What our clients say

We were at our wits end when we turned to Boyes Turner for help with our son’s education. Following two failed school placements, he was worryingly depressed and withdrawn. We had no clue how to navigate the EHCP process or the SEN education system in general. Lydia guided us through it all, got us the evidence we needed to write our son a watertight EHCP giving him the correct support and finally - after a battle - got him into the right, specialist setting. It was a stressful and difficult process - local authorities know this complex system inside out whereas parents don’t - however having Lydia’s expert help made it feel a lot less stressful than it could otherwise have been. I always felt confident that we were getting the best advice and help out there. The best part of all is that this positive outcome has been life-changing for our son. He’s gone from talking about ‘having no life’ to being happy in school and making plans for his future. We feel that Lydia was really instrumental in getting his life back on track and giving him a chance at a successful future.

Sarah

We are extremely grateful for Laxmi Patel’s support in our son’s appeal against the LA that we won! Laxmi has been brilliant in getting us ready for the hearing, coordinating the evidence and the witnesses and arguing in the hearing! We appealed section F and won on all fronts (including inclusion of new outcomes in the EHCP as a consequence of changing provision). Laxmi has been extremely responsive always on the lookout for strategies to bring us to the best position in SEN tribunal! She has also advised us on school choices and other challenges we had with the LA! She is extremely knowledgeable, approachable and responsive! Thanks so much Laxmi we will be forever grateful! 

M&M

Laxmi helped with my son tribunal case in regard to section I of his EHCP. Our tribunal got brought forward by 6 months early, not giving us much time to get everything in place. Laxmi was great and said we can do it even with just little time left to get prepared and ready for the Tuesday. As a parent, I didn’t know what we needed to send or do, Laxmi took the time to explain everything to us and what we needed to do to prepare for the tribunal. Laxmi went above and beyond to help us and successfully won getting the school we needed for our son to start in September 2024. I would highly recommend Laxmi to take on the local authority in regard to any EHCP appeals. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us.

Natalie 

James Pantling-Skeet helped us prepare my daughter's EHCP to gain a good placement for the future. He was patient, extremely knowledgeable, had brilliant contacts, helped withe emotional upheaval and organised meetings with all parties to keep everything on track. We had the best outcome we could have had due to his professionalism. He was very caring too. He and his team worked tirelessly and answered our queries promptly. I would highly recommend their service.

Boyes Turner Client

We had the pleasure of working with Lydia Dunford at Boyes Turner who guided us through a tribunal with our LA to get our son's EHCP accurately reflecting his challenges (and subsequently the support/setting he needs). Having spent years getting nowhere, Lydia's counsel resulted in a successful outcome, and our son now has a place at the best possible school for him. Lydia is a true SEN expert - she is supportive and explains things clearly and concisely in what can often be an emotional journey for us parents! We highly recommend her and Boyes Turner.

Clare Turner

For over a year (maybe even two, time flies!) we have been working with James trying to negotiate a tricky situation with the local authority in relation to the care needs of our child who has complex needs. James and Daisy (paralegal) have been incredible throughout and we are eternally grateful to them for helping us achieve the outcome we were looking for. Thorough, responsive and ready to roll with every punch that was thrown our way. We would not have the current outcome without them. Their professionalism is unmatched but also their empathy and kindness has been a breath of fresh air and made the process that bit easier. I would highly recommend James and Daisy, the dream team! Thank you both from the bottom of our hearts.

Fabienne

Thanks to James Pantling-Skeet and Daisy Fox-Clarkin at Boyes Turner, our son will finally be able a attend an amazing school, that can cater for both his academic and his complex medical needs. It wasn't an easy journey, but we feel our son has now got access to support that will enable him to prosper. Their knowledgable, efficient and caring support helped us through this stressful time. We can thoroughly recommend Boyes-Turner for any EHCP support.

Mr & Mrs Stratton

James and Daisy couldn't have been more helpful with supporting us to receive an appropriate school placement in our daughter's EHCP. We were talked through all options, possible outcomes and the costs of each to make a fully informed decision. Having such strong expert support with a great deal of experience made a huge difference to our approach and we would recommend them to other parents in a similar situation.

Mr & Mrs Frost

Laxmi's exceptional understanding in SEN law combined with her professional, honest and empathic approach gave us the assurance that we had a solicitor who was and would continually do her best on our behalf. We would highly recommend any one seeking a SEN solicitor to use Laxmi.

