Hi, my name is Jordan. I am a special education
teacher from the UK. I share my passion for everything
communication, sensory regulation and fun lesson
ideas for my classroom of disabled pupils aged
4 to 11. Each week I am joined by experts in
the field answering your questions and sharing
our knowledge and experience working alongside
our beautiful young people. Let's get started.
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Sensory
Classroom podcast. Today I am joined by Richard,
Supporting Service for Parents, to support with
the process, the paperwork, the understanding
of everything to do with SEN as far as I can
see from your website. Hello Richard. Hello Jordan,
thank you for having us. You are so welcome.
When your team reached out I was so pleased because...
I think about 99 % of messages I get is about
the EHCP process or diagnosis. It's a whole new
world and lots of parents are kind of brought
into this world and jumped in the deep end and
all these acronyms and everything. It's really
confusing. It's quite terrifying. Absolutely.
And all this medical jargon. all these words
and therapists all of a sudden included or if
you're lucky they're included i suppose um and
it can be very overwhelming and that kind of
doesn't seem to stop either i've got uh parents
of teenagers uh and they're still navigating
the system and the process and learning things
yeah it's it's one of those incredibly frustrating
situations where you think just just because
you've been successful with getting an assessment
and getting the HCP you almost think that that's
it it's done and sadly that is just so far from
the truth in so many instances and there's another
battle to be done and now a transition and an
annual review and it's yeah it's it's so overwhelming
for so many people who had no idea that they
were about to embark on this level of a journey
in the battle absolutely so let's just talk about
SOS SEN and what you offer parents So we are
a charity that's been running for over 20 years.
Primarily it was set up in Richmond to support
a school there, but it's grown. The variety of
services that we offer, we've got a number of
services for free. So we have a free... helpline
where people can call and speak to one of our
advisors for sort of 20 30 minutes and ask the
next next steps guidance we have several advice
centers which are walk -in centers where people
can come along bring their paperwork talk to
us about their situations again they'll be with
an advisor for 30 40 minutes talk through their
case and find out their next steps again that's
free And then we offer document writing services.
So we've talked about EHCPs. When those come
through to you, we have identified that local
authorities, intentionally or unintentionally,
they will put some language and wording in there
that isn't actually helpful or isn't going to
hold anyone to account. and what our team does
is we will go through that report and we will
pick out all of that sort of unhelpful language
and we will help to rewrite that EHCP so as it
is geared up to ensure that that child gets equitable
education. There are a number of reasons why
local authorities will either refuse to assess
or refuse to issue EHCPs and blockages in place
and parents then need to appeal those decisions
so we will help them to write grounds for appeals
and our team will support them in doing that
the other thing that we do as well is pre -action
protocol letters or judicial review letters so
if a local authority are not quite acting lawfully
our team will put letters together that have
been created by our legal officer Linda Wright,
who's got over 25 years of SEND law experience,
she will write those letters that we can send
across to the local authorities and just remind
them of their lawful duties. We've found thus
far in the last year that's had a 97 % success
rate at getting local authorities to overturn
decisions. Wow. They're kind of a good selection
of things that we do. The bulk of what we're
looking to do is to empower families so as they
can navigate this really complicated system and
ensure that all children and young people get
equitable education. That's our open plan. Absolutely.
And in the world as it should be. charities like
yours shouldn't have to exist right every child
should be in education they should be getting
appropriate and suitable education they should
have their legal needs and educational needs
and health needs met you know so many jobs that
charities do should just be being done right
it's it's it breaks my heart that how needed
and your charity is my goodness is it needed
um yeah it kind of breaks my heart that it even
should exist really I couldn't agree more. And
I often say it's one of the weirdest sensations
to lead an organisation like this because for
a measure of success, what I really want is my
success is that our charity has to close down
because we're not needed anymore, which is the
weirdest thing to say. But actually, I think
it's horrific that a charity like ours has to
exist. I'm pleased that we are there and that
we can help and that we will continue to help.
But I think it's dreadful that we have to even
exist in order to do it. It's a shame. Yeah,
absolutely. So you were talking about the free
call -ins. What kind of questions are you regularly
getting from, is it mainly parents? It's largely
sort of parents and carers. From time to time
we'll get calls from SENCOs or other professionals
just saying, I don't know how, what do I need
to do to support this family or how can I navigate
them to you? But largely it's parents and carers.
