Who we are

IPSEA is a registered charity (established in 1983) offering free and independent advice to parents of children with special educational needs in England and Wales on:

local authorities’ legal duties to assess and provide for children with special educational needs;
exclusions of children with special needs/disabilities;
actions or inaction by local authorities and/or schools which discriminate against children with disabilities.

IPSEA is a volunteer-based organisation and many of the volunteers providing telephone advice and Tribunal support are themselves parents of children with special educational needs who have been helped by IPSEA in the past.

What we do

IPSEA’s aims are

to help ensure that all children with special educational needs receive the special educational provision to which they are legally entitled;
to help ensure that the views of parents/carers are taken fully into account when their children’s needs are assessed and decisions are made about their special education provision;
to help to prevent or remedy discrimination by local authorities or schools against children on the grounds of their disability.

Whilst we help all families that come to us for advice, we target information about our services to disadvantaged families so that we can concentrate our support on parents/carers who may be less confident and/or less able to fight for their children’s legal entitlement to special educational provision and not to be discriminated against.

Download IPSEA's Annual Report as a PDF file (1066kb)

Please support IPSEA:
• download a donation form (PDF format)
• or donate securely online via CAF: