The Pitfalls of not Knowing your SEND Advocate

SEND Advocacy is currently unregulated and this is a big concern to both parents and professionals.

Let us explain why. 

Firstly, let’s look at how some SEND advocacy services are being promoted.

Your advocate says they have managed a successful appeal for their own child. Does this really qualify someone to work as a professional advocate or make them an appropriate professional to manage your child’s case?

Every individual SEND child/young person is unique. Lived experience is your own personal experience of your own child; no one knows them as well as you do.

Running one appeal for their own child does not mean that an individual now has the knowledge, expertise, training, qualifications, skills and experience to run a full appeal or even advise on an appeal for another child who is unknown to them, whose needs will be very different

Unskilled and inexperienced advocates will rely on AI and charge you for this. What is the problem with using AI?

AI follows a pattern and the responses from someone who is using it will all be similar in nature. They will contain overly familiar opening statements, repetitive sentence structures, highly detailed posts with a very short response time, lack examples from professional experience and use a lot of meaningless words.

Judges are refusing tribunal submissions that are AI generated because the information is flawed, case law is being fabricated by AI, irrelevant Tribunal cases are being referenced, and non-UK education law is being used to inform cases. Unfortunately, for those parents who are supported by those passing AI off as professional knowledge, this is proving to be disastrous. 

Draft checks and the support being provided for these. 

Your child/young person’s EHCP is written for the child/young person.

Professional evidence is also unique to your child’s SEND. We are seeing drafts that have been AI checked, and the result is extremely concerning, with long generic descriptions which are not reflective of the supporting professional evidence, including parent views in Section F, unenforceable wording taken from law unrelated to education and from other countries.

An advocate using AI won’t be able to provide you with face-to-face meeting support to enforce their ‘checks’ at Annual Reviews or co-production meetings because they do not have the skills, knowledge and experience to meet the LA head on. You can’t rely on AI to give you the answer in a face-to-face meeting! 

This is precisely why you should be concerned, and why we are calling for SEND advocacy to be regulated and registered. 

We regularly find parents who have used poor quality advocates and advocates who rely on AI have to pay twice to sort out the problems that the first advocate has caused. This results in both financial debilitation for families and lengthy delays in their children receiving the enforceable educational provision they are legally entitled to via an EHCP.

As SEND advocacy is an unregulated business there is no one monitoring it, no one you can complain to about poor quality work and no one enforcing refunds for poor quality or non-existent work. 

We hear about advocates who have disappeared after payment has been received leaving parents out of pocket without the promised work being delivered. Others who charge by the hour including a cost for every single email, every minute reading through emails, messages, reports etc, resulting in huge bills.

Essential questions to ask before you engage an advocate:

• Does the advocate have a clear, consistent, professional business presence that demonstrates reputability? Have they made their experience and qualifications publicly available? Is their Public Indemnity Insurance certificate and ICO registration available? Do they have an AI use policy?

• Do any forums associated with their advocacy business have a strong safeguarding policy, and robust moderation by qualified professionals?  

  
  

• Are all costs transparent? Have you been provided with full service schedules, to enable you to choose the support that suits your own individual needs? Do you have a written agreement of the work that will be undertaken, when and at what cost?

• Have you been signposted to testimonials and reviews from previous clients? Have you read these? Are they consistent and will the advocate verify these, if requested? Are they covering all elements of the business that the advocate states they cover? Are the reviews up to date? Reviews on websites will have been chosen specifically – Google and Facebook reviews are not.

• Do they offer a choice of ways to pay, including credit card and PayPal, to protect your payment?

• How many years’ experience in education and SEND law do they have?  Does their experience cover the full scope of EHCPs from birth to 25?

• If the advocate is stand-alone, what measures do they have in place for continuity if they are unable to finalise your case for any reason?

For more information see this guide on using representation

We know that high quality advocacy provides parents with a valuable and affordable support system that changes lives.

It is because we are so confident in our own business that we are comfortable highlighting

potential pitfalls.  

Find out more about the Empowering Families Team, our public indemnity and ICO certificates, VAT number and company registration here

Where do I go from here, and how can Empowering Families of Children with SEND Ltd help me? 

If you require additional support, find out how Empowering Families of Children with SEND can help you here. 

If you have any questions, come and find us on our Facebook Group, we are always available to provide professional support there. 

Our YouTube channel has over 125 support videos. 

For more information about how Empowering Families can help you, email admin@empoweringSENDfamilies.co.uk  

And book a meeting with us here. 

We are, and always will be, Stronger Together. 

You can find testimonials to our bespoke services on our website and Facebook Business page here.