David Bernstein

"I was recommended James as I was facing difficulties with my local authority adhering to statutory deadlines to secure my sons school placement and issuing his EHCP. We wanted to challenge the LA with their timeframes which resulted in them trying to offer us a school that was not suitable for my son needs. After our initial consultation with James we felt empowered and confident to push back and not give up on what we knew would be best for our son.

After a lot of back and forth we eventually secured the right school for my son and I don’t feel we could have done this without James help and support.

James as well as his secretary Daisy were always quick to respond to my emails and would keep in touch regularly via video calls so we could gather evidence and agree best approaches as things progressed.

I am very pleased we used their services and would not hesitate to use them again if I needed to in the future."

Megan Hulse

"Thank you, Boyes Turner LLP for your excellent service and support during my recent CHC appeal. It is a daunting process to go through, but your support made it feel less stressful. Your communication and response to emails was great and every step of the process was explained clearly, so I was clear on my steps. Thank you in particular to James and Daisy."

Boyes Turner Client

"Excellent experience from start to finish. In what was an overwhelming situation trying to get my son into the right education setting, James took all of the stress off my shoulders and won the case against our local council. My son is now thriving in his new school and I know, without James' hard work, he would not have got there."

Louise Vincent

"Whilst I would hope our persistence and negotiating skills played their part my suspicion is that it was having a clued-up lawyer that saved the day!"
Amanda's father, Boyes Turner client

"I can't thank you enough for your support with this. It can't have been easy to get to grips with our complex situation over the phone but your very clear understanding and advice was so helpful to us and gave us confidence to handle this situation well.  We won't hesitate to recommend you to anyone else in similar situations".  
Lauren's mother, Boyes Turner client

"Boyes Turner, dealt with our case very professionally. The team, working on our behalf conducted the case with the necessary speed and skill to get the case resolved in our favour. Excellent!!"
Michael's father, Boyes Turner client

"I am so happy at the outcome, I don't think we would have had such a comprehensive service from any other law firm, and you took the worry away which was very important at the point when I met both you and Laxmi. Can I say thank you so very much, I do not regret a single second of the whole process, apart from the bit before you got involved. Thank you once again".
James' mother, Boyes Turner client

Your support and advice was invaluable and I thank you very much. Please share...the high esteem in which I hold your service, professionalism and advice with your partners at Boyes Turner. I would not hesitate to recommend your services to parents looking for support and advice. If I ever need anything in the future I will not hesitate to contact you". 
Isabella's parents, Boyes Turner clients

"It appears Josh’s Statement is now in full swing.
 Thank you so very much for everything – all your advice and hard work, which helped secure Josh’s Statement. In particular, your masterpiece ‘mark-up’ of the proposed Statement. That really swung it with the LA.”
Josh's parents, Boyes Turner clients

"Thank you for forwarding the statement. I think I was on another planet yesterday - I hadn’t realised you had managed to get so much provision in the statement! I'm thrilled you got 2 hours OT a week and hydrotherapy every week. That's brilliant! Thank you so much! We have wanted [the school] so desperately for such a long time now and had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we never win anything and  were guaranteed to lose that it is going to take a while to actually realise that Ben has got [the school] now :) We really couldn't be happier with the outcome and are so very grateful to you for listening to us and understanding and making sure we got what was best for our family :) Thank you so very much."
Ben's parents, Boyes Turner clients

We would just like to say a huge thank you for your total support and expert guidance during our long and difficult journey. We feel that you have been so patient and understanding throughout and truly care about what you do. The whole process has been very emotional for us and you have been completely sensitive to this at all times. No matter what the outcome of the Tribunal we know that with your help we have done our very best for Amy. Thank you."
Amy's parents, Boyes Turner clients

Thank you very much, again, for successfully securing a place at the school we wanted for our son with a good amended statement. He is deliriously happy to be back at school."
Boyes Turner clients

“We would like to pass on our sincere thanks to you for all the hard work you have put into Peter’s appeal. We are very pleased that Peter’s needs have finally been acknowledged by the LA and are extremely grateful to you for helping to ensure that his package of support and provision has been increased so substantially and sensibly. We have already met with the head teacher and the  SENCO at the school and things are looking tentatively positive for the future. Lines of communication certainly seem open, which is a very good thing. Thank you once again, and very best wishes for the future."
Peter's parents, Boyes Turner clients

"Thank you so, so, soooo much for everything you have done. As you can imagine we are all so relieved and overjoyed that Mel is to go to the right school, a wonderful school, where we know she will be so happy. Mel herself is overjoyed and after cheering and whooping said to me "I need a hug" :-)  Happy Days. Thanks again, SO much.”
Mel's family, Boyes Turner clients

