What is Occupational Therapy?
You’re being asked to do more for children with additional needs than ever — often by parents who expect bespoke, evidence-based support delivered to a high standard. We work alongside your team so that the help a child receives in school is joined-up, evidence-based and sustainable.
Why independent schools work with us
Independent schools occupy a particular place in the SEND landscape. You may be supporting children with EHCPs, children whose parents have privately commissioned assessments, and children whose needs are emerging and not yet formally identified. You’re balancing high parental expectations with finite teaching capacity, and your therapeutic provision needs to be high-quality, defensible, and demonstrably making a difference.
Whole Child Therapy partners with independent schools across the UK to provide that provision — direct therapy, staff training, strategic SEND consultation, and full EHCP support — under flexible arrangements that fit your school’s commercial model rather than ours.
Consistency is our differentiator
We retain our staff, and we invest in their continuing specialist training. Schools we work with see the same therapist’s week after week, term after term — therapists who know your environment, your team and your children. That consistency is what makes therapeutic work actually stick.
Our six core services for schools
Therapeutic Partnership Model
A fully integrated approach to therapy provision. Our specialist team — occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, play therapists — works directly within your school, building lasting relationships with children, staff and families.
Therapeutic Partnership combines direct therapy with collaboration on whole-school strategy, so that recommendations are not stuck in clinic but embedded into classroom practice.
We offer two flexible funding models, and your school can choose the one that fits your community best:
- School-led: your school contracts WCT directly and sets the parent fee, giving you full control over pricing and any subsidy or bursary.
- Parent-led: WCT contracts directly with parents, and your school takes an agreed percentage in recognition of the space, coordination and pastoral support you provide.
The two models can run alongside each other.
Direct Training
Tailored, evidence-based training and supervision for all school staff, from teaching assistants to senior leaders. Our programmes build confidence in managing complex needs, give staff practical strategies they can use the next day, and embed a whole-school approach to wellbeing and inclusion.
Topics include sensory integration, communication development, neuroaffirming practice, trauma-informed practice, whole-school mental health and using movement to develop cognition. We also build bespoke training packages for individual schools.
Schools Improvement Partner
Long-term, hands-on support for therapeutic and SEND provision. We work alongside your senior leadership team to drive sustained improvement, mentor SENCOs and department heads, and ensure excellence in how therapy is delivered across your school.
This is not consultancy at arm’s length. We’re in the building, in meetings, in classrooms.
SEND Audit
An objective, structured review of your existing SEND policies, practices and impact. The audit covers identification, assessment, intervention, parental engagement, EHCP delivery and staff development — and produces a written strategic report with prioritised, practical recommendations you can take to your governors or senior leadership team.
EHCP Assessment & Delivery
Thorough EHCP provision from initial assessment through to Annual Review. Reports written to map directly onto Sections B (needs) and F (provision) of the EHCP, delivery of named provision, attendance at Annual Reviews, and Expert Witness support at SEND Tribunals where required.
Supporting Parents
All our training topics are also available to parents. We facilitate parent groups within partner schools — building community and shared understanding — and offer 1:1 parent coaching session for families navigating the SEND journey.
When the adults around a child are supported, the child does better.
Standards we work to
Our occupational therapists and speech and language therapists are registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Our work is structured around the SEND Code of Practice (2015) — assess, plan, do, review — and aligned with current NICE guidance on autism and ADHD. Our therapy is evidence-based, child-led and trauma-informed.
How to start
Book a free initial needs assessment meeting with one of our Clinical Directors. We’ll talk through your school’s or trust’s specific situation, the children you’re supporting, and the routes to commissioning that are realistic for you.