And what we tend to find is a lot of the calls
are around the EHCPs. It's very much a case of
my child has these needs and I need to get the
support in place, but how do I do that? And often
we are saying, do they have an EHCP? And we hear
so many people say, no, the school has told us
that we don't need one or that we don't qualify
for one. the legal test to qualify for any hcp
is actually it's a really i'm going to say it's
a low bar um in in the sense of may this child
have any special educational needs and may they
benefit from any additional support class if
if if the answers to those two things is yes
qualify for any hdp so when we hear schools and
local authorities saying no they don't qualify
you know Have they put any different provision
in place? Yes. Does your child have any additional
needs? Yes. Didn't he ask for yes? And it's not
even diagnose additional needs, is it? I know
you can have an EHCP without a diagnosis, can't
you? I think that's often... a misconception
is oh but we're on the pathway for say an autism
diagnosis it's going to take four years so we
can't get an ehcp until then and that's just
not the case is it it's not no and and you don't
need that formal diagnosis because again it's
it's the language that's used within the law
may the child have um any additional needs or
special educational needs it does not state does
this child have or what what um especially educational
needs as a child have so it's really really vague
for the right reasons um so yeah they don't need
the formal diagnosis obviously that helps but
the local authorities should be putting provisions
in place to do their own assessments to help
families with that as well should yes northerly
they absolutely should um and that's what we
have to remind them of yeah yeah and they are
over run under funded under staff as well you're
right but i know that's not an excuse and they
need to do their legal obligation just as we
all do um but yeah that is why isn't it um and
it's not just schools that can apply for ehc
please is it parents can put in that initial
referral right yeah absolutely um so To apply
for any HCP, it can be either the school or the
parent. There are merits to doing it both ways.
You tend to find that if you are doing it through
the school, then you've got a bit more backing
and the local authority might pay more attention.
But each local authority is different. But yeah,
if you're finding that your school isn't prepared
to submit that paperwork and put that through,
then absolutely parents can do that independently.
Maybe a little bit. Maybe that's when your support
comes in as well. Maybe it needs to be worded
in a maybe slightly different way or you to add
certain things in there. Yeah, yeah. And we've
got a whole backlog of webinars. And in there,
we did a webinar on, I think it's called the
Send 35 form, which is essentially applying for
those things. I don't know if that's applying
for the tribunal. I'm not the one who's legally
trained. But we've done an awful lot of support
on our webinars on how to apply for AHCPs, what
should it look like, how to apply to tribunal.
All of those things are there to just, again,
further empower the families. I can imagine that's
really helpful because even when you get the
AHCP, it's such a massive... of lots and lots
of different words, like I said at the beginning,
lots of different acronyms, and it's the legal
requirements. As a parent, I can imagine, and
as a teacher, I certainly feel it, you want to
get it right. But when you've got 15 days to
check that it's all right, it can be a real huge
pressure and lots of things can get missed. Are
there any things that you particularly, any areas
of the EHCP that you would particularly focus
on or you would ensure that we had in place?
Or is it kind of different for every child? I
think it's very, very different for every child.
And I think it's important that within that plan,
all of the needs are identified, clearly identified.
And then any provisions that are being put in
place need to be, essentially they need to follow
the SMART model and they need to be... incredibly
specific we see an awful lot of times in ehcps
there's very vague language used so um this child
may benefit from a one -to -one they go well
sure they may yeah because they don't want to
commit because they don't want to commit to yeah
because any if you say some do you need something
in the ehcp then it's a legal obligation is that
is that accurate essentially yeah it means that
you can then hold the score to account and say
because again what we would do is we would then
say how many hours one -to -one does this child
need and who is going to be that one -to -one
and then it would be how many hours are they
putting in place who is managing that who's training
it we made that very very specific and we put
all of those things in place and essentially
we we help families to make sure that language
is there so as they can then hold the school
to account and say, well, hold on, you've told
me that for 10 hours a week, my child's going
to get one -to -one by a trained autism friendly
specialist. And I know that last week they only
had five hours and that's consistent what's going
on. It means that they can then hold the school
to account for those things. Absolutely. So for
those that are listening that haven't heard of
smart targets before, if they need to be specific.
