Start here. It takes two minutes.
SEND Parents Help is a specialist knowledge base built into ChatGPT, drawing on official guidance for parents in England.
Ask anything about your child's SEND.
Open it in ChatGPT and type your question, or paste a council letter or draft EHCP for feedback. A free account is all you need.
Not sure where to start? Take the 30-second tour. New to AI? Read the beginner's guide.
What you can do with it
Three ways parents are using SEND Parents Help
I'm filling in the DLA form for my 7-year-old who has autism. Question 26 asks about washing and bathing. Can you help me describe what support he needs?
Try this with our assistant in ChatGPTBest for: DLA, EHCP drafts, appeals, letters to school
My daughter has been excluded for behaviour linked to her ADHD. Is the school allowed to do that, and what are my next steps?
Try this with our assistant in ChatGPTBest for: Rights, what to expect, what counts as reasonable
Here's the speech therapy report and our draft EHCP. Can you check Section F covers everything in the report?
Try this with our assistant in ChatGPTBest for: Spotting gaps, comparing reports, second opinions
Common questions
SEND Parents Help is a free AI assistant designed specifically for families navigating Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) processes in England. It connects you to ChatGPT, enhanced with a specialist knowledge base covering EHCPs, DLA, Blue Badges, school transport, and more.
It was built by a SEND parent going through the same journey, to help other families understand their rights and navigate statutory processes with confidence.
When you ask plain ChatGPT a SEND question, it gives you a long, generic answer covering every possibility. It sounds confident but often buries the important bit in hundreds of words of background information. SEND Parents Help works differently:
- It asks before it answers. Instead of dumping everything it knows, it asks a clarifying question first so it can give you advice that actually fits your situation.
- It knows the specifics. It draws from a curated knowledge base covering England's SEND law, DLA form guidance, EHCP timelines, exclusion rules, and more, updated regularly from official sources.
- It's concise and actionable. You get clear next steps, not a textbook summary. It tells you what to do, not just what the law says.
Yes. SEND Parents Help is completely free to use. You just need a ChatGPT account to get started (free to sign up). The free tier works fine for trying it out and asking questions. A free ChatGPT account works; a paid ChatGPT plan gives you more messages and file uploads. We're not affiliated with any government body or commercial organisation.
This means you are not signed in to ChatGPT. The assistant only works when you are logged in to a ChatGPT account (a free one is fine). It is not a fault with our system, just a sign-in step on ChatGPT's side.
How to fix it: Go to chatgpt.com, sign in or create a free account, then open the SEND Parents Help link again. New to ChatGPT? Follow our step-by-step guide.
Yes, that's us. The first time you ask a question, ChatGPT checks it can connect to our knowledge base to fetch the latest SEND guidance. You'll see a box like this:
What to do: Tap Allow once to continue, or Always allow so you are not asked again. It is safe: we only receive the question sent to our knowledge base, never your name or what you type. See our privacy policy.
Not at all. The assistant can help with any SEND-related question. The specialist areas are where it has deep, curated expert knowledge drawn from official sources. For everything else, it still has the full capabilities of ChatGPT, it just won't have the same level of specialist, verified detail.
Your conversations go directly to ChatGPT. We cannot see, access, or store anything you type or upload. The only connection to us is our knowledge base, which provides SEND guidance to help answer your questions, but receives no personal information.
We use anonymous usage data to improve the knowledge base. For example, we can see what ChatGPT is requesting from our knowledge base, but we have no way of knowing who made the request or what was said in the conversation.
For full details, see our privacy policy.
Yes. SEND law is different in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Our knowledge base is built specifically around the English system, including the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice.
Absolutely. ChatGPT has a mobile app and works great in mobile browsers. Many parents use it on the go, including at school meetings or while waiting for appointments.
Yes, and it would feel a bit dishonest to pretend otherwise on a site that's all about using AI! Like a lot of people, I'm a parent of three with a full-time job and little free time. I'm also not a web developer!
I put an enormous amount of time and effort planning the content, structure and what would actually help a stressed parent at 11pm with a DLA form half-filled in find what they need fast. I then used AI to do the actual building for me. The thinking is mine; the HTML is largely the robot's.
Ask your first question.
Open SEND Parents Help in ChatGPT and ask your first question.