Tosha built SEND Sage from lived experience — from the inside of a fight that should never have been necessary, and from a determination that no other family should have to make that journey alone.
Like so many families, Tosha entered the SEND system full of love for her child and determination to get them the support they needed.
What she found was a process that was overwhelming, opaque, and exhausting. Meeting after meeting. Report after report. Decisions that didn't reflect her child's reality, and a system that too often expected families to simply accept them.
She didn't accept them.
After years of fighting — alone, without a guide, without a roadmap — she secured her child a place at an independent specialist school perfectly matched to their needs. A school that understood who her child was, not just what a report said about them.
Along the way, she also brought and won a case to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, receiving formal recognition and compensation for the systemic failures her family had faced. She did this without legal representation, without professional advocacy support, and without anyone to show her the way.
She built that knowledge herself — through necessity, through determination, and through a refusal to be fobbed off or dismissed.
That is exactly why SEND Sage exists. No family should have to navigate this alone. No parent should have to become an accidental expert in SEND law just to get their child what they are entitled to.
SEND Sage is the resource our founder wished had existed. It is built from everything she learned along the way — and from a deep commitment to making sure the next family has someone truly, fiercely in their corner.
"No parent should have to become an accidental expert in SEND law just to get their child what they are entitled to."
What sets SEND Sage apart begins with Tosha, its founder — because she has not just experienced the SEND system as a parent. She has studied it, worked inside it, and fought it.
As an NHS Health Trainer, Tosha developed deep expertise providing both 1:1 and group support for vulnerable individuals and communities navigating complex health and wellbeing challenges. She has worked directly as part of a SEND team in mainstream education, giving her rare first-hand insight into how schools operate and where the gaps between policy and practice fall. She is a qualified ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant), and holds a Public Health Diploma and a qualification in Understanding Children and Young People's Mental Health.
She has lived what so many families face — the late nights, the battles, the moments of being dismissed, and the long road to being heard. She knows what it feels like to sit in a room full of professionals and feel completely alone. She knows the particular exhaustion of loving your child fiercely and watching a system fail them anyway.
Tosha turned that experience into action — securing an independent specialist school placement and winning a formal Ombudsman case, both without professional support. SEND Sage also draws on a specialist neuroscientist — a family member — who can interpret complex EP reports for families. She has completed IPSEA SEND Legal Training Level 1 and is continuing through Levels 2 and 3, building formal legal expertise in SEND rights, EHCPs, and the tribunal process. Her own daughter — an autistic young woman now thriving at one of the country's only specialist secondary schools for autistic girls — is the reason SEND Sage exists. Tosha would never want another family to go through what hers did. SEND Sage is her commitment to making sure they don't have to.
Whether you're just starting out or deep in a battle — we're here and we understand.
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