are there "special" nannies available? Like, familiar with special needs, with ABA, etc.

Parents
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  • ^
    this.... the uk is a bad place to live... thats why my origonal reply was negative. we have alot of issues. its not even a recent thing too as some like to make believe, its been terrible for as long as i have been alive, 32 years at least and longer before that too as entire generations of my family have been effectively pinned down before me and life has always been bad.

    honestly alot of people come to the uk due to a lie that the grass is greener on this side... that you get free life, free house and its a safe secure first world country.... they come here and they then complain they cant get anything free, they get forced into debt, they cannot leave as once you get here it costs a fortune to leave and they wont let you and no one else will take you anymore as all other countries dont want anyone to leave this rock when they are here. its a prison island when you come here basically... there is no free life, there is only hard work that doesnt even pay anything, you have to decide what to live without, usually your electric and some food cutbacks. you will likely be homeless as theres no houses here and rental places even get take up fast. we have refugees from war torn iraq that claimed the uk is actually worse than their bombed out town in iraq. i hope you like low quality food because microwave food is the norm here, its cold and damp here so you also have to expect every single building to be infested with mould and you will likely get asthma and all your clothes in the wardrobe will be full of mould in 2 weeks and require constant washing even when not using them. i could go on more, this doesnt even scratch the surface! lol

    id advise to instead look where people from the uk would want to leave and live in which are better... many people from the uk would leave to spain, australia, canada, or new zealand... we consider those better. 

  • > many people from the uk would leave to spain, australia, canada, or new zealand

    I'm afraid Australia, NZ and Switzerland won't give permanent residence and won't provide any gov.services for disabled non-citizens :) I had an Zurich option also, but declined it due to this reason.

    Anyways, thank you for your point of view, it's useful!

Reply
  • > many people from the uk would leave to spain, australia, canada, or new zealand

    I'm afraid Australia, NZ and Switzerland won't give permanent residence and won't provide any gov.services for disabled non-citizens :) I had an Zurich option also, but declined it due to this reason.

    Anyways, thank you for your point of view, it's useful!

Children