EP 164: EHCPs Made Simpler: The Tool Every SEND Parent Needs to Know About

Can I be honest with you for a moment?

For so many parents, the hardest part of the SEND journey is not the diagnosis…

 It is the paperwork.

The forms. The reports. The endless documents.
 The fear of getting it wrong.

And for many, that fear becomes so big that they never even make it to tribunal, despite the fact that 95% of cases that get there are decided in favour of families.

In this episode, I am joined by Stevie Hayes, founder of Bundle Creator—a tool designed to simplify one of the most overwhelming parts of the EHCP journey.

We talk about:

•  Why the EHCP and tribunal process feels so complex (and why that is not your fault) 
•  The hidden “gatekeeping” role of paperwork that stops families in their tracks 
•  How to break the process down into manageable, bite-sized steps 
•  The shocking statistic that fewer than 10% of families reach tribunal 
•  Practical ways to organise evidence, meet deadlines, and feel more in control 
•  How technology can support neurodivergent parents to navigate a non-neuroaffirming system 

This is not about pretending the system is easy.
 It is about giving you the tools to face it with clarity, confidence, and support.

Because you are not failing the system.
 The system has not been built for you.

And when we change how we approach it, everything begins to shift.

 If you have ever felt overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure where to start, this episode is for you.

Stevie Hayes: stevie@bundlecreator.co

Click here for SEND Bundle

The NeuroDiverse toolbox - YouTube

**The local authority is responsible for submitting any bundle to a SEND Tribunal. Parents are best prepared when they understand the constraints and can submit their evidence as a partially completed bundle to the local authority. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Parenting Isolation

Dr Olivia 0:09

Welcome to the Send Parenting Podcast. I'm your neurodiverse host, Dr. Olivia Kessel, and more importantly, I'm mother to my wonderfully neurodivergent daughter, Alexandra, who really inspired this podcast. As a veteran in navigating the world of neurodiversity in a UK education system, I've uncovered a wealth of misinformation, alongside many answers and solutions that were never taught to me in medical school or in any of the parenting handbooks. Each week on this podcast, I will be bringing the experts to your ears to empower you on your parenting crusade. Can I be honest with you for a moment? At our last group coaching call, one of the moms said something that stopped me in my tracks. She said, I feel like nobody gets it. My friends try to understand, but they don't, and some days parenting feels completely relentless. The entire group went silent because every single one of us have felt exactly the same way. If you're raising a child with ADHD, you know that feeling. You give everything you have every single day, and then you give more. You smile through the schoolgate chaos, hold it together through the meltdowns, and lie awake at night wondering what you did wrong. You love your child fiercely, but you are exhausted and you feel like you're doing this all alone. I'm Dr. Olivia Kessel, and I'm a doctor. I host this podcast, and I'm also a warrior mom myself. I created the ADHD Warrior Mom community because I needed a place like this and it didn't exist. A place where you're heard and not judged, where other moms actually get it because they're living it too. In the membership, you get weekly group coaching calls with me, expert masterclasses, a growing resource library, and most importantly, a community of warrior moms who understand your world completely. There are still a few founding member spaces left at just 29 pounds a month to cancel any time. If you think about it, it's less than a coffee a day. Go to the link in the show notes and join us because you deserve a place to recharge. You deserve moms who get it, and your child deserves a version of you who is supported. In this episode, I would like to introduce today's guest, Stevie Hayes, founder of Bundle Creator, a tool designed to simplify one of the most overwhelming parts of the SEN journey. Navigating EHCPs and tribunal paperwork. As many of you will know, this process can feel not only complex, but completely consuming. The paperwork alone can be enough to stop even the most determined parents in their tracks. What Stevie has created is something quite extraordinary. It takes that chaos and turns it into a clear, structured, step-by-step system, helping parents feel more organized, more confident, and ultimately more empowered when advocating for their child. I wish I had this when I was going through my EHCP and tribunal, and I really look forward to sharing this conversation with you. So today we're going to talk about how your bundle creator can help parents kind of navigate the complex document requirements for the EHCP and Tribunal. But this is something that has been born out of a very personal story for you. So I'd love to start with just your journey and how you got to be the creator of this.