 “Seeing Dylan off the school bus on a Friday as I do, looking so happy after his day at [the school], still fills me with pleasure and gratitude to you.” 
Dylan's mother, Boyes Turner client

“I have not cried for a long time now but I am crying now… It really has been the most horrendous journey we have ever been on. We could not have done this without you all, we really couldn’t. Toby will finally be in an environment where he will get the right help and most importantly be himself. He has been attending the High School transition classes for children with Speech, Language and Communication Needs these last 4 weeks and he really did not want to go but when he came out of the first class he said ‘I liked it, I could be myself’. Well, it broke my heart! As you all know we are/have been so very proud of him. It takes a lot of courage to leave your home and family and live in a school 5 days a week. He has been so strong and mature about it all. He knows deep down it is right. To think in October last year I first read about MH School and thought, a) it’s residential, don’t want that and  b) he’s not that bad/severe – and yet here we are 7 months later…what a turnaround!!! We just don’t understand how the people who are responsible for recognising a special educational need are also the people who pay and provide it!! A big conflict of interest! We want to thank you all, Laxmi, you’ve been a star! God Bless."
Toby's mother, Boyes Turner client

"The time had come to begin looking into special schools for Lottie, my 11 year old granddaughter, and her parents had a list of schools to visit. This was soon short-listed to one, AH School, a non-maintained school, just outside the borough in which Lottie lives. Nobody in the LA had explained that this exercise would be a waste of time, that the LA would in fact choose the school that they deemed to be ‘right’ for Lottie, that her parents would effectively have no choice and no say. I visited AH School with Lottie’s parents and, like them, I instinctively knew that this school would give her the best chance of an education, where she would be safe, where she would be cherished. So, of course, we named this school when making the relevant application to the LA. We were aware that it would cost the LA more to send her to AH rather than to the local special school, but naively thought that the LA would act in the Lottie’s best interests and not look at it in budgetary terms only.  It was, therefore, shocking to discover that the AH School would not even be considered by the LA based on an ‘inefficient use of resources’. Lottie’s parents had an initial meeting with the LA where they discussed their feelings, explaining carefully that they felt very strongly that Lottie would not progress at the LA-named school. They emphasised that, whilst the LA-named school was no doubt suitable for children with a certain type of special needs, it would not meet Lottie’s needs in any way. There was much discussion about Lottie; her needs were talked about and debated and we thought that the LA would take this information into account. But we were not listened to. The LA named school was where Lottie was going to the following term. And this is where the story really begins…our fight leading to the Tribunal. Having established that there was absolutely no chance of persuading the LA to reconsider their decision, we decided that Tribunal was the only way forward. This exercise is something that I do not consider a parent can do ‘on their own’ – it is extremely complicated and, importantly, it has to be dealt with as unemotionally as possible, very difficult for a family to do. The first task was to find the right education solicitor…one of the things to look out for is good communication – you want your solicitor to listen to you, to respond, to be clear about deadlines, you want them to feel they care and they are doing all they possibly can. I think it’s important that you can meet your solicitor, look them in the eye. In our case, several meetings were had, trust was built up and we began to realise how much we needed you. The day of the Tribunal was stressful. We were never told we would win; you gave us your views. We knew it would depend on the day – on how the Tribunal panel would react to our professional witnesses. The Panel were very fair, Lottie’s parents were listened to, as were our professional witnesses, and we felt we had a fair hearing. Laxmi was superb, she pulled out all the stops. We won the day, Lottie now attends AH School and is settling in well. A recent visit to the school told Lottie’s mother all she needed to know. Lottie was happy, she was accepted, and she was proud to be in her class. Thank you Laxmi – we couldn’t have done it without you.” God Bless. 
Lottie's grandmother, Boyes Turner client

“At my first meeting with Laxmi and the team I was quite upset. I burst into tears as I told them about Stephen and the problems we were facing with his school.  From the minute I met them I knew that I could trust them. For the first time, I was able to hand over the worry and the donkey work, knowing that although I was still involved, it was being handled.  I had been doing my best but I needed guidance. Having Laxmi take over the process allowed me space to breathe. I believed they could deal with it and that made all the difference in the world.”
Stephen’s mother, Boyes Turner client

"I just wanted to thank you not only for your professionalism but also for your compassion and support for Anja and Tom's situation. You have had a profound impact for Anja, giving hope where there was none. I am sure you will say you are just doing your job but the unexpected humanity you have displayed that is not normally received from lawyers has been very gratefully received." 

Marcus, Boyes Turner client