Support send kids
Founded by lawyers for SEND parents and professionals
to share knowledge and support
We bring together SEND families and SEND lawyers & professionals, to share knowledge, publicly, for the benefit of all.
Our Vision
Expand access to education for SEND children. Enable SEND families to engage with the education and legal EHCP system productively, without the need to fight their way through the process.
Our Mission
We harness the latest tech to empower SEND families by sharing SEND legal and professional knowledge. We help SEND parents understand the law, feel confident in requesting the help their child is entitled to and have support when they need to fight. SupportSENDkids lifts the load from parents, saving them anxiety, time and money.
how to help
DONATE: Please support us on CrowdJustice or write to us and we will give you our bank details!
FUNDRAISE: Sponsor us. Donate. Invite us to speak at your diversity events.
OUR BACKERS: WCIT charity (Worshipful Company of Information Technologists) and the Philip King Trust
CONTRIBUTE: Your knowledge to this platform: search and answer questions. Share your skills, money, time
WATCH: Our video calling for pro bono support from lawyers, tech teams, marketing depts and other professionals.
VOLUNTEER: If you have time to give please do drop us an email at volunteer@supportsendkids.org
WHY IS THIS NEEDED?
The system that was set up to support and guide the educational needs of SEND children is broken. Although COVID made the situation worse, even outside of COVID, for decades this system was not fit for purpose. SEND families want to SELF-SERVE and the system makes this too hard.
"Navigating the SEND system should not be a bureaucratic nightmare, difficult to navigate and requiring significant levels of legal knowledge and personal resilience".
House of Commons Education Committee, October 2019
Read about our origin and what's next for Support SEND Kids: Empowering families to get the right educational support for children | Charities Management magazine | No. 145 Summer 2022 |
HOW and who WILL WE HELP?
We will put SEND families in the know:
- enable SEND families to self-serve information they need;
- use technology to bring transparency to and evidence the problem;
- blend the voices of the professionals, especially the lawyers and the experts-by-experience; and
- amplify, aggregate and escalate existing voices in this space
We have a 3 step plan:
STEP 1 - In action
Search, ask and answer on this platform.
Collating and curating free, dynamic, accessible, searchable data that can be contributed to by families and professionals. Providing a webinar and video content space to hold informative events and other easily accessible video content.
Noddy No-nonsense Guide to SEN Law / Disability Law in Education No-nonsense Guide
No-nonsense Guides: search here on the platform, or download as pdfs.
Press coverage for No-nonsense Guides: Learning Disability Today, Education Business
“Sharing the ‘Noddy No-nonsense Guide to SEN law’ on the Support SEND kids platform, in its new Q&A format, has been very positive. Thanks, comments and requests have come in from the Dept of Education, Judges, LAs, SENCOs and parents. I am proud of the extended reach SEND kids has given to the Noddy Guide.”
David Wolfe, KC, Noddy Guide author.
STEP 2 - Trial our beta
Free roadmap of the EHCP process (beta)
Designing and digitalizing an improved EHCP process.
STEP 3 - The vision
Creating lasting change.
Supporting activists, lawyers, policy makers and local authorities with data to effect change
Empowering SEND families to help themselves through data and transparency.
KEEP IN TOUCH
Volunteer with us
Get involved in socials
LinkedIn / Twitter / Instagram / Faceboook / YouTube @supportsendkids #I_supportSENDkids
Sign up to our newsletter
Newsletter sign up for all the latest from Support SEND Kids.
Contact Us
meet the SSK team
Founders
Janvi Patel (Co-founder / CEO)
Rachel Amos (Co-founder / COO)
watch the founders explain their motivation Founder video
watch Denise explain our mission onstage at Legal Geek 2021
Trustees
Janvi Patel (Co-founder / CEO)
Rachel Amos (Co-founder / COO)
Team
Liz Chappell (Content and Community Manager)
Catie Sheret (Content and Community Manager)
Tamsin Ogilvie (UX strategy & design)
Robert Russell (Infostructure support)
OUR PARTNERS
Our financial funding currently comes from individuals supporting us through Go Fund Me, Crowd Justice and Just Giving and from grant making trusts.
Our legal community backing comes from a number of large law firms providing skills and expertise to us "pro-bono": Reed Smith, Sherman & Sterling.
Our charity pro-bono lawyers: Morgan Lewis
Our SEND lawyer support: David Wolfe QC, Leon Glenister, Shoosmiths, Boyes Turner
Our tech support is from our partners at SenateSense, Bryter Open and Kira Systems
Our PR support is pro-bono from Farrer Kane.
Our HR support is pro-bono from Shearman & Sterling
Our Accountants: All Square
Our Marketing: Spark Plug Marketing
If you want to support us pro-bono please email: volunteer@supportsendkids.org
In the press
New digital guide for SEND families on disability discrimination in education
Learning Disability Today, 16/11/22
New guide for families dealing with disability discrimination
Education Business, 14/11/22
SEND is an access to justice issue and the legal community is helping through pro bono support
The Legal Diary, 21/10/22
Empowering families to get the right educational support for children
Charities Management, 22/08/22
The Legal Diary, 19/08/22
Welcoming SEND families to early years settings
Early Years Educator, 12/07/22
Parents of older learners will be sceptical about the SEND review
Further Education magazine, 18/03/22
Support SEND Kids: Helping the next generation thrive
Totum Partners newsletter, 27/01/22
Finding a better way to Support SEND Kids
Legal Geek, 24/01/2022
Bryter, 17/12/21
A broken system: education, health, and care plans
The Law Gazette, 02/12/21
Our RUles
Be polite. Be yourself but protect your and other people's personal data. Don't make it personal.
Be useful, be helpful, be accurate and be kind.
If you want to complain, please email support@supportsendkids.org
If you want to applaud, please share our links (above) with your community and please contribute.
Thank you.
Read our Safeguarding Policy