SEN Help is committed to operating transparently and in full compliance with UK law. This page explains how we meet our regulatory obligations and the standards we hold ourselves and our listed professionals to.
Data Protection (UK GDPR)
SEN Help is operated by SEN Help Network Ltd (company number 17277924) and processes personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. We are the Data Controller for the personal data collected through sen.help, and we are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, under registration number ZC181865.
Our lawful bases for processing are consent, including explicit consent for the special category data the quiz and Get Matched can reveal; contract, for professional subscriptions and digital product purchases; legitimate interests, for fraud prevention and platform quality control; and safeguarding grounds, including the safeguarding condition for special category data, where a child or adult is at risk. The full table is in our Privacy Policy.
We apply the principle of data minimisation throughout our platform. We do not ask for your child’s name, diagnosis, medical records, or school name, and we keep free text short (200 characters on the Get Matched form). Using the quiz or Get Matched service can still reveal that a child has, or may have, special educational needs or a disability, which is special category data under UK GDPR Article 9. We process that only with the parent’s explicit consent, given on the form, and only to provide the service.
We share data only with the processors described in our Privacy Policy (including Stripe, FluentCRM, Google, and Discord). For full details on how we handle your data, and your rights, see our Privacy Policy.
If you believe we are not handling your data correctly, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113.
Professional Verification Standards
Before any professional’s profile is published on SEN Help, they must pass manual credential verification. Our verification process includes:
- HCPC Registration Check: Educational Psychologists, speech and language therapists, and occupational therapists are verified against the Health and Care Professions Council register at hcpc-uk.org/check-the-register
- SRA Registration Check: Solicitors and legal professionals are verified against the Solicitors Regulation Authority register at sra.org.uk/consumers/register
- Legal Declaration: Every professional must declare that they hold valid Professional Indemnity Insurance and a current DBS check at the highest level their role is eligible for (an Enhanced DBS check for any role involving contact with children). This declaration is timestamped and stored for audit purposes.
- Terms of Service Agreement: Every professional agrees to our professional standards before their profile is published.
We do not verify the accuracy of self-reported information such as years of experience, specialisations, or biographical text. We recommend parents request evidence of relevant experience directly from any professional they are considering instructing.
Quality Control
SEN Help operates a zero-tolerance policy for professional misconduct on the platform. If we receive, or ourselves discover, credible evidence that a listed professional has:
- Misrepresented their qualifications or registration status
- Failed to respond to client enquiries routed through SEN Help
- Shown serious professional failings on work obtained through SEN Help, including conduct their regulator would treat as serious misconduct
- Behaved in a way that brings the platform into disrepute
We will suspend their profile straight away while we review the evidence, tell them what is alleged, and give them at least 5 working days to respond before we decide. Where the evidence stands, we will remove their profile, cancel their subscription, and ban them from the platform. Where a child or vulnerable adult may be at risk, or a regulator or the law requires it, we may remove the profile first and consider their response afterwards. We are not a regulatory body and do not investigate complaints in the way that the HCPC or SRA would, but we take the trust of the families using our platform seriously.
If you have a concern about a professional listed on SEN Help, email hello@sen.help with details and we will review it within 5 business days.
Payment Processing
All payments on SEN Help are processed by Stripe, a PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment processor. We do not store credit card numbers, CVVs, or banking details on our servers. All payment data is handled directly by Stripe’s secure infrastructure.
For more information on Stripe’s security practices: stripe.com/docs/security
Cookies and Tracking
SEN Help uses essential cookies, and Google Analytics 4 which loads only after you accept analytics cookies. We do not use advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, or any form of cross-site tracking. For full details, see our Privacy Policy.
Accessibility
We aim to make sen.help accessible to all users in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. This includes:
- Sufficient colour contrast across all pages
- Keyboard navigability for all interactive elements
- Screen reader compatibility
- Minimum touch target sizes of 44x44px on mobile devices
- Clear, readable fonts at appropriate sizes
If you experience any accessibility issues on our site, please contact hello@sen.help and we will address them promptly.
Safeguarding
SEN Help is designed for use by parents, guardians, and professionals. We do not collect data directly from children, and we do not communicate directly with any person under 18. The service can still process information that, by inference, concerns a child, and we handle that under UK GDPR Article 9 with the parent’s explicit consent. Our safeguarding scope covers under-18s reached through the service or through a listed professional.
As a condition of listing, all professionals must evidence a current DBS check at the highest level their role is eligible for; for any role involving contact with children that means an Enhanced DBS check. If you have a safeguarding concern about any professional listed on SEN Help, contact our Designated Safeguarding Lead at safeguarding@sen.help immediately and we will escalate it to the appropriate statutory agency (Local Authority children’s services or the police) and, where relevant, to the professional’s regulator. In an emergency where a child is at immediate risk, call 999.
Contact
For any compliance-related questions: hello@sen.help