About SENguru

Be more zen about SEN.

Who built this

SENguru is built by its two cofounders, Chris Gilbert and Valentina Migliore, through SENguru CIC, a UK community interest company. It started after our families went through the EHCP process and discovered first-hand how punishing it can be, even for parents with time and resources to draw on.

About Chris

Chris is a software engineer who's been working in the tech industry for over 20 years. He's also a SEN parent of two neurodivergent daughters Keira and Isabelle, who have both had trouble with emotionally based school non-attendance (EBSNA) and required additional SEN support. Through a long process of assessments, meetings and appeals, both girls ultimately needed EHCPs to get the support they need. This process is ongoing, and Chris is still fighting for the support they need, and to be heard and believed by the right people. Chris is the Technical Director of SENguru CIC.

About Valentina

Valentina is a single parent of Caesar, who has cerebral palsy and is non-verbal. She has struggled to get funding and sufficient help from multiple local authorities to meet his needs and has had specialist provision refused. She has deep experience of the EHCP process, and has seen how difficult it can be to navigate and be heard by the public services who are able to provide the support and funding needed. Valentina is the Marketing and Delivery Director of SENguru CIC.

Our mission

To win children the support they need, protect their legal rights, and make sure they are heard by a system that often doesn't listen to them.

To do this, we will provide tools to support and empower parents and carers to navigate the process with confidence, and ensure their children's legal rights are protected, and their SEND needs are met.

What is the problem SENguru is trying to solve?

The SEND system is widely thought of as "broken", but we don't believe the law is at fault. The current law in the Children and Families Act 2014 is clear and unambiguous, and the SEND Code of Practice is well written and thought out. The problem isn't the law as is - it's that all too often, the law just isn't followed!

The Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) process is supposed to be a child-centred, needs based process, and it was written in law to protect children's rights. In practice it often behaves like an adversarial game between parents and local authorities. Long timetables, secret (often illegal) thresholds, a wall of acronyms, and an industry of paid professionals who are often incentivised to provide as little help as possible, to save money and time for the local authority.

We don't think this is right. Children and families should be able to get the support they need, without a solicitor, a metric ton of forms, expensive and slow private services, or a law degree!

500,000 children in the UK are stuck in a system that doesn't listen to them, and SENguru is here to help.

What we aim to do

  • Demystify the process. One clear map of the EHC needs assessment, from initial concerns through annual review and tribunal. The law, deadlines, and the next action always visible and easy to understand.
  • Defend the deadlines. Deadline tracking and alerts, so parents never miss important dates when under stress.
  • Legalese translated A plain English rights list, a glossary, and automated review of draft plans against the SEND Code of Practice, to take the load off and let parents focus on their child's needs instead of endless form filling.
  • A paper trail A tribunal-ready log of every contact, letter, meeting and document. No more arguing over who said what and when, and no more lost emails or misplaced documents.
  • Free or affordable All the basic features will remain free, such as the process map, deadlines, and contact log. We will also offer a paid tier for more advanced features. We do not want price to be a barrier to access though, so we will offer a free premium upgrade for families who can't afford it.

How SENguru is funded

SENguru is set up as a community interest company (CIC), which means we are not-for-profit and we are not owned by shareholders. We cannot take money from investors, and directors cannot take dividends. If the company makes a profit, it will be reinvested into the business and to provide more help for children and families who need it.

The difference between a CIC and a charity is that a CIC can run in similar way to a company, does not have the tax advantages of a charity, but can also sell products and services in a way that is more flexible than a charity. This is the right model for SENguru, as we want to produce a sustainable business for the long term,that can help as many children and families as possible.

SENguru will always have a free tier. The features parents need to exercise statutory rights, such as the EHCP process map, deadlines, contact log, template letters, rights pages and timeline will always stay free.

Some additional features such as automated draft-EHCP review, some uses of our chatbot, and tribunal preparation are available in our premium subscription. These provide some really useful, time saving tools that can help you to get the best EHCP possible for your child with a minimum of fuss. Those bits cost us money to run, and pricing them sustainably is what keeps us running as a business and able to keep helping people.

Our Values and Principles

    We promise to:

  • 01
    Keep your child's data private and secure at all times.
  • 02
    Help and assist you to navigate the process with confidence
  • 03
    See the individual child and parent, not just a case number
  • 04
    Accurately represent the law and the process
  • 05
    Never to share your data with third parties without your explicit consent.
  • 06
    Never run advertising or sponsored content on the site
  • 07
    Sell our paid services honestly and transparently, and at a fair price
  • 08
    Never pretend to be a substitute for personalised legal advice.
  • SENguru is tool to support children and families, not a substitute for legal advice.

Get in touch

Feedback, bug reports and feature requests are very welcome.

See Where to start if you're new, or email info@senguru.co.uk. For privacy or data-protection questions, see the Privacy Policy or email info@senguru.co.uk.

Company details

SENguru CIC is a community interest company registered in England and Wales.

  • Company number: 17213028
  • Registered office: 82a James Carter Road, Mildenhall, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, IP28 7DE

As a CIC, all profits are reinvested into the service to help more children and families — directors cannot take dividends and the company's assets are locked for community benefit.

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