Questions to Ask at a Review Appointment

Prepare for a review appointment by re-reading the summary from last time, noting what has changed at home and at school since then, and taking a short list of questions about what happens next and when you will meet again. A review is the professionals' conversation about your child; your role is to bring accurate home observations, ask for anything unclear to be explained in plain words, and leave with the next steps and the next date written down. The answers belong to the professionals involved with your child, not to this page. Build your preparation on the one-page brief, and keep the record straight afterwards with the follow-up email.

Reviews generally open with a recap of the last period, move through updates from home and school, and close with next steps. Knowing that shape helps you place your questions: home observations belong early, while people are building the picture; questions about next steps belong near the end, when actions and owners are being named. Take your notebook and write in the layout from the notes template: said, agreed, next. If a word or abbreviation is used that you do not know, ask in the moment and write the explanation down; professionals use shorthand out of habit, and asking is expected, not rude. Before you leave, check three things aloud: what was agreed, who is doing each part, and when the next review or contact will be.

Choose the four or five that fit your child's situation and write them in your brief in priority order:

• What has changed since the last review, from your point of view?
• Which of the actions from last time happened, and which are still outstanding?
• What should we keep doing at home, and is there anything we should do differently?
• What will school be doing in the coming period, and how will we hear how it is going?
• What are the next steps, who owns each one, and what dates are attached?
• When is the next review, and what should we bring or record before then?
• Will a written summary of today be sent, and to whom?

As a plain illustration: a parent re-reads the previous summary the evening before and finds three agreed actions listed. At home, one clearly happened, one partly happened, and one was never mentioned again by anyone. In the review, the parent asks about the third action by its date and page, in a neutral tone: it had been waiting on a piece of paperwork, which is now resolved, and a new date is set there and then. The detail is invented to show the move that matters: reviews go better when the last record is in your hand, because memory alone would have let that action quietly disappear for everyone, not just for you.

Reviews wobble when they become a general chat with no decisions, when new people attend without the history, or when time runs out before next steps. Guard against the first by asking, near the end, if you can summarise the agreed actions back and check you have them right. Guard against the second by bringing your notebook record of who said what and when, so a new professional can be brought up to speed in two minutes. Guard against the third by putting your most important question second on your list as well as first in your mind; if time shortens, ask it early. If a review ends with loose ends, the follow-up email is where you politely list them and ask for the missing pieces in writing.

It also helps to bring one short home summary of your own, written in advance and no longer than half a page: sleep, mornings, homework, friendships and mood across the period, each in a line or two with a rough date where something changed. Reviews are built from the records people bring, and school and services see only their slice of the week. Your half page is the home slice, offered in the same calm, dated form as everyone else's paperwork, and professionals can file it with the review record so the next review starts from a fuller picture than memory alone would give.

A review has done its job for you if you leave with three things written down: what was agreed, who is doing it, and when you will next hear or meet. Check those three before you stand up. Everything else in the conversation is context for those lines, and the professionals, who hold the answers, will expect you to want them clear.