Stevie’s Late Dyslexia Discovery

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Dr. Olivia, thank you for inviting me onto the show, actually. I really appreciate it. And I've heard some of your podcasts, so uh I'm very honored to come on. So my background is that I am neurodivergent. Uh, I've got dyslexia and and also um probably ADHD, or I've been I've had an assessment for dyslexia, but I discovered this late in life, and I just thought I was slightly odd and that I wasn't clever enough to be able to read uh a lot of complex documents, and I would find ways of getting around it, and I was able to have you know a successful career in various types of industries media industry, the games industry, technology industry. Uh, so that hasn't stopped me, but I just found ways round. And then it came to a point where uh I had a really difficult, challenging boss who was sending me lots of information via Slack, uh via email, various types of messaging systems, and I just couldn't keep up. And he would give me something five five minutes ago and say, Have you read it? And I was just completely uh swamped with it, and I just had to hold my hand up and say, Look, I just can't cope with this. I maybe I'm dyslexic, I think, because I had to admit it and I had to, and it was it was pretty exposing, you know.

Dr Olivia 5:07

Uh ultimately if you don't mind my asking, Stevie, when this was 60 uh when so this was last year, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

So 61 now, and um I had to I I had to come to terms with the fact that I had this supposed disability, but I realized that I'd reorganized my life to take into account of how I actually operate. And you know, I'm been quite successful in my career, and I've been able to uh, you know, uh look after whole teams, look at it and uh operate in large industries. And because of it, I realised that actually it can be a superpower. You know, I'm really good at concentrating, really good at breaking complex situations down into something which uh is digestible, and I'm especially really good at uh visualizing, visualizing uh very complex things. So I guess creating bundle creator uh came out of uh being in the in the court system for five years, family courts, and a lot of the time having to represent myself, and because of that, I was up against uh barristers and solicitors, and I had to get through very complex information and digest it, and then present my case in a way that was meaningful and in line with what the court was expecting. And the court's tribunal systems as well, they have very particular ways in which things need to be presented. And as a neurodiverse person, it is extremely difficult to try and put those things in place yourself. Uh, and so I've put together bundle creator, which will help a lot of either neurodiverse people or people who are just not used to the court or tribunal system.

Courts And Tribunals Shape Bundle Creator

Dr Olivia 6:52

That's fascinating. You know, it is a superpower because you've taken something that has been challenging and you've turned it around to something that can actually benefit others, which I think a lot of neurodiverse um moms and dads out there do, is, you know, because it's been such a struggle. I mean, that's why I started this podcast, because I want to help other people because we know what it's like. But also it shows your incredible strength and your fortitude to to keep going on when you you know you were struggling so much with reading. I mean, that's that's that's remarkable. How did you first become aware of the fact that the system wasn't working for kids trying to get and parents trying to get educational healthcare plans?

SPEAKER_01 7:30

I think uh I've got kids in school. That's that's and you know neurodiversity tends to be hereditary. Uh and you know, I either know people who've got kids who are neurodivers and or uh, you know, there's been shades of it in my own family, uh, but also um I've got friends who have work in the send environment, and the struggle that they've been having to make sure that the right kids get the right uh environment where they can thrive. Uh, and it it often comes down to money, uh, which is unfortunate. And there has been a growing furora of parents who would like to be able to navigate the system, and it's become harder and harder just as the volume has increased. Uh, and so it's it's something you just can't ignore. I think it's it's out there, it's very clear that the system is not always uh catering for everyone or supporting everyone in making sure that they get what they need to thrive. And uh I realize that the you know some of the ways in which I put bundle creator together can actually help parents, especially those who are neurodivergent. Uh, so there are features that I put in there, which we can talk about later, but there's a neurodivergent uh toolkit uh which has got various tools, things like read aloud. So any legal document, you can upload it into the application, and then you can have that document read to you. And one of the things about legal documents is they're very complex and it's very easy to miss things, it's all about detail. And that's where I found it very, very difficult when I was going through the court system, uh the family court system. You know, how do you how do you make sure that you haven't missed anything? Uh, so I used to get apps to read aloud to me, and I've incorporated that type of functionality into my app.

