I am an independent special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) consultant. Please see below for my qualifications and professional experience.
I am autistic and have ADHD (both formally diagnosed), I am a wife of an autistic husband with ADHD, and a mother of two adult autistic children with ADHD and extra SEMH needs.
I started supporting parents of children with SEND in 2021, after I had been forced to single-handedly fight the educational, health and care systems on several fronts and on several occasions, to secure appropriate support for my children. My 2020 battles primarily concerned my younger one, then aged 14.
This first-hand experience has inspired me to complete IPSEA Educational Law courses (Levels 1-3) as a part of my preparation to confront my local educational authority (and, more precisely, a barrister and a solicitor who represented the LA) in the Tier I Tribunal, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SENDIST). This confrontation brought about spectacular outcomes - my child's barriers to education were finally removed and she began to enjoy learning. Her EHCP developed as a part of the "Working Document" process during that appeal has been used since as a model document at the SENDCo training at a local university. And my daughter...? With right support, despite all her difficulties, she has completed 8 GCSEs (4 or above, including English Language and Maths) at the pupil referral unit (PRU), followed by her chosen Level 3 course in a specialist art college (receiving high merit) and is currently preparing for university and independent life away from home from September 2025 (3 offers are already in place and 2 more are pending).
While I initially limited my offer to Polish expat families living in England only, due to being a sole trader and running my business on my own, I have now managed to attract some extra workforce, including volunteers who are ready to offer their time and skills in exchange for practical training in "all things SEND", whilst they work on their IPSEA SEND Law courses. As a result, I am able to offer my services to a wider population.
I speak English and Polish. Additionally, I have some understanding of written and spoken communication in Russian.
I completed my initial teacher training in Poland in 2004 and have had a qualified teacher status for England and Wales since 2014, with no limits as to the subject specialism or a key stage. I have spent a total of 11 years in different roles within the public education sector in both Poland and England.
In 2017, I completed my MSc in Psychology, (University of Sunderland) with distinction. In early 2021, I qualified as a psychological wellbeing practitioner (PWP) having completed the postgraduate certificate in low intensity CBT interventions. I have spent a total of 5 years working in different roles within the NHS.
Currently I am a postgraduate research (PhD) student at the School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, where I am conducting my research on the impact of rejection sensitivity on social disability and mental wellbeing of autistic teenagers. Additionally, I am training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, with a view to become adult psychotherapist.
Since 2021, I have written countless educational health and care need assessment (EHCNA) requests on behalf of parents across England, in many instances also instructed to manage these cases to a successful end, that is, until a fit-for-purpose final EHC plan is in place. I have reviewed thousands of pages of education, health and care plans (EHCPs) and the underlying evidence (professional advice), checking them as for their completeness and legal compliance. I am invited on a weekly basis to a number of meetings as a part of annual review of EHC plans of different children and young people, as a lay representative (you may be more familiar with the term 'advocate') of their parents. I represent parents during dispute resolution with the local authorities, that is, in mediation and during tribunal (SENDIST) hearings. Such disputes encompass refusals to assess (where the local authority refused to secure the education, health and care needs assessment), refusals to issue (where the local authority secured the education, health and care needs assessment but refused to issue the EHC plan afterwards), as well as disagreements regarding the contents of EHC plans in their section B (special educational needs), section F (special educational provision) and/or section I (educational placement). I have also written numerous successful formal complaints (with regards to educational establishments, local authorities and health providers) as well as pre-action protocol (PAP) letters (the initial step required when requesting a Judicial Review), which are not normally covered under the legal aid scheme (the other stages of the Judicial Review process, obviously, are).
I represent about 50 children and I am involved in about 20 appeals all across England at any given time.
And, because actions speak louder than words, I have not lost even a single appeal so far (April 2025) out of over 30 that I have dealt with since 2021. Most of them ended with a consent order at the pre-hearing stage, some with the local authority conceding in the face of the available evidence and only a few with an agreement achieved during the hearing, without the need for the judge to impose a decision on the local authority in any of these cases. Furthermore, my clients have never needed to actually request Judicial Review after they served their LA with the letter that I had drafted for them.
How can I help YOU?