They need to be measurable. They need to be achievable.
They need to be realistic and they need to be
timed. So by timed, it means to be given to a
certain date. So by the time they're in year
one or by the time they leave key stage two or
next term, whatever it is, they need to be timed.
And that's what a smart target is. And you're
absolutely right. It keeps the school and it
keeps the county and it keeps the young person
and the parents all accountable, doesn't it?
To achieving these things. And I think actually
it's exactly that. It keeps everyone to account
and it gives everyone a fair and reasonable understanding
of what are we looking for? What are we hoping
to achieve from doing this? And if we review
this next year and no progress has been made,
but all of the provisions have been put in place,
well, then we know. We did all of those things
right, but that didn't get the desired outcome.
So what needs to change? And it just helps us
to kind of log that and move those thoughts forward.
In that view, actually, sometimes as a teacher,
because I'm somebody that writes the EHCP, so
I'm kind of on the other side of it. And sometimes
my young people don't achieve the target in the
given time, but all the provision is in place.
And sometimes it is a bit of guesswork as to
how... far they can get in that given time frame
I've also had children that have way out past
it and you look back and think why did I write
that target you're way ahead so it is estimate
isn't it and and we can only guess and make assumptions
with the team around the child with the parents
with the therapist whoever's involved it's a
it's a best guess as to by the time they're in
this with all this support in place we hope or
we believe that they could achieve this, isn't
it? And I think it's not being afraid to admit
actually that progress wasn't made, but the provision
was in place. Essentially, we have to accept
there is no box tick here. It's, oh, this young
person has autism and that young person has autism.
That does not mean that those two people are
going to... followed the exact same path in their
education but that's the same for any human being
right we we all have unique um elements and factors
coming into our lives and we all learn differently
so i think you're absolutely right you you could
look at that child and go based on the assessment
based on my understanding based on my skills
i believe if we put these things in place we
will be able to achieve these things then reflecting
and saying, we did put those things in place
and it didn't work. I think we need to feel safe
and confident that that can happen. And a lot
of the work that we do with parents is about
building that relationship with school, not kind
of marching through the doors and banging on
the doors and saying, you know, you've messed
up. You need to have a good relationship with
schools and say, you know, what else can we do?
Are there any other training sessions? Are there
any other sort of models that we can adopt? All
things like that to kind of acknowledge that
if everyone's pulling in the right direction,
that's when we'll see progress for that child.
Yeah, and maybe use the EHCP review as an opportunity
to be curious about why that wasn't achieved.
Was it achievable in the first place? Maybe it
wasn't a smart target. um maybe uh they've had
lots of medication complications um or hospital
visits or maybe they've had about sickness or
maybe they've had a change in key worker like
there's lots of different reasons why a child
might not achieve a target it's really important
to put that on there as well isn't it because
that gives a real great reflection in the ehcp
review as you're reviewing it to be curious why
why didn't they or why did they completely like
blow this target out of the water you know Were
we being too limited in our expectations of this
child and to reflect on that as well? Yeah, absolutely.
And I think that's beauty and that's how it should
be. We should always be curious about what's
happening for our children, what they need, what's
working, what's not working. And if we kind of
have that baseline of where they're at and then
when things aren't there, what's happening? You
know, how can we help? And I noticed that when
it comes to the afternoon sessions, that's when
they're struggling to focus. So what's happened
between now and then? And what's something that
we might be able to put in place to support them?
And I think, you know, we need to accept and
we need to acknowledge and give credit to teachers
as well because they're in a room with 30 children.
