Our Approach
We read the plan, then we teach to it
We start with the document: the outcomes it sets, the provision it specifies, the placement it names, and the gap between what is written and what your child is actually receiving. Alongside it we look at the academic history and talk to you, to the school, and with your consent to the professionals already involved.
Then we teach. Lessons matched to the provision in the plan, pitched at the child rather than at the paperwork, with a written record of every session. Parents see those records first, before anyone else does.
We work with the school, the local authority and the other professionals involved so that everyone is looking at the same information. Where a plan is being drafted or reviewed, our part is the academic evidence.
Learn more about our consultancy
Our SEN case studies
A plan sets out what a child should be receiving. These are accounts of children we have taught with an EHCP in place: what the plan asked for, what the school was providing, and what we did about the difference.
Student Success Stories
Our Specialist Services
What we actually provide
Most families use more than one of these, and the mix changes as the plan moves through assessment, issue and review.
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Specialist EHCP consultancy
Reading the plan properly, identifying where the provision is vague or unfunded, and advising on what is worth raising at the review. Educational advice rather than legal representation.
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Independent school and placement advice
Finding a setting that can deliver what the plan specifies. We deal with heads, admissions staff and SENCOs directly, and we know which schools will genuinely take a child with an EHCP rather than simply saying they will.
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Bespoke tuition and homeschooling
One-to-one teaching in line with the plan, at home, online, or at our school. English, maths, the sciences, modern languages and humanities, from primary through to A-level.
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Lionheart School
Our one-to-one day school in West Kensington. Used as a full-time placement, as alternative provision, and as somewhere for a child to be taught while a named placement is being argued over.
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Interdisciplinary coordination
With your consent we work with educational psychologists, therapists, school SENCOs and local authority caseworkers, so the teaching supports the rest of the provision rather than duplicating it.
Reviews are decided on paper
If nobody has recorded what a child has actually been taught and where progress has come, the meeting runs on impressions. The plan then tends to be rolled forward unchanged.
Every Lionheart programme can include that record. Attendance, what was covered session by session, tutor observations, and a view on whether the provision as written is working. Parents see it first and decide what is shared.
What this looks like in practice
Families usually arrive at the point where the plan and the reality have come apart.
Three situations we deal with regularly:
- A child out of school for months while an assessment runs. We put teaching in place within the week, so that the return, whenever it comes, is not also a catch-up.
- A teenager refused a plan by their local authority. We taught them one-to-one throughout the months it took to resolve, so the refusal did not also cost them a year of schooling.
- A family relocating into the UK mid-process. We coordinate the tuition and the placement search so the child is being taught throughout.
Creating Programmes Where Children Thrive
“The executive function coaching gave my son the tools he’d been missing for years. His organisation, independence, and confidence have transformed and for the first time, the EHCP conversations with school feel constructive rather than adversarial.”
Janet Parent of Year 12 student, Hertfordshire
Frequently asked questions:
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What is an EHCP, and who qualifies for one?
An Education, Health and Care Plan is a legally binding document issued by a local authority setting out a child’s special educational needs and the provision required to meet them. It follows a formal assessment and sits within the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 0 to 25. It is for children whose needs cannot be met through the SEN support a school provides as standard.
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Can you teach a child who has an EHCP?
Yes. One-to-one tuition in person or online, a homeschooling timetable, alternative provision, or a place at Lionheart School. We work from the plan itself, taking the outcomes and the specified provision as the brief.
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Can you provide education while we wait for a plan?
Yes, and it is one of the more common reasons families call. Assessments run for months, and some authorities leave children out of school or on a part-time timetable while they do. We can usually start within the week.
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How do you build a programme around the plan?
We read the plan in full, then speak to you and to your child, and with your consent to the school and the professionals already involved. The teaching is built against the outcomes the plan sets rather than against a standard scheme of work.
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Will you write reports for the annual review?
Yes, where it is agreed at the outset. Progress reports, tutor observations, attendance records, and an academic view on how the provision is working. Parents see everything first.
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Can you help if our local authority has refused a plan, or we want to appeal?
Not with the legal side. We are not lawyers, we do not draft submissions and we do not represent families at a SEND tribunal. What we can provide is the academic evidence: what has been taught, what progress has been made, and where the current provision falls short. We work alongside a solicitor you have appointed, and IPSEA gives free advice on appeals and refusals.
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Does Lionheart School accept EHCP placements?
Yes, decided case by case with parents and, where relevant, the other professionals involved. Suitability turns on how the child works one-to-one, the family’s circumstances, and how the placement is funded.
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Do you work with families outside the UK?
Yes. Families based overseas who want UK provision, and families relocating into the country partway through a process.
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What makes Lionheart different from other SEND consultancies?
Most consultancies advise and stop there. We teach. The advice and the provision come from the same organisation, which is why the reports we produce describe lessons that actually happened rather than lessons that were recommended.
