Child & Educational Psychologist

Dr Lara Beaumont has carried out the EP assessment for our child with complex needs. Lara was able to engage with our son whose learning difficulties can make an accurate assessment tricky at a time when he was struggling. Lara has been thorough – reading through prior documents, liaising with schools and other professions in difficult circumstances. I felt that Lara was able to bring a depth of professional experience and personal compassion to the meetings with my son and us and to the reporting process. From that assessment, and follow ups, she compiled a detailed and accurate report covering strengths, needs and provisions required clearly. We were able to successfully update his EHCP and secure placement for post-16 education. We much appreciated Lara’s approach and highly recommend her education psychology services.

Whilst updating my granddaughter’s EHCP the occupational therapist involved suggested that we contact Dr. Lara Beaumont to carry out an educational psychology assessment and write a report for us. We are so glad that she did. From first contact, Lara responded quickly to any questions and an assessment date was booked. This went ahead exactly as planned. Lara liaised with all departments at my granddaughter’s school and carried out observations and assessments. My granddaughter commented on what a lovely lady she was and how they had got on well. I feel that by putting my granddaughter at ease Lara was able to get an accurate assessment of my granddaughter. Within a few days of the visit a draft educational psychology report was sent to me for my opinions. It was extremely thorough and contained a large amount of information and a detailed breakdown of my granddaughter’s strengths, needs and suggested provisions to help her in the future. Despite being quite technical in parts it was written in a way That allowed a lay-person such as myself to clearly understand the contents. This all occurred during the run up to allocating a secondary school placement for my granddaughter and I firmly believe that the contents of Lara’s report was instrumental in persuading the Local Authority to allocate the school that we had named as our first choice.

Lara recently completed an educational assessment for our son, Wilfred. He told us that ‘she really listened to me and I was able to tell her all about the things I find difficult at school and how I want things to be different. She was really easy to talk to’. As Wilfred’s parents, we were so impressed by how thorough Lara’s assessment was and the detailed report that followed. All her recommendations were clear and backed-up by evidence. Her report covered all our son’s needs in real depth, bringing together various other professional assessments as well as her own perspective and insight into Wilfred’s presentation, strengths, and difficulties. We were confident that she really understood Wilfred and what provision would be needed in order for him to thrive in education. She dealt responsively and compassionately with our family at a horribly stressful time, when we were facing the prospect of a tribunal and very worried about our son’s transition to high school. We’re certain that Lara’s report made a huge difference to the local authority’s decision to agree funding for a placement at a specialist independent school, which has meant that we avoided the tribunal and has also given us real hope for Wilfred’s future. We cannot express how grateful we are for her support, the quality of her work, her empathy, and her knowledge and skill. We have already recommended her to several parents we know who are facing similar challenges with their children’s education and will heartily recommend her again in the future.

‘Lara was introduced to us by a friend who had said that her EP assessment and report was very good and accurate. I have to say, we were not disappointed. From the first point of contact, Lara was professional but very easy to talk to. She was very understanding of our situation and what we were hoping for our son in the future. (We were looking for an updated EP assessment for post 16). She spent time with him in his FE setting and her report was detailed, highlighting all his needs and how the educational setting would need to meet these. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Lara’

“Lara has been a vital part of our journey, showing understanding, knowledge and compassion throughout. She has made us feel heard and validated and I can’t thank her enough. Her thorough report has made the world of difference to our situation.”

The prospect of facing a tribunal hearing for our son’s needs to be met has been overwhelming, Dr Lara Beaumont has a reassuringly high level of knowledge around the challenges we are facing, which really helped us plan a way forward. Lara was very engaging when she met with our son, enabling him to participate in assessments that had not previously been possible. She brought together information from her own assessments and from other professionals into one detailed report that makes it very clear what his needs are and what is required to meet those needs. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend her to anyone needing support to get their child’s needs met.