AI feels like it’s everywhere right now, yet fewer of us feel we actually understand it. If that’s you, you’re in good company, and you don’t need any technical knowledge to follow along.
This is a plain English guide to what AI is, what ChatGPT is, and how SEND Parents Help uses them to give you real help with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) paperwork and questions.
What is AI?
AI stands for artificial intelligence. In practice, it’s software you can have a conversation with in plain English. You type a question, and it writes back an answer. You can ask follow-ups, share documents, and work through something together.
It’s been trained on a huge amount of text, which is how it can answer questions on almost any topic. It isn’t magic and it isn’t a person, but for a lot of tasks it feels like having a well-informed friend you can ask anything, at any hour.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is the most widely used AI assistant. It’s made by a company called OpenAI, and you can use it for free with a free account.
SEND Parents Help runs inside ChatGPT as a “Custom GPT”. That’s just a version of ChatGPT that’s been set up to focus on SEND topics in England, so the answers stay relevant to the system you’re actually dealing with.
How does SEND Parents Help use AI?
We’ve connected ChatGPT to a knowledge base written specifically for SEND families in England. When you ask a question, the assistant looks up the most relevant guidance and answers from that.
So instead of a generic reply, you get a plain English explanation grounded in real information about Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), appeals, school support, and more.
What can I actually ask it?
Anything you’d ask a knowledgeable SEND parent friend. For example:
- “My child has just been diagnosed with autism. What support can we get?”
- “Can you explain what Section F of an EHCP should contain?”
- “I’m filling in a DLA form. How should I describe the help my child needs at night?”
- “The council has refused to assess my child for an EHCP. What can I do next?”
If you’re not sure where to begin, start with whatever is weighing on you most this week. There’s no wrong question.
Is it safe to use?
Yes. SEND Parents Help doesn’t store your conversations or personal data on our side. Your chats happen between you and ChatGPT directly, and we never see what you ask.
For sensitive documents, you can also use our Doc Tools to turn files into text privately in your browser before you paste anything into ChatGPT. If you’d like a fuller look at privacy and what to check, read is AI safe for SEND paperwork.
One sensible habit: check anything important. AI is genuinely useful, but it can occasionally get a detail wrong. For legal deadlines, benefit entitlements, or medical guidance, confirm with the original source, whether that’s your council’s website, gov.uk, or a professional.
Do I need to be good with computers?
No. If you can send a WhatsApp message, you can use ChatGPT. The interface is a single text box at the bottom of the screen. Type your question, press send, read the reply.
Here are a few tips to make the first go easier:
- Start with a simple question and see what comes back.
- If the answer isn’t quite right, ask a follow-up. You can say “can you explain that more simply” or “give me an example”.
- Share documents. Uploading a council letter or a draft EHCP and asking for feedback is one of the most useful things you can do. Our guide on how to understand SEND letters and reports with AI walks through this.
- Don’t worry about typos or grammar. It understands you fine.
Where to go next
The next two guides in this series take you from here to your first real task:
Once you’re comfortable asking questions, you can put AI to work on real paperwork:
- Use AI to fill in a DLA form
- Understand SEND letters and reports with AI
- Is AI safe for SEND paperwork?
You don’t have to learn it all at once. Ask one question, see how it feels, and build from there.