SEND Mediation Services

As many of you will know, I have a deep and personal interest in the complexities of special needs and disabilities education and the need to provide help and assistance for children and young people who may be struggling at school due to conditions such as ADHD (attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder) and ASD (autism spectrum disorder), as well as other mental and physical disabilities. This is why I am very excited to announce that I have now fully qualified as a specialist SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) Mediator!

I am really looking forward to working with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and their parents, along with the schools and local authorities which aim to provide the support required in order that these children and young people can gain access to the services that will help ensure they realise their full learning potential.

Of course, I will continue working as a Costs Lawyer, and will continue to mediate on other matters such as clinical negligence, personal injury, costs, housing repossession and boundary disputes, helping existing and future clients maximise their costs and time management. But SEND Mediation is an area that will further enhance what BarnsChapel can offer.

If you have any questions about our services and what we can do to help you maximise your business potential, please do get in touch.

Why not find out more about how we can help? Call us on 01244 256865 or send a message via our contact page.

SEND Mediation

As many of you already know, in addition to being a Costs Lawyer I am also an accredited Mediator and find the whole area of Alternative Dispute Resolution and Mediation both fascinating and increasingly in demand. However, what you may not know is that I used to be a teacher. I thought I was ok at it, although not one of those ‘bells and whistles’ teachers we all hope that our children will have. But I did a decent job.

I was, however, one of those who, whilst recognising that ADHD was a real condition, thought it was all about hyperactive, disruptive behaviour and did not affect any other aspect of a person’s personality. I have since realised that I was very much mistaken and am somewhat ashamed of myself for it. It turns out that ADHD causes great fatigue, an inability to focus on tasks at hand or ‘get things done,’ whilst on the other hand causing the sufferer to become fixated on one thing to the detriment of everything else, including eating, sleeping, and washing. It is not, as I had thought in my teaching days, hugely over-diagnosed, with children who are simply badly behaved being diagnosed with it. Rather the opposite. It is very difficult to get a diagnosis, especially as an adult and/or a female sufferer.

Having realised the error of my ways, I decided that the area of mediation in which I wished to specialise was SEND (special educational needs and disabilities). On the 5/6 May, I attended a specialised SEND mediation course run by Prime Resolution. It was excellent – delivered remotely and at about a third of the cost of most other providers. I now have the follow-up supported practice to undergo – starting next week – and then will be a fully-fledged SEND mediator.

I would recommend Prime Resolution to anyone. Hugo and Marilyn really know their stuff and were very engaging in the course. Whilst I enjoy mediating, I am very excited to start mediating in SEND cases and hopefully help some of the children and young people out there to get the help they need to fulfil their potential.

Thank you, Hugo and Marilyn.

Why not find out more about how we can help? Call us on 01244 256865 or send a message via our contact page.