Dr Olivia 9:24

That's fantastic because I mean the the the whole process isn't neuroaffirming. The the the the the paperwork, the um the amount of things that you have to accumulate together is is really confusing. Can you maybe take us through um how you've broken down that EHCP process and tribunal process and how that fits into um what you've created?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Sure. One of the things I mentioned is that I'm I can really understand things when they're visual. And so what I've done uh throughout the the whole of the site because we cover 22 areas of law, one of them is send. Uh and for all the different journeys that you take, I've created tube maps. So, for example, for the send area, I've created a tube map which shows the different coloured lines depending on the different type of journey that you're taking. So, for example, if you want to appeal against your EHCP plan, um you would have the you go along the blue line. If you'd want to uh get an EHCP, then uh it'd be the red line. Uh if you're trying to protect your EHCP, so for example, if there's been a refusal to reassess or a refusal to amend, then uh then you would need a to go along the the green line. So every different approach to the tribunal system, you need a different combination of documents, and every tube map, uh every tube stop along the tube map shows you uh the type of bundle that you need, and when you click on the bundle, you will see all of the different documents in all of the different sections. So it's quite a complex approach that you have to take. Um, one of the things that many parents may not realize is that back in July of 2025, something called a practice direction was set, so it's practice direction number one for uh the SEN tribunal, and that sets out exactly how you're supposed to put together your bundle. So it has a number of different columns that you have to have in place. Also, it's got very specific on how many pages per section that you have to have in the bundle. So it's pretty mind-blowing, and it's actually, I think, one of the most complex uh ways of uh setting out your case that I have seen in all the 22 areas that I cover in Bundle Creator.

Dr Olivia 12:02

That's super interesting. So it's kind of like you have these requirements you have no idea about of how to present the evidence and then how many pages it's supposed to be. Um and if you fail at one of those steps, let's say you don't have the right amount of pages, or the obviously the right amount of documents, probably that that that that does um you know stop you. But what if you have all the right documents but you don't they're not in the right format or in the right length of that that they're supposed to be? Does that would that then reject your your appeal or your EHC?

SPEAKER_01 12:33

So it's very clear that you could it can either be struck out, your appeal can be struck out, or you can your your whole appeal can be postponed until you get it right. And so these practice directions are really important. The thing to note is that of the cases that go to tribunal, 95% of them are settled, that that are settled are settled in the family's favour, which is amazing. So, in other words, if you can get to tribunal and get through the process, it's gonna be a win. But the way the documentation is required, the paperwork is like a gatekeeping mechanism, you know. So uh, you know, it prevents a lot of people. Yes, it's a filter, it prevents a lot of people from actually getting through to tribunal. Uh, you know, it's complex, it's it's uh very unwieldy, and it's very easy to get it wrong. And so with Bundle Creator, what we've done is automated the whole process. So you upload the documents, it tells you which documents should be in which sections, how many pages that you need in each section, and also uh one of the things that can get you at the end is that by the time you've finished your bundle, there is a a weight limit. So, you know, how many megabytes? Well, how many megabytes? I I think of it in terms of weight, you know, how heavy is your bundle, and you have to submit it electronically, and the and it has to be less than 14 megs.

Dr Olivia 14:05

Otherwise it gets rejected.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Otherwise it won't get through the system.

Dr Olivia 14:10

Oh, that's worse than Ryanair.

Tube Map Bundles Meet Practice Direction

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Um so, you know, it all of these things can stop you. The one thing about bundle creator is that we have a compression system that reduces everything down, so you will get within that 14 megs. Uh and so, you know, that's what makes the difference a lot of the time. It's it's how you set it set out all your documentation, and then making sure you have everything in the right place, and it's got to be of the it's got to be uh light enough to be able to get through the system in the first place. You can split it out, you know, 14 megs, but when you start splitting your bundle out, that's when things get lost.

Dr Olivia 14:51

Okay, so it's better just to have it at the right kind of size and um yeah. Because you know, a lot of the types of documents that you need for this are kind of reports from school and stuff like that. And so um, yeah, you might you might not even be able to change the length of them, I'm thinking, or the weight of them. So does the system compresses them? So, you know, like when you get reports from an ed psych or whatever, that they I mean they're they they write pages.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Yes, yeah. So bundle creator will actually compress all your documents all at the bundle creation end. Um just uh you know, there's no guarantee because it depends how much you've put in there, but uh, you know, more often than not, it will compress everything within the 14 megs, but it just depends on you know if you've got something particularly weighty, uh, but most of the time it's gonna work.

Dr Olivia 15:46

Yeah, well that uh I like what I like about it is it it breaks it down into into kind of chunks that you can get through. And I like the idea of the map and the stops what you need each step of the way. Because I have to be honest, when I thought about getting an educational healthcare pan from my daughter, I was so worried about messing up. Like filling out forms is is one of my biggest nightmares, and and I usually mess up filling out forms um in a in a very you know horrible way. It I have to concentrate so hard. It's ridiculous. I'm a doctor, and it it can be I get it.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

I'm I'm exactly the same.

