FAQs

Following an email enquiry I will send you:

• An invitation to book a telephone consultation, the first 15 minutes of which are free if you decide not to proceed.
• An Enquiry Form requesting your contact details and essential information about your child or young person.
• My Service Overview.
• My Terms and Conditions, for your signature.

Depending on what stage you are at, the telephone consultation may cover all you need to know in order to make progress, for example by consulting a solicitor or obtaining diagnostic assessments.

If we decide that my school search service would be helpful, I will send a Letter of Engagement outlining the support I can offer your family. I will ask you to send me all relevant paperwork including a current EHCP (or equivalent), and any diagnostic assessments and school reports which are recent and relevant. These are treated in strictest confidence, in line with Data Protection principles.

Having considered all the information you have shared with me, I will then compile a shortlist of schools or colleges with children / young people of similar profiles, taking into account:

• the primary need and any additional input your child is likely to require
• their age and peer group
• their strengths and interests
• your preferences regarding the type of provision
• your home location.

Our charge for the first phase of work is £195. This includes a telephone consultation and provision of a customised list of recommended professional advocacies and expert witnesses.

The telephone consultation generally lasts around one hour. However, for your peace of mind, the first 15 minutes of the consultation are free, so if at that point you decide not to proceed there will be no charge.

The initial school search by our team is invoiced at an hourly rate of £130 and typically takes up to 15 hours. In complex cases, or if the search needs to be widened for any reason, a further 10–15 hours’ work may be required.

You will receive an invoice at the end of each calendar month for the time spent on your case.

Typically we spend up to 25–30 hours on a school search, depending on the complexity of the child’s needs and the quantity of diagnostic reports and other information to be read.

Selected schools will then take up to three weeks for their admissions team to decide whether or not they can meet the identified needs, and have space for your child in the appropriate year group. I will send you details of positive responses, which will be conditional on assessment by the schools, so that you can make arrangements to visit.

The overall timescale is dependent on the speed with which schools respond to enquiries and complete their decision-making. In addition, as there is a high demand for our services we may on occasion need to prioritise urgent cases.

No – I select suitable schools based on conversations with parents and careful study of diagnostic assessments, school reports, etc. However, I do sometimes join parents taking their child on a school visit.

I travel widely from my base in North Hampshire to visit schools in London and across the UK.

I have supported parents of children with a very wide range of learning challenges, including autism spectrum conditions, dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADD, ADHD, OCD, as well as complex learning difficulties and physical or sensory impairments.

No, but if you don’t already have the evidence necessary to support an EHC plan I can recommend appropriate diagnostic professionals, such as an educational psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist or physiotherapist.