In the past few weeks, I’ve been supporting a parent through a Local Authority appeal after a “no to issue” decision for her child’s EHCP. It’s a familiar story — a child with clear, complex needs, already excluded from one early years setting, now due to start Reception in September. A child who is, quite literally, at risk of exclusion before he even walks through the door. And yet the system that is supposed to protect him seems to be doing the opposite. What has struck me

This morning I received an email reminding me that communication with my son’s specialist teacher should go through school. It was polite, professional, and rooted in policy — but it left me thinking far beyond the message itself. I understand the need for boundaries. I understand why services want clarity and structure. But I also know, both as a parent and as a professional, that children’s needs don’t always fit neatly into organisational lines of communication. And someti

A few weeks ago, I sat beside a parent who had spent seven exhausting days trying to get her child into school. Seven days of tears, refusals, and a little girl drawing pictures covered in the words “I hate me.” Seven days of a child coming home shattered — dysregulated, explosive, overwhelmed — while school insisted she was “fine.” By the time we walked into that meeting, Mum was already carrying the emotional weight of the world. What she didn’t expect was to be attacked by