33 sometimes by themselves yeah um and they are
they are dealing with 30 plus individuals all
with personalities all with home lives all with
emotional sort of mental health and physical
health like all of those needs are there and
they're coming into that room to to ask a teacher
even if that teacher has an additional support
in the room to ask that teacher to have an acute
awareness of every single one of those people
and to constantly know every single thing and
get every every single thing right that's a big
ask okay and we have to acknowledge that sometimes
teachers are allowed to be human too they're
allowed to make those errors but again we we
go back to what support is in place and is everyone
trying to pull together for the right sort of
end result i think lots of teachers love their
pupils and love the job and definitely want to
do what's best for their pupils I don't think
there are many teachers that don't go into this
job for the right reasons absolutely but also
there's very little training for us I don't think
parents understand that I was so I'm a special
education teacher now but I was primary school
teacher trained and we didn't talk about EHCPs
in my training we didn't talk about special education
in my training we spoke about dyslexia So I just
want parents to know as well that teachers are
very much relying on the SENCO. And the SENCO
is very much relying on their little training.
Don't assume that the teachers just know this
stuff and are taught this stuff and are choosing
not to do it. They might genuinely not know.
And that's not through lack of care. It's just
through lack of training, really. The world of
disability and special educational needs is constantly
growing and evolving. I've worked within the
world of special educational needs. I've worked
within that field within the last 10 to 12 years.
It's only when I started working at SOS SEN that
I started to learn a lot more about neurodiversity.
I'd never, and this isn't a special education,
I'd never heard of the term aotus education other
than at school. And I was like, okay, what is
this? What do I need to learn? We are now identifying
so many forms of neurodiversity and we're celebrating
that as we should. We are also finding that a
lot of adults are late diagnosed with neurodiversity
and they are looking going, actually. i've navigated
the system but here's some of those things so
we are constantly learning constantly evolving
and i think again if we are curious about that
and feel safe to get it wrong because as we are
learning we're going to use language that isn't
isn't hasn't quite landed and it's kind of evolving
um i know certainly with my work there's a number
of um there's a number within my team that um
self -identify um and diagnosis of neurodiversity
and i'm learning about those things and i'm learning
what measures i can put in place to make reasonable
adjustments to support them right and i think
we need to feel safe to be able to do that and
to learn and to ask those questions and to be
able to and i think continue to build that relationship
between school and and teacher and and parent
and say actually I'm really curious about autism.
I've never experienced autism before. Could you
come and actually talk to me about it? I'd love
to learn. I know certainly from my own personal
experiences, I'm an adoptive parent. And quite
often we would have to go into the schools and
spend time with the teachers and say, I'd like
to talk to you about adoption. I'd like to talk
to you about children in care and some of their
own sort of... challenges difficulties or traumas
that may affect their their behavior in the classroom
i think that's wonderful because the parents
because it's an open safe conversation isn't
it and ultimately as the parent you're not only
supporting your own child in that class you're
you're supporting all future children yeah that
that teacher may that may come across i think
that's a wonderful thing to do i i think so i
think the more that families can do that and
they can get involved in their schools There
were times even in our own journey where I met
some teachers that were disengaged. They weren't
interested in learning about adoption trauma
and what that meant. And you understand, you
get frustrated and you go, okay, that's not the
one I'm going to win. But then other teachers
welcomed us into the space and asked an abundance
of questions. So when you're in that environment
and if you have that relationship, harbour it.
and throw everything you've got at that relationship
because that's how you not only help your child,
but you help, like you say, Jordan, you're going
to help generations of children. And those teachers
might then influence other teachers. And that's
how we grow. That's how we learn by just continuing
to learn in our own sort of world what this means
and how it impacts us and how it impacts somebody
else. and trying as best as we can to understand
the empathy of how is this going to feel for
that child um and they're not they're not just
being difficult they're not they're not just
trying to misbehave just because isn't that fun
i mean i wish i was wearing yesterday yesterday
i was wearing my no such thing as naughty jumper
um which would have been quite good in this conversation
because there absolutely is no such thing as
naughty have you as a charity noticed an increase
in Because everyone's talking about, you know,
over -diagnosis. Everyone's autistic these days,
and I'm sure you can guess what I think about
that. But have you noticed as a charity an increase
in this need? So the year prior to me coming
on board, so between 22 to 23, our charity supported
around about 1 ,200 families. The last financial
year, so between 23 to 24, that went up to 3
,400 families that we supported. This year alone,
we're already on target to help 5 ,200. Yeah,
so we're seeing exponential growth in this. I
was going to say, what contributes towards that?
Because I'm sure it's probably a few factors,
isn't it? Yeah, I think it's a number of factors.