Dr Olivia 16:20

I'm exactly the same. I actually like now the forms that they have online for like renewing your passport because it only gives me one thing at a time to fill out, and then it tells me if I'm wrong before you can go on to the next page, which is great. And it sounds kind of like your system navigates you through it in a in a in a similar fashion. I had to hire a solicitor and I had to borrow money to be able to do that. And what your system is kind of doing is allowing parents to do a lot of that legwork on their own, um, which is can be a barrier to people. I don't know if you I think you've mentioned to me before the statistics of people who want to go to true tribunal who can't or want to fight the decision.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

I mean, there's only about 10%, it's less than 10% of families who could go to tribunal actually do go to tribunal just because either they can't afford the legal representation. To get legal aid these days is absolutely very, very difficult. And you've got to end up paying for it anyway. Uh so most people cannot afford solicitors when they they're charging between two and six hundred pounds an hour. You know, it's it's extremely difficult. Uh as well, you can't necessarily afford the time. If you have a child with special needs, if you have more than one child, you actually have and you have a day job, you you actually have very little time to put the paperwork together. Uh so anything that can help uh automate that process where you just have to upload the documents, it guides you on where the document should go, and then uh it paginates everything, creates an index for you that the judge needs to see. All those things that the judge will expect, if you are to present your case to the tribunal, very, very difficult. You can't do it in Word. You know, Word does not keep account of everything, it doesn't create an index for you that automatically I mean you can do it, but it becomes very unwieldy.

Dr Olivia 18:14

Um it's it it it it it's not easy. So um can you walk us kind of through, you kind of have already, but like a parent using bundle creator, like how from from from signing up with you and then how it how it takes them through, what it costs, how you know, take us through a parent journey of what it would look like.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Sure. I mean you go to it's it's a web-based service, it means that you don't need anything extra. Uh tends to be that you use it with your desktop because you've got a bigger screen rather than on your mobile, but you can use the mobile, uh use it on mobile as well. Uh what you would do is go to the website bundlecreator.co, and there's a two-week free trial period, uh, which means that you can create a number of bundles yourself and and just try it out. Uh, there's 22 areas of law, so you you have the the colour palette of different areas of law, click on the send one. You can actually just go to bundlecreator.co forward slash send, and immediately you go through to the uh the send landing page and you look at the journey map, uh the tube map that tells you uh all the different journeys that you can take. So if you have a child with disabilities and uh they've suffered discrimination in the school system, for example, that's one journey. Uh if you need your uh uh EHCP amending and the local authority has refused, then that's another journey. Uh so you you click on the the line that you want, and uh there's specific instances of uh your particular situation. So, for example, refusal to assess. So if you if the uh the local authority has refused to give you an EHCP, that's when you would click on that particular tube stop and it will generate a bundle for you. Uh you have to sign up, so you just put in your email address. You don't need to put in a credit card or anything like that. It's just basically free to go in, you just uh sign up with your email address, uh sign the terms and conditions, and then you can click on the tube stop that reflects your situation, and it will automatically come up with a bundle, and in the bundle it will have all the right uh template documentation. So, for example, uh your position statement, uh your uh right to appeal, reasons to appeal, uh, your send 35, for example, so the government documents as well are all incorporated, so you don't have to go rushing around trying to find all the right government documents uh to put together the bundle, and then it will give you a line for things that you have to search for. Uh so for example, all the evidence, and it will give you in each of the different sections um what you have to provide and what you have to fill in. So there are, say, for example, um there is the core tribunal bundle which is a hundred pages, and that's restricted to a hundred pages, and in there you've got um various types of documents. Uh so and I think one of the things is uh trying to get through the documentation and gathering the documentation takes quite a while. And what I found is when I was going through my court cases, is gathering the documentation is one thing, getting it onto your machine is another, uh, and you can always lose things because everything's flowing. Flying around all over the place. And that's one of the things when you're neurodivergent, you're not necessarily organized in your file system.

Dr Olivia 22:06

I'm smiling here because you know, attention to detail is not sometimes, unless you're hyper focused, is not always, especially if it's something that is painful and you don't want to do, it's it becomes even more challenging. So yes, I'm I'm just, you know, I'm I'm nodding in agreement and in sympathy of all this paperwork flying around and how do you put it together and don't lose key pieces and get it into the right place?

The 14MB Limit And Compression

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Sure. And with bundle creator, you can you can just upload it and it stays there.

Dr Olivia 22:33

Uh and do you upload it like with a photograph or do you upload it like as a file? Probably as a file.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

As a PDF. Yeah. You can upload uh photographs, you can upload PDFs, you can upload um even videos. Uh so even though you'll end up with a paper bundle, you have uh a QR code that you can scan with your mobile phone, and automatically the video will come up. So, for example, if you need to provide video evidence, and sometimes showing video evidence is absolutely fantastic because that really captures everything in a nutshell. Uh, and people don't think about using video evidence, but there's no restriction uh on net on using video evidence if you want. You know, you're gonna And that doesn't affect your weight. Uh no, it doesn't. Um because the video evidence is stored on the server, and then what you're doing is you're scanning just the QR code, so it's it's the picture. Yeah, so that means that actually it doesn't affect your weight in terms of the size of the bundle, which is great. So you can use a lot of video evidence to to highlight, for example, why your your child does need an assessment, uh, or you know, why the assessment needs to change, why things have changed since you had the original EHCP. And uh I think uh what's really important as well is you can upload your evidence and it's there in one place. You can leave it. Uh, once you've gone through your two-week free period, it costs$19.99 a month, and you get 15 bundles. So when you go through the the tribunal process, there's a number of bundles that you have to produce, and you can either repurpose a bundle or you can just start a new one. So you get 15 bundles for for 1999. So that's you know, more than you need.

Dr Olivia 24:26

So when you say you need 15 bundles, would that be 15 stops on that tube map? Uh or how many would how many tube is a bundle equivalent to a tube stop station? Yes. And then how many uh but is it a set amount of bundles for a tribunal, or does that differ as well depending on which tube line you're on? It depends which tube line you're on the set of. You know, the whole the whole is 15 enough bundles to do it.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Oh yes, you know, that I guess that's what I'm getting at. Yeah, it's it's absolutely more than enough. So the whole tribunal system for send, if you were to do everything and go to every tube map, which you're never gonna need, uh, that's 20 tube stops. Okay, all right. And so, you know, ordinarily you might use one, two, or three tube stops. Uh, depends whether you go to the upper tribunal as well. So there's a there's a a system in place. So you go on the the first level, and if you're still not happy, you can go to the next level, to the upper tribunal, and then you'll need more bundles. But certainly there's enough bundles in that you don't have bundle stress when you come onto bundle creator.

Using Bundle Creator Step By Step

Dr Olivia 25:36

So the whole idea is not like with AI where it's like you've reached your limit, you need to pay more now if you want to keep using this tool. It's not like that. It's not going to do that. And then what about like the data security? Because obviously you're putting really um you're putting information about your child on there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Sure. I mean that's that's really important, and it's it's it's great that you've mentioned that point. Uh so my background, one of the things I've done is uh I was head of data security at a large international retailer, and so I've implemented a system that hopefully not MS. No, it wasn't just joking. Yeah, so uh certainly wasn't them. And uh I've implemented a system that encrypts your data as soon as you upload it. So it encrypts it when it transports itself to uh the servers, then it encrypts itself at rest on the servers. I cannot read your data. I can I can I can't read anyone's data. It's uh AES 256, which is you know, it is bank level encryption, military-level encryption. Uh and the only way that it can be read is if uh you unencrypt it in your browser. So I never know when people are on the system and when they're not, but it's all browser-based, so you can unencrypt it when it's when it's when you want to look at it. You can share bundles as well. So, for example, if you want to share the bundle uh with either a legal representative or a support person that you've got, you know, a friend who is has been through the same thing, uh you can share the bundle and then you give them the rights either to just to view it or to edit it, and then you can withdraw the what the rights as well. Uh they cannot share the bundle on, uh, and you can share either an individual document, a section within a bundle, or the whole bundle. So it's very specific about how you want to share.

Dr Olivia 27:31

And that's great, because then if you want to get that kind of legal uh have a legal person look over it, or have, as you say, a friend who might have experience, you can you can have that. So you've you've done all the legwork and all the hard work, um, and you can get that kind of confirmation of whether or not you've you've put the bundle together correctly. But it sounds like I hate to say this, but it sounds almost idiot-proof. Like I can see myself being successful with this because it's it's it's it's kind of it's taking you along the way, it's telling you exactly what you need to do. Are there any like human error things within the system like that people need to be aware of when using it?

