Advice Services

Julia Day, Head of Services

Julia is our Advice Services Manager and oversees the running of our advice services delivered to parents and carers through a team of volunteers and staff. Julia has over 15 years experience in the charity sector including volunteer management and delivering information services. Julia has two boys at secondary school, both with special education needs. Julia has been a member of her local choir for over 11 years, and makes the most of the stress-busting communal singing and opportunities to perform to friends and family.

Anna Lowson, Volunteer Engagement Coordinator

Anna works in the advice services team as the volunteer engagement coordinator. She is the first point of contact for volunteers and provides support at all stages of the volunteer role. Before joining IPSEA she was an Early Years teacher. She is mum to three teenagers – the eldest of whom is Autistic. She enjoys peaceful early morning runs, making soup, reading detective and crime novels and being walked by her French Bulldog, Alvin. 

Charmaine Greenan, 

Tribunal Support Service Coordinator

Charmaine works in the advice services team as the Tribunal Casework Coordinator. She matches up families with volunteers to support them through the tribunal process. She has three children, two of whom are disabled. She enjoys yoga, swimming, reading and walking with her two dogs, Scrappy and Dora.

Helen Bishton, Helplines Coordinator

Helen works in the advice services team as a Helplines Coordinator. She coordinates the Call In Service. She also trains volunteers, gives advice through other services and is a TSS volunteer. Helen is a retired teacher and senior manager in special schools. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, dancing, sewing, crochet, singing in a choir, theatre and spending time with her three grown up children, family and friends.

Shelia Hickerton, Tribunal Support Service Coordinator

Sheila works in partnership with Charmaine Greenan as Tribunal Support Service Coordinator. She also volunteers for IPSEA. She has many years experience within SEND from a variety of perspectives including Specialist Family Worker/EHCP Coordinator in a complex needs school, SENDIASS Young Person Advocate and LA SEND Officer roles within several councils. Sheila has 3 adult daughters and 7 grandchildren. One of her grandsons has a diagnosis of autism. He attends an autism resourced provision within a mainstream primary school.

Alex Boorer, Helplines Adviser

Alex recently joined the team in December 2024 as a Helplines Advisor providing support to parents.  Alex was recently a volunteer for Citizens Advice and prior to that worked in professional services for many years before taking a career break to look after her two children, both of whom have SEND.  Outside of work and supporting her children, Alex enjoys exercising and ice bathing.

Peter Mitchell, Helplines Adviser

Peter works in the advice services team as a Helplines Adviser supporting and giving legal advice to parents on all the helplines. Peter holds a post-graduate diploma in Bar Practice from King’s College London and sits as a lay member of Independent Education Admission Appeals Panels in Wales. He also works as a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature teaching and researching literary texts and history of medicine, on which he has written and edited books and articles. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. When not working, Peter enjoys gardening, art, music, theatre, and walking with his wife in the hills and woods of South Wales.

Ramandeep Kaur, Community Project Lead

Ramandeep's previous work has been with charities on research projects exploring cultural competency and health inequalities. She has presented at conferences and brings her lived experience of being a mum to a young person with a learning disability. Outside of work, she enjoys listening to classical Indian music and history podcasts.