By and large, I think people's awareness is growing.
I think people are starting to understand what
rights they have and they are talking more with
other families and saying, well, what is an EHCP?
How do I get one? What's the purpose? What's
the point? We are also, like I said earlier,
we're finding more adults are becoming self -aware
of their own neurodiversity as a result. They
are then understanding that and saying, I wonder
if my child might be struggling with school because
of X. So we've got a better global awareness
of the various forms of neurodiversity. It's
not that we have more neurodiverse individuals
today than we did 10 years ago. It's that we
see those signs and understand what those behaviors
mean. And now we can go, right. If we put X,
Y, and Z in place, that's just going to make
life a tiny bit easier. So, yeah, I think that's
a huge contributing factor. I think people are
just becoming so much more aware of a whole array
of needs in themselves, in their young people,
and they are then speaking with others and forming
part of those communities. You could argue that
this is one of the very few benefits of social
media where people are talking and we're actually
building communities where people can actually
share those behaviours and say, I'm seeing this
behaviour in my child and someone goes, me too.
Have you had this assessment? Have you checked
this? And we're just learning better and we're
learning what we can ask. Yeah, you get access
to a whole world of therapists and special education
teachers and charities that are talking about
this stuff. And because of how the algorithm
works, it kind of feeds it to the right people.
And yeah, you can learn a lot, can't you? Oh,
absolutely. And there's just a wealth of knowledge
out there if you're prepared to kind of take
the time to learn it. And now so many parents
are. on knowing that they can do that and they
know how to access it, which is fantastic. Yeah,
and they're feeling empowered to question the
system. I feel like maybe before, maybe even
just 10 years ago, it would be the teachers that
would approach the parents about their neurodiverse
children or children with a cognitive disability
or, you know, whatever it was. Whereas now I
feel like the tables have turned and it is very
often now parents that are approaching that conversation
initially, even sometimes pre -nursery saying,
my child isn't meeting these steps or is doing
these things i think it might be might be this
yeah absolutely and um and i think the relationship
as well is changing between parent and school
um you know i often talk about the first time
i walked into our son's classroom i was like
well the last time i was in the classroom i was
a pupil and the teacher was god and i wasn't
allowed to question anything that they said and
it can feel quite intimidating when you disagree
with this person because you're like oh it normally
ends up in detention um so that relationship
has got to change and you've also got to have
that faith and trust in that system and then
when you learn actually sometimes that doesn't
quite come to fruition But you then learn that
you've got to be that advocate for your child
and you've got to fight for their rights, which
you don't necessarily expect. Yeah. So again,
I think that's changing. I think how parenting
and teaching is going, I mean, all of childcare
has developed lots in the last 10 to 20 years.
It's very much not the adult's way is the right
way and children sit and listen and, you know,
they're vessels to be filled. It's not that.
It's much more collaborative. It's much more
child -led. awareness of emotion more emotionally
intelligent teaching trauma -led teaching I'd
like to hope anyway and I hope I think the teaching
training is slowly catching up with that we were
about five years ten years behind maybe but it
certainly is how children are being brought up
now isn't it is to be emotionally led child led
we're much more aware of the impact on those
early years now I would like to say as a as a
whole this is a very sweeping statement but as
a whole of we're much more aware than we were
10 or 20 years ago. And that's going to have
an impact on education, isn't it? It's going
to have an impact on how parents are parenting
their children, therefore how they would like
their children to be educated and all of that.
I think you're absolutely right. And I think
the more that we learn, the better informed that
we become and the better practices that we start
to put in place. Being the charity that we are,
we have... We have just under 100 volunteers
working with us. A lot of those are SEM parents
themselves. And a high portion of those volunteers
also identify as having some form of special
educational need themselves. As a charity, what
I've done is I've taken the lead there to make
sure that our environment is that of a... special
educational needs friendly environment. So we've
changed a lot of our practices internally to
make sure that all reasonable adjustments have
been made to meet the needs of all individuals.
