For families & carers
You know your child. We know the system.
Getting the right support for your child should not depend on how well you know the education system or read the Statutory Code of Practice. We help you understand where you stand, what to ask for and how to ask for it so that it leads to meaningful change.
You might be here because…
“School keeps saying they are monitoring and nothing changes.”
“The Local Authority have refused to assess and I do not know what to do next.”
“I have been sent a draft EHC plan and I have no idea if it is any good.”
“There is a meeting on Thursday and I am dreading it.”
“My child has stopped going in and everyone keeps calling it unauthorised absence.”
“We are moving to secondary in September and nothing is in place.”
All of these have a next step. Usually it is more straightforward than it feels from where you are standing.
How we help
Ways we work with families
You can use us for one conversation or for a whole process. There is no minimum commitment and no package you have to buy into.
A one-off advice session
Two hours to work out what is actually going on and what your options are. You bring the paperwork and the history; we help you sort it into a plan. Some families only ever need this.
Education, Health and Care plans
Support at every stage of the EHC process, whichever stage you are at:
- Requesting an EHC needs assessment and writing the request so it is hard to dismiss
- Responding when the local authority refuses to assess or refuses to issue a plan
- Gathering and organising the evidence that actually carries weight
- Reading a draft plan properly — making sure the whole plan is specific, measurable, enforceable and genuinely fit for purpose rather than vague
- Preparing for and following up on annual reviews
- Phase transfers and getting provision in place before the move happens
Meetings and advocacy
Meetings are where most of this is decided and they are hard to do well when it is your own child and you are outnumbered. We can:
- Prepare with you beforehand so you go in knowing your main points
- Attend with you — in person or by video
- Take proper notes so there is a record of what was agreed and by when
- Write the follow-up email that turns a conversation into an action
- Attend school meetings, annual reviews, multi-agency meetings and mediation
Disagreements, mediation and appeals
If you disagree with a local authority decision there is a statutory route to challenge it and there are deadlines attached. We can:
- Explain which decisions carry a right of appeal and by when
- Prepare you for mediation and attend it with you
- Help you build your case and organise your evidence into something a tribunal panel can follow
- Attend appeals and tribunal hearings with you and present your case on your behalf
Parents are entitled to be represented at the SEND Tribunal by someone who is not a lawyer, which is the basis on which we can present for you. We are not solicitors and we do not provide legal advice or legal representation — see the note below on where our role ends.
Attendance, exclusions and admissions
Support when the relationship with school has become the problem: a child who cannot get through the door, absence being recorded as a behaviour issue rather than a needs issue, suspensions and permanent exclusion, part-time timetables that were supposed to be temporary and choosing or challenging a school placement.
Support at home
Not every difficulty happens at school and the school day is only part of the picture. We also work with families in the home itself:
- An audit of the home environment, looking at what is helping and what is quietly making things harder — routines, sensory load, space, transitions
- Practical strategies for behaviour at home, built around your child rather than a generic programme
- Managing the after-school collapse that often follows a day of masking
- Getting consistency between what happens at school and what happens at home, so your child is not navigating two different sets of rules
- Support for siblings and for the rest of the household
This is a guide to the kind of work we do rather than a fixed menu. If what you need is not listed here, ask — it is very likely we can help or point you to someone who can.
Being clear about what we are — and are not
We are an education consultancy. Georgia is an experienced Inclusion Lead and we give you advice and advocacy grounded in how the SEND system actually works day to day.
We are not solicitors and we do not provide legal advice or legal representation. If your situation needs a lawyer, we will say so early rather than late and point you to someone who can help. There is also excellent free support available and we would rather you used it than paid us unnecessarily:
- IPSEA — free, legally based information and advice on SEND law, including a tribunal helpline
- SENDIASS — free, impartial local information and support; every local authority has one
- Council for Disabled Children — guidance and resources for families
Georgia provides practical, grounded support to parents and carers, acting as a genuine lifeline for those who feel exhausted or have given up on the system.
What it costs
The first 15-minute call is free and there is no obligation attached to it. After that, you get a written quote before any paid work begins — a fixed price where we can and a clear hourly rate where the work is genuinely open-ended. You will never receive an invoice for something you did not agree to first.
Questions families ask
Will getting someone involved make the school defensive?
Occasionally, briefly. Far more often it has the opposite effect, because a lot of conflict in SEND comes from people talking past each other rather than disagreeing. We work with schools as well as families and we come in as someone trying to get a workable outcome rather than to win an argument. Being organised and specific is not the same as being adversarial.
Do I need an EHCP for my child to get support?
No. Schools have a duty to use their best endeavours to support children with SEN whether or not there is a plan and most needs are met through ordinarily available provision and SEN support. An EHCP is the right route when needs cannot reasonably be met from the school’s own resources. Part of a first conversation is often working out whether a plan is really what you need or whether the issue is that existing support is not being delivered.
How quickly can you help? There is a deadline.
Tell us the deadline when you first make contact and we will be straight with you about whether we can meet it. Statutory time limits in the SEND system are genuinely tight — some are measured in weeks from the date on a letter — so it is always worth asking rather than assuming it is too late.
How old does my child have to be?
We work across the full statutory age range, from early years to 25. That includes nurseries and pre-school settings, primary, secondary, sixth form and college. If your young person is 16 or over they can instruct us directly in their own right.
Can you help during the school holidays?
Yes, by prior arrangement. The holidays are often the best time to prepare — paperwork gets read properly and there is time to think before term restarts. Our usual working hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Do you only work in one part of the country?
No. We are based in Bath and attend meetings in person across Bath and North East Somerset, but we work remotely by video and phone with families anywhere in the UK and will travel further afield by personal arrangement. Advice sessions, plan reviews and paperwork work just as well remotely as they do in a room.
Is what I tell you confidential?
Yes. We only share information about your child with your agreement or where we are legally required to — the exception being a safeguarding concern, where we have a duty to pass it on and would tell you we were doing so unless doing so would put a child at risk. Our privacy notice sets out exactly what we hold, why and how long we keep it.
What should I send you first?
To begin with, almost nothing — a couple of sentences is enough to book a call. Please do not send detailed medical reports, diagnoses or your child’s full history in a first message. Once we have agreed to work together we will set up a secure way to share documents and tell you exactly what is useful.
Start with a conversation
Fifteen minutes, free, no obligation. Bring the thing that is worrying you most.