SENDcast Spotlight - Welcome Samantha Ryan

Our new special guest, Samantha Ryan, joins Dale for her first episode at The SENDcast. Find out more about Samantha….

Samantha Ryan, SEN Parent and budding author

I am a neurodivergent mother, informal SEND advocate, and author of SEND Help! and A Parent’s Guide to SEND Life and Law (although my day job is Global Process Owner working in Finance process and systems for ITV).

My son is autistic, PDA and probable ADHD. He hit burnout at school in March 2024 and was left with trauma after being restrained during a mental health crisis. He has been out of education since that fateful day. I have been fighting for support and continue to battle through the SEND support system.

I spent a year as co-admin helping to grow the Facebook group SEN Parent Support Group which was setup by Andrea Dixon-Boldy in February 2024 and was at 19,000 members by the time I left the group in May this year. Over that time, I did my IPSEA SEN law training for parents, created hundreds of resources breaking down SEN processes, designed and delivered training to hundreds of parents and offered parent-to-parent support alongside our amazing team of volunteers.

I am passionate about empowering families with the knowledge they deserve before they reach crisis point.