diagnostic threshold

A diagnosis is a threshold Threshold The level of need a family must show before a service will step in. Most local areas set out their thresholds in a document you can ask to see. Read the full definition of Threshold decision. An assessment team gathers information, compares it against a recognised set of criteria, and decides whether the pattern matches. That is a yes or no call made on a particular day, about a particular framework.

It is not a measure of how much your child is struggling, and it is not a ruling on whether your concerns were justified. Below the threshold means the criteria for that specific diagnosis were not met, not that your child is fine.

If the answer is no, the NHS advice is to "ask the assessment team why they have made the decision they have". Ask which criteria were not met and what they would recommend instead. Get it in writing if you can. The team may also suggest assessing again when your child is older, because the signs are not always clear early on.

The report still describes what they found, and those findings are professional evidence of need that you can use with school. Support in the UK is based on need, not on a label, so a no-diagnosis outcome does not remove your child's entitlement to help.