Now that I work on the legal side of special educational needs, I often think back to the years I spent as an SEN tutor, sitting with parents long after their child’s lesson had ended. We would be gathered around a laptop or a printed copy of an EHC plan, trying to understand why their child had been left without any meaningful education and what, if anything, could be done next.
I was only a tutor, not an education lawyer, but many parents had nowhere else to turn, and once you have spent time in a family’s home, working closely with their child, it is natural for them to look to you for guidance. I wanted to help, and they desperately wanted answers. Yet between us, we had only the limited information available at the time: a plan that did not reflect the child’s needs and whatever guidance we could find online in that moment. With experience confined to a single local authority, my understanding was shaped by the world immediately around me, schools trying their best with limited resources, and parents stuck in a system that felt slow, unresponsive, and impossible to navigate.
It was common to see children who had been sedentary in their learning for months, sometimes years, not because they lacked potential but because inaction and bureaucracy had stalled any meaningful support. Parents would look to me for direction simply because they had so few other options. Their questions were entirely reasonable “Why isn’t this provision being delivered?”, “Why won’t they acknowledge this need?”, “Is the local authority allowed to say that?” yet the answers were rarely clear from the documents in front of us. Those conversations revealed how isolating the process could be, and how easily families could fall through the gaps in a system that was meant to protect them.
When the SEN system feels like a stalemate
At the time, the whole system felt like an unwinnable stalemate. Parents were expected to work in partnership with schools and local authorities, yet almost every family I met seemed exhausted by the very process that was meant to support them. Decisions felt opaque, rights were unclear, and progress often seemed to depend more on persistence than on need. From where I was sitting, it often appeared as though the support simply was not there in any meaningful or practical sense. The systems and processes might have existed on paper, but too often they seemed to stall through inaction or delay, leaving children without the help they urgently needed. It created the impression that, despite everyone’s best intentions, SEN pupils could easily go without education, and that’s just the way it went.
But seeing these cases from the legal side has made one thing unmistakable: with informed advocacy, the possibilities are very different.
Since joining Russell-Cooke, I have come to appreciate a difficult truth about the SEN system: the law has enormous power to change outcomes, but most families only discover this after a long struggle. The parents I meet today arrive in the same position as those I worked with as a tutor, exhausted, confused, and unsure why nothing seems to move forward. What has changed is what I now know can happen next. When a family receives clear legal advice, even in a single session, the entire landscape can shift. Understanding what the law actually requires, what an EHC plan must include, and which mechanisms exist to challenge unlawful decisions and how to navigate those systems. It is striking how quickly a situation that once felt static or hopeless can open up once the legal framework is properly understood.
The power of legal advocacy in special educational needs cases
Working on both sides of the system makes this contrast unmistakable. I see how much can be achieved when experienced advocates apply the law with precision and confidence. This does not diminish the extraordinary work parents do on their own, if anything, it highlights just how hard they have been made to work without the tools they deserve. Legal advocacy does not replace the parent’s role; it empowers it. It turns instinct and persistence into a clear, enforceable pathway, and it helps ensure that children receive the support they are legally entitled to, rather than whatever happens to be available.
Though this also means acknowledging that not every family can afford legal representation or meet the stringent means test to be entitled to legal aid. It is an uncomfortable reality, but one that cannot be ignored. During consultations we routinely signpost parents to charities, helplines, and free sources of legal information, and many families make extraordinary progress through their own determination. But it is equally true that having a legally trained advocate and tribunal experienced experts gives parents their strongest chance of securing the support their child is entitled to. Law is complex, and in the current system advocating for a child or young person with SEN is definitely a marathon or a legal battle rather than sprint but the prospects of securing successful outcomes are typically very high.
Why legal knowledge makes a critical difference for families
Legal knowledge cannot fix every issue within the system, but it is typically key to I securing the education, health and social care provision and suitable school place of package of education otherwise in school a child is entitled to. In a system littered with misinformation and resources are stretched, informed advocacy can be the difference between months of stagnation and meaningful progress.
Working in this field has shown me a difficult but important truth: when families have access to specialist advice, whether through a firm like ours or through charities offering legal support, their chances of securing the right help for their child increase dramatically. The law in this area is powerful, but it can be hard to navigate alone, and no parent should have to rely on guesswork to secure the education their child is entitled to. I often think about the families I met before entering legal practice and how different their journeys might have been with the right guidance.
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