Independent SEND Expert Witness
Potential Areas of Instruction
✔ The educational needs of children and young people with SEND.
✔ The suitability and specificity of educational provision within an EHCP.
✔ How proposed provision may operate in practice within a school setting.
✔ Whether a child's needs may require additional or specialist provision.
✔ The impact of unmet needs and barriers to accessing education.
✔ Consideration of mainstream and specialist educational environments.
✔ SEND support for autistic children and children with significant SEMH needs.
✔ Educational context where school attendance, engagement or access to learning has become difficult.The educational needs of children and young people with SEND.
Independent SEND expertise grounded in extensive school and leadership experience
Rachel provides independent expert witness services in matters concerning special educational needs and disabilities, educational provision and EHCPs. Her expertise is rooted in decades of direct educational practice, including work as a SENDCo, specialist-school headteacher and head of national provision.
This background gives Rachel a detailed understanding of how SEND provision operates in real settings: how needs are identified, how EHCP provision is interpreted and implemented, what schools can reasonably deliver, when specialist provision may be required, and where gaps between a child's needs and their current support can arise.