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Absolutely. I mean, there's it's always a struggle. Uh, I think as a as a neurodivergent person, and and actually a friend of mine is a she's an actress, and she's been going through a legal case, and she's basically tested it as well. She's neurodivergent, and uh she so for example, we have a a I've put in a Pomodoro, which is like a uh a timer, so you can set yourself, because one of the things it's about concentration, you know, can you actually give your bundle enough time to be able to finish it? And when you're not neurodivergent, it when you've got ADHD, sometimes you just can't sit down for more than 15 minutes. And so you can have a timer, you can set yourself 15 minutes and then give yourself a 15-minute break, and then it will so it'll set an alarm, first of all, for the 15 minutes uh where you've got to work, and then 15 minutes at the end of 15 minutes of your break, you can then get back to it. So there's little things like that.

Dr Olivia 29:11

I use that with my daughter doing her homework, so I I it's very successful.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

To to answer your question, you know, are there are there ways in which you can get things wrong? Absolutely. You know, you can upload the wrong documents in the wrong place. Um there are there is guidance in there, but that's why it's important to work with somebody who's gone through this process before. Uh you can also uh upload the wrong type of document, for example, the wrong format. So it does tell you you know what type of format. Say, for example, if you wanted to upload a video, uh a.mov or a dot uh mp4, um, you might get that wrong and have some kind of obscure uh type of video, and it will you know the system will say can't upload that, and then you might get confused. Uh there is notes in there, but and you can read aloud any part of the site uh with the read aloud option, but uh also there's videos that tell you how you can do things. So you know what I'm trying to do is is catch those people that find it difficult to make sure that they can get through the the legal system because uh my view, and I strongly believe it, is that what's in your wallet should not prevent you from getting justice. You know, this is really about access to justice for me. Uh I wanted to make sure that I was building something that would really uh give people a leg up so that even though they can't afford to have a solicitor helping them all the way through, if they have somebody to check right at the end to make sure that they've got their documentation right, that everything's in the right order, fantastic, but they've done a lot of groundwork themselves.

Dr Olivia 31:01

So, you know, and there's even you know organizations that you know like Ipsia and other organizations where you can, you know, if you came to them with that kind of a bundle, um they won't charge you that much for having a a review over it. So it does, it opens up possibilities for you. And and I I actually I'm I'm still reeling over the only 10% of people actually go to tribunals. I thought it was much higher than that, and that this is a real barrier for people, um, which is so sad because um honestly it is it is such a struggle, and there's so many other things going on, as you alluded to in a person's life, managing that child, managing finances, managing school refusal, managing all of those things, that any way that you can simplify this process and get the right help for those children is just it's phenomenal. Um and it's it's it's really I I you know it's a no-brainer. And your cost point is really good as well. You know, um, I would encourage if I had known about if you had created this when I was going through this, I would have given it a go. Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

Yeah. And I think, you know, so all the time I'm improving it and trying to make sure that it's better and better. So I'm always after feedback from the users to say, uh, you know, if you could only do this, if you could only do that, and and I'm quite happy to do it. So I'm the developer and I've basically just kept on improving it, and I'm really open to ideas when it comes to you know where the improvements should be. I have not gone through the send tribunal process myself. I've been through the family court process, which I found harrowing. When you are going through something as emotional as a tribunal or court process, the last thing that you want to deal with is paperwork, but actually that is what the court or the tribunal expects. They expect your case to be presented in a particular way, and they take the emotion out. All they're looking for is facts, and so you need to be able to present facts in a way which they can understand, and that's why they have these rules or practice directions. Send is one of those areas that previously everything wasn't so defined, and now it is really well defined, so defined, in fact, that it's it's very, very difficult if you're going to try to put together a bundle on your own without any kind of resource-like bundle creator. It it is really tough or without a solicitor, you know, it's it's really extremely hard.

