Special educational needs and disability

As a result of our legal advice and support, children and young people receive the best possible school places education, health and social care provision. Parents are empowered to overcome the challenges they face navigating a seemingly broken SEND system.

It can be bewildering to find that the very organisations tasked with supporting your child are in fact depriving them of their fundamental rights, creating a conflict of interests with you.  It is key to first understand your child’s rights and entitlements at school and beyond and then how to enforce them.

Our expert education solicitors advise on the full spectrum of education law issues arising for children and young people with SEND. We provide technical excellence, solution-focused pragmatic advice and ‘equality of arms’ in the form of robust representation for you. 

We are trusted allies of the neurodivergent community.  We combine our professional expertise and the lived experience of several team members who are either neurodivergent themselves and/or parenting children with SEND, to ensure your child gets the best possible school place and special educational provision. We are particularly well known for securing comprehensive ‘educational otherwise than at school’ (EOTAS) packages, and full EHCP funding for ordinary independent schools and highly specialist residential placements.

We can help you with:

• securing appropriate support and reasonable adjustments in a maintained or independent school for a child without an education health and care plan (EHCP)
• school meetings and communication
• making a request for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment
• getting an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)
• annual review of an EHCP
• reviewing and advising on a draft or draft amended Education, Health and Care Plan
• appeals to the First Tier SEND Tribunal (SEN Appeal), including challenging local authority (LA) decisions such as refusal to assess or reassess, to issue, amend or cease to maintain an EHCP as well as against the content of the EHCP including placement.
• instructing independent experts to assess your client and provide advice
• home to school transport for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities
• getting your child into the right school for their needs, including ordinary independent and highly specialist residential schools
• securing a comprehensive EOTAS package
• securing interim education for children out of school
• subject access requests and data rectification
• challenging disability discrimination including bringing Equality Act claims to the First Tier Tribunal
  

Our highly specialist team of education lawyers has a proven track record of success, particularly for those children with the most complex and profound needs and who are facing disability discrimination. We are trusted by other professionals to assist their clients, including Court of Protection Deputies, and case managers and are regularly instructed by other lawyers to advise and represent them in relation to their own children.

Our experts are all ranked in Chambers and Partners and Legal 500 legal directories. Here are some comments made about us. 

Detailed costs information is provided at the outset. Charges are usually based on our hourly rates plus administrative charges and disbursements. Regular costs updates are provided as the case progresses and if your requirements or the circumstances of the work change.

The current range of hourly rates for members of the team is from £180 plus VAT to £400 plus VAT.

We do not advise on a legal aid or ‘no win no fee’ type basis.