As such, I'm having those conversations with
my peers in other organisations. An example is
when it comes to us interviewing anyone, I will
send the interview questions in advance so that
person can do some proper prep time. um and we
get the best from them and it's coming coming
out in research that for a neurodiverse individual
that is the ideal way for them to go for an interview
process as a result i'm starting to see my peers
in other organizations following that pattern
and doing those things so we're all growing we're
all learning and we're all moving that way so
absolutely i think you're right that as we learn
so many more environments will be changing and
we will just become We will become neurodiverse
friendly in all of the ways that we operate to
ensure that, because when I do that and it's
helpful for someone with any form of neurodiversity.
It's not something that's then unhelpful for
a neurotypical person. It's the same as what
we say, you know, if you are in a room and you
are trauma -informed and you are putting trauma
-informed teaching in place, it's not that the
children who have not gone through trauma are
going, ah, well, I feel left out because you
don't care about, like you care too much about
my emotional needs. Everyone benefits when we
start to put those sort of checks and measures
in place and that support in place. So, yeah,
I think it will be a ripple effect. I really
hope so. I really hope so. They're definitely
still, maybe I'm just in this bubble, like an
echo chamber, but it certainly feels like it's
ramping up that everybody that is aware is kind
of buzzing and it's all rippling out. It really
does feel like change is happening, which is
incredibly exciting for me. So we've spoken a
lot about the initial EHCP process as far as
if they haven't got one. But of course, lots
of parents listening to this will already have
a child with an EHCP, but it doesn't stop, does
it? It's still checking if it's accurate, relevant,
legal requirement. I know we spoke about legal
requirements before. I meant to say that it's
not a legal requirement that they meet the target.
It's just a legal requirement that the provision
is in place in order to meet the target. I meant
to say that earlier because I don't know if I
made that clear. But also I noticed on your website
that you do a lot around phase transfers, which
is a huge thing in itself. Moving from early
years to primary and primary to secondary and
secondary. to adult learning and that often brings
a lot of anxiety for families because they might
have just felt like they've got everything right
the child is settled i'm finally got this adult
that understands my child my child is happy in
school we've fought all the fights and then they're
year six and all of a sudden they've got or year
five actually they've got to apply for secondary
schools and yeah and yeah do you get a lot of
parents at these stages uh yeah coming in contact
as well Yeah, so we find, in particular, we find
the month of February after phase transfer for
secondary, we see a huge spike in our helpline
and our advice centre attendance and things like
that because people are like, what do I do? How
do I cope with this? And it's incredibly terrifying
for so many families because, like you say, there's...
The child has become as settled as they can be.
They've learnt the environment, they've learnt
the teacher, the teacher learnt them and they
feel safe. And finally when they feel safe, all
of the adults around them are going, brilliant,
now let's change it all again. It's like quadruple
the size of people that are around you and instead
of that one or two teachers, let's give you ten.
Instead of that one teacher having 30 to 35 students,
now that one teacher's got, what, 150 a day?
Yeah. Everything is ramped up and amplified and
the fear and the anxiety that follows that is
huge. I think for any parent, let alone us here,
for any parent, like year six to year seven transition
is huge because... The parents don't walk them
to the gate. The parents aren't as involved with
the teacher. They don't get the same communication
level. There is higher expectation. So any child
will be feeling those anxieties, but add special
educational needs onto that. And anxiety naturally
is just through the roof, isn't it? Absolutely.
And you're right. You know, as soon as your child
goes into senior school, you've got to take away
some of your, um sort of cotton wool you wrap
them in um you've got to take away some of your
sort of protective natures and you've got to
let them flourish a little bit but if you've
just navigated primary school and there's been
anxiety fueled conversations week in week out
all that that's going to do is just cause you
more anxiety um and the pressure's on for everyone
and i think i think that is felt um it's nerve
-wracking it's nerve -wracking without scn and
then you add scn in and everything gets amplified
again um and it's really really challenging um
so yeah again that is about where possible building
strong solid relationships we often talk about
um find your tribe um find other people in similar
situations to yourself Talk to your peers and
speak to them. What are they doing that's working?