Security Sharing And Neurodivergent Tools

Dr Olivia 33:32

It's uh it it's impossible, really. Um so if if you were to to you know talk to one of the parents listening right now, what kind you know who's feeling really overwhelmed, what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Uh with everything that's very complex, it's always best to uh break it down into small pieces, bite-sized chunks. And uh, you know, always best to tackle the easy things first to show that in your own mind that you've been able to make progress. Uh you know, anything that's really complicated, if you can tackle the easy things, and it could be um it could be just putting together your documents in one place and organizing them so that you know where all the evidence is. Uh, that is a mountain to climb for a lot of people, especially neurodivergent people, uh, to be able to put it all together in one place, to be able to um make sure that you have nothing missing, that's always really important. What to chase, who to chase is really important. Uh you have to be aware of the deadlines with uh with the tribunal system. So, for example, in the send tribunal, uh when you have your final EHCP, for example, uh from when you res uh well, from when the the the date of the letter uh comes to you, you have two months within which to notify the tribunal that you want to appeal. Uh you get an extra month if there's mediation involved as well. Uh, and one of the things in the in the the tube map is it shows you where you need mediation and where you don't. Uh and so you get an you get an extra 30 days. And during the school holidays, they say, well, you don't need to put it in in August, if it was due to come in in August, and it's the first uh day in September, working day in September, where you need to get it in if it was due in August or over Christmas. I think it's between the 25th and the 1st of January, the first working day, if your if your uh appeal notification was to be sent in then, uh it's the first working day after the 1st of January. So all of those things need to be factored in. So you have to very much be aware of of the timing of what you have to do uh and who you have to contact to make sure you've got all the right evidence in.

Dr Olivia 36:10

And does the and does the bundle map help you with that as well?

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Uh there is information about the timing, uh, but it it doesn't give you triggers. I think the best thing to do is to just mark up your calendar. So as soon as you get your final EHPC, for example, that's when you'd mark up your calendar and say, right, okay, I've got two months. Uh, do I need mediation? Yes, I do. I urgently need mediation, and then you get an extra 30 days on top of those two months, uh, in which case you can you have to mark your calendar again.

Dr Olivia 36:43

But so you kind of do the mediation, not because you think it's going to resolve the issue, because that's what I've heard, um, but to give yourself that extra 30 days. Is that what I'm hearing? Yes. Yes. It's super interesting. And you know, it's it it's interesting. You as a parent have such strict time guidelines. Now, the local authority is supposed to too, but they they often miss those deadlines. At least they did in my case several by months and months. Um even right now I'm actually waiting for my daughter's EHCP to come back, and you're triggering in my head, oh, I have I need to follow up on that, because it hasn't come through. Um, had a missed call from the local authority, but of course you can't call them back. Um so you know, you have to, you have the the time starts ticking when it comes into your inbox, which is not a defined time, even though they're supposed to have a defined time from your review of when you get that EHCP back. So there is a level of organization, which also is challenging for neurodiverse parents. Yes. Putting those reminders in, making sure when you get that, when you get that email, that's when the egg timer kind of needs to be turned over and you need to put those dates in. So the the bundle provides that kind of information for you and gives you some of the little tips of how you can extend if you need more time.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

Yeah. Yeah. Uh you know, it does give me an idea actually that maybe I should just put some timers in so that, you know, a calendar with with uh alerts that tell you, you know, you're three weeks away, you're two weeks away, so that you and it could be, you know, an email that you get.

Dr Olivia 38:13

So, you know I think that I I find that I mean, if it wasn't for Outlook, I would never be at a single meeting because sometimes I, you know, it'll just pop up and it'll be like, you have a meeting. I'm like, oh my god, I have a meeting right now. You know, like honestly, like I would be a disaster without the reminders that Outlook sends me on my phone, on my watch, you know, and you know, and have been able to rescue some situations that otherwise I just would not have been present for. Um, so I think that's a great idea. Look, we're creating as we speak.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Um exactly. And you know, so because I haven't been through the some of these situations, uh, you know, I'm definitely open to ideas because I just want it to grow and become richer and uh be really useful so that it is a really good support for parents and for anyone who has to go through the court system. I found it horrific to go through uh the court system. And I was when I initially kind of got there, uh I was just completely blindsided. The language I didn't understand, the documentation I couldn't read, and uh, you know, the formality of the whole process. Tribunals are slightly better, uh, but they're starting to merge with the courts in terms of how they operate, uh, you know, and the strict ways in which they operate now, uh, especially with their new practice directions for send. Uh, even so, it is a very different environment to the one that we're used to. Um because of that, we can, especially if you're neurodivergent, you just get overloaded sensory-wise with what you're supposed to do, and and you can reach collapse. And I think that's where to have a good support network, to be able to have a good system where you can make sure all your documentation is in place, and to be able to share with trusted people, you know, the documentation that you produce so that you're not on your own and that you've got somebody making sure that it's it's good and it hangs together well, is is really, really useful, I think.

