Help Us Create the Guide SEND Parents Wish They’d Had Before Secondary School
What you learned the ‘hard way‘ could make another SEND parent’s journey a little easier.
PACE is gathering the experiences of SEND parents and carers to create a practical, parent-led guide about the things families wish they had known earlier.
Why This Guide Matters
Many SEND parents only realise what they needed to know after things have already become difficult.
Parents often tell us that some of the most important things they learned about SEND only became clear after things had already become difficult.
Things like knowing what to put in writing, understanding whether an EHCP really reflects their child’s needs, recognising when reasonable adjustments aren’t working, dealing with attendance or EBSA, and knowing when to trust their own instincts.
PACE wants to bring that hindsight together so the families coming behind us can benefit from it earlier.
We’re Currently ‘Testing’ the Questionnaire
Before we open the questionnaire more widely, we’re looking for 5–10 SEND parents and carers to test it.
We want you to tell us:
Whether the questions make sense
Whether anything important is missing
Whether anything feels repetitive or unnecessary
How long it really takes
Whether you felt able to ‘tell your story’
Your feedback will help us improve the questionnaire before the wider PACE parent research begins.
The feedback form helps us check whether the questionnaire is clear,
manageable and useful before we share it more widely.
Who Can Take Part?
We’re looking for parents and carers whose SEND child has experienced secondary school.
Your experience does not have to have been negative.
We want to hear from families whose experiences were:
Positive • Easy • Difficult • Mixed • Straightforward • Complicated • Negative • Life-changing • Completely different from what you expected.
You don’t need to be a SEND expert. We’re interested in what you learned as a parent.
The Questionnaire
The questionnaire explores experiences including:
Secondary school transition • SEN Support • EHCPs • reasonable adjustments • attendance and EBSA • behaviour and sanctions • diagnosis and assessment • communication with school • keeping evidence and records • professional advice • trusting your instincts
How Long Will It Take?
Main questionnaire: approximately 15–25 minutes
Tester feedback: approximately 3–5 minutes
You don’t need to prepare anything beforehand.
The feedback form
The feedback form is about the questionnaire itself. It asks whether the questions were clear, whether anything felt too long or repetitive, whether the form felt emotionally manageable, and whether anything important was missing.
Privacy and Safety
Your Experience, Without Identifying Your Child
The questionnaire is designed to gather parent experiences rather than identify individual children, schools or professionals.
You can read our privacy policy here:
Take Part in the test
Please complete the main questionnaire first, then fill in the short feedback form afterwards.
Thank You
Your experience could help another SEND parent feel more prepared,
more informed and less alone.
Thank you for helping PACE Project UK build something practical, honest and parent-led