Legal
Terms of service
These terms apply when you engage InclusionFirst Education Ltd, and to your use of this website. Part A applies to individuals — parents and carers. Part B applies to schools, trusts and local authorities. Part C covers this website.
The most important thing on this page
We are an education consultancy, not a law firm. We provide advice and advocacy on how the SEND system works and how to navigate it. We do not provide legal advice or legal representation, and nothing we say is a substitute for advice from a qualified solicitor or barrister. We cannot and do not guarantee any particular outcome from a local authority, school, mediation or tribunal.
About us
Part A — Terms for individuals
A1. How an agreement is formed
The introductory call is free and creates no contract. After it, we will send you a written proposal setting out the work, the fee and the timescale. A contract is formed when you confirm your acceptance in writing, including by email, and it consists of that proposal together with these terms. If the two conflict, the proposal wins.
A2. What we will do
We will carry out the work described in the proposal with reasonable care and skill, and within a reasonable time or by any dates we have agreed. We will keep you informed, tell you promptly if something changes, and give you something in writing at the end of each piece of work.
We will tell you honestly if we think you do not need us, if the work is outside our competence, or if your situation needs a solicitor. We would rather lose the work than take a fee for something that will not help.
A3. What we need from you
We can only work from what we are given. Please provide relevant documents and information promptly and accurately, tell us about deadlines as soon as you know about them, and let us know if your circumstances change. We are not responsible for consequences flowing from information that was incomplete, inaccurate or provided too late to act on.
A4. What we do not do
- We do not provide legal advice or act as your legal representative
- We do not provide medical, psychological, therapeutic or diagnostic advice or assessment
- We do not guarantee any outcome, decision, placement or level of funding
- We do not conduct litigation or provide services reserved to authorised persons under the Legal Services Act 2007
A5. Fees, invoices and payment
Fees are as set out in your proposal — a fixed price where the scope allows, otherwise a stated hourly rate. Where work is charged hourly we will tell you if we expect to exceed an estimate, and we will not exceed it without your agreement.
We may charge reasonable travel and other expenses where the proposal says so, and these will be agreed in advance. Invoices are payable within 30 days by bank transfer. We may charge interest on late payment at 1.5% per annum above the Bank of England base rate, and may pause work while an invoice is overdue.
A6. Your right to cancel
Because you are agreeing to these services at a distance or away from our premises, you have a legal right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 to cancel within 14 days of the contract being formed, without giving a reason. To cancel, just tell us in writing — an email is fine.
If you ask us to begin work during that 14-day period, and we do, you may still cancel, but you must pay a proportionate amount for the work already done. If the work is fully performed within the 14 days at your express request, you lose the right to cancel. We will always tell you clearly when you are asking us to start early.
After the 14 days, either of us may end the engagement by giving 10 working days’ written notice. You pay for work done up to that point; we refund anything paid in advance for work not done.
A7. Appointments and cancellations
Please give us at least 24 hours’ notice if you need to move or cancel a booked appointment or meeting attendance. With less notice we may charge up to 50% of the fee for that appointment, because the time cannot usually be filled. We will not charge you for a late cancellation caused by illness, a hospital appointment, or something similarly outside your control. If we have to cancel, we will reschedule at no cost to you.
A8. Confidentiality and safeguarding
We keep what you tell us confidential, and only share it with your agreement or where the law requires it. The exception is safeguarding: if we believe a child is at risk of harm we have a duty to pass that on, and we will do so. We would normally tell you first, unless doing so would increase the risk to a child.
How we handle personal information is set out in our privacy notice, which forms part of these terms.
A9. Our responsibility to you
We are responsible for loss you suffer that is a foreseeable result of us breaking this contract or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that is not foreseeable, or for decisions made by a school, local authority, tribunal or other body — those are not ours to make.
Our total liability to you for any one engagement is limited to the greater of the fees you have paid us for that engagement and £1,000,000. We hold professional indemnity insurance to that level and will provide confirmation on request.
Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. Your legal rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 — including the right to services carried out with reasonable care and skill — are unaffected by anything here.
A10. If something goes wrong
Please tell us. Contact Georgia Morris-Boyce directly and we will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and give you a full response within 20 working days. We would much rather hear about a problem early than read about it later.
Part B — Terms for schools, trusts and local authorities
Part A applies to you as well, with the following changes, and consumer-specific provisions — A6 and the consumer rights wording in A9 — do not apply.
B1. Contracting
We will provide a written proposal and, for larger or ongoing engagements, a master services agreement with individual statements of work. You may raise a purchase order, which we will reference on invoices; a PO’s own printed terms do not vary this agreement.
B2. Data protection
Where we process personal data on your instructions, you are the controller and we are your processor. We will enter into a written data processing agreement containing the terms required by Article 28 of the UK GDPR before any such processing begins. We will not engage a sub-processor without your prior authorisation, and we will work from anonymised or pseudonymised data wherever the task allows it.
B3. Safeguarding and site visits
Georgia Morris-Boyce holds an enhanced DBS certificate and current safeguarding training, and certificates are provided as part of onboarding. While on your site we will follow your safeguarding, health and safety and visitor policies, and we will report concerns to your designated safeguarding lead in accordance with your procedures.
B4. Intellectual property
We retain ownership of our own methods, templates, training materials and frameworks. On payment in full you get a perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use the deliverables we produce for you, including training materials, for your own internal purposes across your organisation. You may not resell them or licence them to other organisations. Reports we write for you are yours to share internally and with your governing body, auditors and inspectors.
B5. Cancellation of booked delivery
Training and review dates are reserved for you and cannot usually be resold at short notice. Unless the proposal says otherwise, cancellation or postponement charges are:
| Notice given | Charge |
|---|---|
| More than 30 working days | No charge |
| 10 to 30 working days | 50% of the fee |
| Fewer than 10 working days | 100% of the fee |
We will always try to reschedule rather than charge, and we will waive these charges for genuine emergency closures.
B6. Liability
Our total liability under an engagement is limited to the greater of the fees payable under it and £1,000,000, being the limit of our professional indemnity cover. Neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue or reputation. The exclusions in A9 for death, personal injury and fraud continue to apply.
B7. Conflicts of interest
We work with both families and schools. We will not act for a family and their school on the same matter, and we will tell you and withdraw if a conflict arises. Engaging us does not give you exclusivity over our time.
Part C — Website terms
C1. Using this site
This website is provided free of charge for information. You may read, print and share its content for your own non-commercial use. Please do not republish it as your own, use it commercially, or attempt to disrupt the site.
C2. Information is general, not advice
Everything on this site, including the resources and the jargon buster, is general information about how the SEND system works. It is not advice about your child or your school, and it is not legal advice. SEND law, statutory guidance and local practice all change. Always check the current position, or ask us, before relying on anything here.
C3. Other websites
We link to organisations we think are genuinely useful, such as IPSEA and SENDIASS, but we do not control their content and are not responsible for it.
C4. Intellectual property
The content, design, logo and name of this site belong to InclusionFirst Education Ltd, except where stated otherwise.
C5. Accessibility
We aim to meet WCAG 2.2 level AA and we want to hear about it when we fall short. See our accessibility statement.
General
We may update these terms; the version applying to your engagement is the one in force when it was agreed. If any provision turns out to be unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. Neither of us is liable for failure caused by events genuinely outside our control. Nobody other than you and us has rights under this agreement.
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.