What's helping? Are there any schools that could
be recommended? Visiting those places and getting
comfortable and talking to your child about what
would work, what would make you feel safe? How
can we help you to feel safe? Largely doing a
lot of the same conversations and same battles
that you've done previously. Being that huge
advocate for... for your child basically and
just finding any way possible to continue to
do that. Yeah, exactly. So if you have got the
school and you're looking to transition, I do
something called a map meeting. So it's like
a person around. a team around the child kind
of meeting really and we talk about what the
dream would be like what the dream transition
would be like what the nightmare transition would
be like and everything in between what can we
do to make this more the dream than the nightmare
what things need to be put in place and we do
it around spring ahead of the july so that last
term we can be fully prepared what does the child
child need what does the parent need what do
the next teachers need in order for this to be
much more like the dream scenario that we all
speak about than than the nightmare and we reflect
on the past and and we like imagine the future
and it's a really really lovely meeting and i
find what happens and the children are invited
as well if they want to be And what happens is
the parents come with all this fear and anxiety
and they leave with a plan. It doesn't mean that
the anxiety is not there anymore. It just means
they feel like maybe they've got a bit more control
over it. And that everybody, it is not just them
holding that. It's we've divvied out the jobs.
We've got a plan in place and to hope for the
best transition that we could possibly do. Because
it is a huge thing for the children. So that's
something that we do. And I implore you. training
powerpoint all about it actually so if you want
that and i'll include that in the notes below
um all about that kind of meeting um because
it's quite a structured meeting and it is it
is incredibly helpful however i've also had some
uh students who have received the not their choice
school and not even one that they've even put
as their top three schools and i've also had
students that haven't had a school at all and
now they're in their second year of tool waiting
for their secondary school placement so i'm also
aware there are parents that also might want
to come to you that don't even have a school
that they can be anxious about there just is
no answers um due to lack of provision or suitable
provision yeah do you get that in february as
well Yeah, unfortunately we do. There's an awful
lot of parents that come to our advice centres
and say, you know, my local authority have said
that in our area there are no places, there are
no spaces at all for my child. We then offer
advice and guidance and I won't go into the advice
and guidance. No, but they can contact you if
they need it. Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, we
talk them through. What are the next steps? How
can they approach this and what can they do?
What measures can they put in place to try and
get a provision set? But yeah, it's horrific.
And again, it's just adding that anxiety and
particularly for a young person that needs kind
of those safe boundaries, those routines, that
knowledge and that awareness to be able to feel
safe. and you're not even giving them a named
school, it's quite terrifying. So, yeah, we offer
our advice and guidance on how to navigate that
and how to kind of push forward to get the right
answers there. That's amazing. That's really
helpful. And you mentioned that you have walk
-in support. Is that based in a particular area
of the UK or is that UK -wide? stepped into the
role, a lot of Sosson's work was quite South
-centric. So we had centres in Waterloo, we've
got Aldershot, Worcester Park, the Richmond areas,
Hampton Core. So it was very much kind of based
there. My aim has been to expand our physical
presence as a charity. So in the last year, we've
opened centres in Birmingham, Bristol, Canterbury.
Last week, we launched one in Essex in Chelmsford.
Next week, we are launching one in Westminster.
The idea is for us to continue to grow our physical
presence because we know how important that is.
If I could wave the magic wand, I would have
an advice intro at least in every major city
in England. But my team has told me I have to
take it slow. One day it will be needed. Well,
actually, hopefully it won't be needed is the
plan. And then the second thing is maybe if it
is needed, then hopefully you do that. So if
people aren't near one, which is amazing that
you have so many, but if people aren't near one,
is it call support and online support that they
can access? Yeah, so we've got the helpline service
that they can call. Again, when I first took
on the charity, we were open around about 10
hours a week on average. We're now up to 35 hours
a week during term time that we're open and that
they can speak to an advisor. We often advise
people to have a look at our Facebook because
that will constantly promote when our opening
hours are. And they can call our advice centres.
our advice line and and they can get support
through that and on our website as well you've
also got email support so if you reached out
to us you can present your sort of like your
your challenge at the moment via email and then
within a few days one of our advisors will come
back to you on email so we've got a whole host
of other ways that people can access that support
and there's no limit to it either um so if a
family were to call the helpline today they could
call it again tomorrow um and in a year and same
as an advice center they can just like we we
see some advice centers our family will come
back month after month because they're just getting
that next step and next step so there's there's
no limit to to the support that we'll offer the
only limitations we have is is volunteer availability
basically yes of course How do you fund all this
incredible work? How can we support it? But also,
how do you keep going? How do you keep developing?