Deadlines Mediation And Reasonable Adjustments

Dr Olivia 40:12

Well, I also think it's brilliant that it stops this filter, which is really unfair, if I'm honest, and uh, you know, ridiculous with the weight and the bloody pages, is just, you know, that's just a way to to to to to to triage basically in an unfair way. So I I really love the idea of this. Um, you know, I always ask, is there one reflection that you can give parents as we kind of wrap this up? But I also um before I ask you that, I want to uh tell all my listeners that um I think this is super interesting and super practical for people. So I've talked to you, Stevie, about this, but we're gonna do a masterclass on this um where people can actually see how it works. So I'm gonna encourage my listeners to have a look, do the free demo demo um on your site, and then we can have a masterclass, which is almost also can benefit you, Stevie, because people can talk and say, well, this is what's working, this is not working. But sometimes as we are visual people, um, listening to it is one thing, doing it is another. So we will that will be coming out as well in in the next couple of weeks. We'll pull plan that masterclass and invite people to come and look at it because I think um seeing this in action is also important. But if you could leave us with you know one thing for our listeners to take away with them, what would that be, Stevie?

SPEAKER_01 41:40

So uh going through a tribunal process is very stressful and we can't forget that it is actually a legal process, and because of that, uh we can sometimes get buried in the detail and get overwhelmed. But when you actually get to the tribunal, you will find that the tribunal is on your side, you know, it's because you're pitted against the local authority, and they're trained, the people that you're up against are trained in making sure that they give you as little as possible, uh, because that's the game that it is. But actually, when you get there, you will find that actually that everything will go the way you wanted it, you know, most things will go the way you want it. So the the statistics are 95% of cases that settle at tribunal go in favor of families. So that's the thing to remember. You know, if you can just make it, and you know, less than 10% of people make it to tribunal, and that's just such a shame. So I think anything that can help get you there is amazing. And there's also another thing, I'll give you another another tip, which is uh you have the right to be able to ask for reasonable adjustments when you get to tribunal. So this is one thing that people don't realize. So that you know, if you are uh neurodivergent, you can ask for, for example, to have your app read things aloud if if the other side's barrister suddenly gives you a document late, and there's all kinds of litigation tricks that go on where they can give you documents late. You can have that, you can have extra time to be able to read and digest that document and it in and upload it into an app that you're using to be able to read it aloud to you, for example. So there's reasonable adjustments that can be made. Uh, so all is not lost. Uh even though you have to go to tribunal, I think there's you know, there is there is ways in which you can get through it uh and still feel sane. And you know what?

Dr Olivia 43:45

We uh I mean it's just it's so needed. I mean, you know, I remember my solicitor saying to me, Olivia, you know, this is like a death by a thousand knives. I mean, those were his words, okay? And you know, I was lucky. Enough to be able to afford his help, you know. But um this this is such a brilliant way of being able to help yourself and in a way that makes it less overwhelming and makes it a step-by-step journey, which they have a saying in Africa: the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. And that's kind of what this is doing for you. Um, and that makes it that that just takes your heart rate down a little bit because you can see where you're going. Um, so thank you so much, Stevie, for sharing this with us today and for creating it, in all honesty. I think it's gonna be a great asset for many, many parents out there. So I'm looking forward to seeing the demo, and um I'm sure my listeners are too. And you know, it's great that you're constantly, you know, going to be doing other iterations and listening to people in terms of what works and doesn't work. I think that's brilliant. So thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

Thank you, Dr. Olivia. It's been really nice uh speaking to you and uh looking forward to giving the demo anyway. Excellent. All the best. Thank you.

Masterclass Plans And Closing Support

Dr Olivia 45:02

Excellent, Stevie. That was brilliant. Um I I really I really do think this is gonna be an absolute asset for for my listeners. So um I'm going to um edit this and then get it. I I I I get your ADHD. You want this out as soon as possible. So um I'm gonna try and release this next week. I will release this next week. You've sent me your picture already. Um, and then we just need to think about a date for the masterclass. I'm doing a masterclass the following week on um the send white paper, actually, and what that means for people from a legal perspective. I have a legal person and a uh a former head teacher. So maybe on email we can look at dates that would be good for you for a masterclass. I want to air, and then um I have a mailing list, and then I also have two membership communities. Um and and you might have people that you want to come to the masterclass as well. Um I I find that lunchtime usually works well for my demographic. Like 12. Thank you for listening, Send Parenting Tribe. If anything in today's episode resonated with you, please know you're not alone in this. And if you want to feel more supported to be surrounded by moms who truly get it, you can join us inside the ADHD Warrior Mom membership. You'll find the link in the show notes, or you can head to SEND parenting dot com backslash join. I'd love to welcome you in a couple of things.