Meet the team

Sarah

Managing Director & Founder

She feels passionately about families and young autistic people obtaining the support they are entitled to in order for them to lead their best lives, access their education in the right environment for the individual to be their authentic self. She has two children, one studied at university, the other is at a specialist school.

Sarah is a former councillor and cabinet member for Health & Wellbeing. She was a member of the Local Children Partnership Board, District Children's Advisory board and Kent Health & Wellbeing board and Budget Task force group. Safeguarding and leisure also fell under her remit.

Before having children, she worked in commercial finance.

Carla

Family Support Director

She has 3 children and has been on the SEN journey since 2012. Carla’s two boys have additional needs, both have EHCPs in place and both attend specialist provisions. Carla has experience with ASD, ADHD, speech and language, presentation of Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA) and Anxiety. Carla believes in moving forward positively and hopes that by keeping communication open, advocating for others and being compassionate that we will be able to make a difference for young people and their families.

Shauna

Operations & Marketing Director

Shauna has recently joined our team as a Director.

She has over 22 years’ experience in sales, marketing and administration in various fields.

Shauna is passionate about assisting and supporting families through the difficulties of navigating the various processes involved to ensure that their childrens needs are met and that they receive the best outcomes in all aspects of their journey.

She has experience with ADHD and speech delay and understands the difficulties in obtaining help, support and interventions from an early age so children can thrive and succeed.

Lisa

Appeals & Tribunals Assistant

Lisa has worked previously as a Lead Caseworker for the Medway SENDIAS service supporting families with all aspects of Tribunal appeals, EHCP applications, draft EHCPs being issued and supporting through the working EHCP document during Annual Review meetings and SEN support school meetings.

She also has experience in other roles such as being an Early Years Specialist Inclusion Worker, ADHD support worker, Higher Level Teaching Assistant at a specialist school and Deputy Manager and SENCO at a nursery.

Lisa is extremely passionate about supporting families and providing them with the correct legal information in relation to health and education to enable them to gain the most suitable support for their children and young people. 

She has a wonderful young child who is at the beginning of his own SEN journey and presents with SEN difficulties associated with possible Autism and Sensory Processing Disorder. He certainly keeps her busy but is an absolute trooper with navigating his needs and difficulties. 

Lorraine

Admin Assistant

Lorraine has previously worked in customer service and admin for 27 years and is looking forward to transferring her skills into her new position at The Autism Apprentice.

Lorraine has autistic grandchildren and feels very passionately about supporting families and making them feel less isolated whilst navigating family life, health services and education. 

Grace

Appeals & Tribunal Assistant

Grace is a law graduate who is now studying for a master’s degree in Mental Health Law.

She believes every young person should be given the opportunity to reach their full potential and get the most out of life, being properly supported to achieve this in a way that is right for them so they will have the opportunity to experience and enjoy education in a way that is best suited to them.

As a mum of an autistic daughter, she understands the difficulties that come with accessing support and is extremely passionate about supporting other families to obtain the support they are legally entitled to.

Grace previously volunteered as a legal caseworker for a charity and worked as a Police Community Support Officer.

Phoebe

Social Media Assistant

Pheobe is currently studying for her A Levels and supports The Autism Apprentice with social media content. As someone with two autistic brothers, she is deeply passionate about raising awareness and supporting the autistic community. She also believes very strongly in fairness, respect, and inclusion for everyone.