Yeah, it's a great question. So it's for a range
of things. So for some of our services, so the
document writing services, we do charge a small
fee for those services. On average, our fees
are around about 10 % of what a solicitor would
charge for them. I must hasten to add, cost will
never be a barrier. So if a family speaks to
us and say, we can't afford this, we've got measures
that we put in place. Cost won't ever stop a
service. But we derive an income from that. We
have a charity shop in Worcester Park that does
really, really well. And that has sort of subsidised
an awful lot of the free services that we've
been able to offer. In addition to that, we've
been very successful in winning some funding
from a couple of really reputable organisations
that have supported us and continue to support
us and donations as well. So it's been through
those sort of measures that's allowed us to operate
and now grow. basically yeah amazing oh I'm so
pleased that we've spoken to you I can just feel
that parents I now have somewhere to send parents
because as a teacher sometimes like I'm not their
teacher in their class right so I can only say
what I would do which is really difficult then
when I don't know the situation so to have a
charity that I can forward them to to give them
that bit of hope that bit of advice practical
advice that can actually help me the face -to
-face or on the phone is incredibly helpful brilliant
yeah no and um anything that we can do we absolutely
will we are in that beautiful stage as a charity
where we are growing we are expanding but we
are still at the right size where people have
a direct line of communication straight through
And I'm not saying this from a hierarchy perspective,
but they have aligned to the chief exec of this
charity where they can talk to me and I can have
a real conversation and say, if that's not a
service we offer, why not? What else can we do?
And I think that that's that beautiful moment
of we are always able to tap into what do our
families need? My ethos since I've joined and
that will always remain is all I care about is
helping those families to help that child. So
any decision that I'm making, any meeting that
I'm going to, all I care about is, will this
effectively help more families? If the answer
is no, I'm not going to the meeting. I'm not
interested. Yeah, it's a waste of time. Yeah.
Absolutely. All that I want to do and all that
the team I work with want to do is help more
families. That's our measure of success. And
eventually the measure of success is that we
won't be needed. Yeah. For as long as we are
needed, the measure of success is everyone that
needs our help, are we able to answer that call?
Can we help them? So anything that we can do,
we want to do more of. It just sounds amazing.
I'm so pleased that you exist. I really am. I
usually use these podcasts. I usually give myself
a bit of homework after these chats. And there
was something really relevant that you said that
kind of hit a chord with me as to that you've
mentioned about the interview, you know, making
them as successful as possible, sending the questions
out ahead of time. And there's a lovely analogy,
isn't there, of when there's snow and the caretaker
wipes. clears the status first and then does
the ramp where it actually if they did if they
started with the ramp everyone could have still
gotten in rather than waiting it's that beautiful
analogy isn't it like start with accessible first
and then everybody can access and that's definitely
something i'm going to take with me this week
making this podcast more accessible i easily
could have sent you the questions ahead of time
before this and you may not have needed it but
you may have done and like you said it just makes
for that better interview it makes for that better
um experience so thank you for that for that
beautiful reminder of Just because I'm not at
school doesn't mean that this can't be accessible
too. So yeah, I really appreciate that lovely
reminder. For people listening, where can they
find you? Where can they find out more? The absolute
best place will be our website, which is S -O
-S -S -E -N. dot org dot uk um we use it as an
outwardly facing site so it's got a lot of information
there's some booklets information packs that
you can download and it will also list all of
the support that we offer so that's that's the
best place to to reach out to us amazing i'll
leave that in the description as well um below
so that uh you don't even need to look for it
you can just tap on by and and find it and if
you don't need it then maybe a colleague or a
friend so maybe save this or save you know their
account information so that you've got it so
that inevitably when you have that conversation
with a friend on a bus or at the school gates
that you you've got something that you can help
them with i think is probably good advice yep
that's great advice i love that thank you so
much for joining me richard this has been incredibly
helpful thank you so much for having us it's
um it's so lovely to to be able to talk to you
and to share our story with with your listeners
as well so thanks for having us Thank you.