Expert support for you, your neurodivergent child — and the whole family
A membership for parents of neurodivergent young people. Former head teachers, senior SENCOs and specialists — all of them neurodivergent themselves — who will explain what's happening, tell you whether your child's support is good enough, and negotiate on your behalf when it isn't.
Book a free 30-minute call
Which of these sounds like you?
School attendance has become a struggle
Mornings have become a battle just to get your child into school. Perhaps they haven't attended for weeks, months or even years — and you've run out of ideas. We'll help you understand what's getting in the way and build a realistic plan forward. Start here.
We've just had a diagnosis. What happens now?
A diagnosis can bring answers, but it often brings a whole new set of questions too. We'll help you understand what it means for your child, decide what to do next and find the right support for your whole family. Start here.
The support my child is getting doesn't feel right
You know your child best. If their needs aren't being met — or you feel that nobody is listening — we'll help you understand what good support should look like and work with you to secure the right help. Start here.
How the ThriveND method works
1. We talk
Start with a free 30-minute conversation with Jessie. You'll tell her about your child — their strengths, challenges and special interests — as well as their experience of education, whether they are attending school, struggling to attend or learning outside school. We'll also talk about friendships, family life and anything else affecting your child.
2. You receive a personalised plan
If you decide to become a member, Jessie will create a plan tailored to your child and your family's circumstances. It will bring together everything discussed during your call and set out clear priorities and practical next steps, so you know what to focus on now and what to do next.
3. We're with you all the way
You'll have access to our Ask Jessie email helpline for urgent concerns and everyday questions, as well as support from our team of experienced specialists. We'll review your plan with you regularly, track progress and adapt it as things change — so your family never has to navigate the journey alone.
Why our approach works
Your specialist's advice was absolutely bang on — realistic, practical, and delivered with real empathy. Hannah even drafted a letter for us to send to school, which made a huge difference. We came away not just feeling understood, but with a clear plan.
— Clare, York
ThriveND was started by Jessie Hewitson. Jessie writes the SEND agony aunt column for The Times and The Sunday Times, and she wrote the best-selling Autism: How to Raise a Happy Autistic Child and ADHD: How to Raise a Happy ADHD Child. She was diagnosed autistic in later life and has dedicated the past decade of her career to increasing understanding and making the world a happier and kinder place for neurodivergent people.
The specialists she works with are senior neurodivergent people in education. Former head teachers, SENCOs with decades in the system and who sit on SEND Panels. People who know exactly what needs to be said, and what will move things along.
They are also, every one of them, neurodivergent. They have been the child in the school struggling as well as the adult negotiating on behalf of their family.
What it costs, honestly
£14.95/month
A 30-minute call with Jessie
Getting started — £14.95 a month. A thirty-minute call with me, a plan written down afterwards, a fifteen-minute check-in every three months, and access to our specialists at member rates.
£50/month
You can use the Ask Jessie email address whenever you need
In the thick of it — £50 a month. Everything above, but your check-in becomes a full forty-five minutes, and you can email me whenever you need to. We'll read your documents — draft Education, Health and Care Plans, reports, the email from the head — and tell you what they mean and what to say back.
Both cancel any time.
If your plan needs a specialist, you pay them separately, at member rates. Part of my job is telling you honestly whether you need one yet. Sometimes the answer is not yet. See exactly what you get for your money.
Why Jessie started ThriveND…
Parents started finding her. Every week someone would write or ring, usually at the end of their tether. She helped as much as she could, but it became clear they needed more than a reply could carry.
It was also clear that nobody was coordinating the support and care. School, home, sleep, the health appointments, the paperwork — so the parent ends up doing that job too, on top of everything else, with no training and not much sleep.
That's what ThriveND is for.
Jessie didn't do it on her own. Alex Ardizzone is our director of operations. She ran projects in companies a great deal bigger than this one, which is why nothing and nobody gets dropped. Alex and Jessie have been best friends since childhood (pictured together as children) and are both parents of fantastic neurodivergent young people.
Behind them is a crack squad of specialists: former head teachers, senior SENCOs, talented mentors. Neurodivergent people who work with neurodivergent young people every day and passionately care about getting their support right.
Come with your problems, leave with a plan.
Book a free 30-minute callLet's Keep in Touch
Have a question, or just want to get in touch? Fill in the form below and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
My child isn't going to school
It rarely starts as refusal. It starts as a stomach ache. A child who can't get out of the car. A morning that takes two hours and ends with everyone in tears. Then a day off. Then a week. Then the letters arrive, and suddenly you are the problem.
You are not the problem. And your child is certainly not the problem — they are telling you that things have got too difficult for them, and their nervous system can't take it any more.
It affects the whole family
It doesn't only affect your child. Mornings set the tone for the whole day. You're juggling work, messages from school, and brothers or sisters who are getting less of you than they need. Arguments start over things that never used to matter. You stop making plans, because you can't predict what tomorrow will look like.
Somewhere along the way, you lose your bearings. You've tried everything you can think of and taken advice from everyone who offered it. Now you're no longer sure what's helping and what's making things worse. It doesn't happen all at once. It creeps up a little more each week, until the whole family feels caught in it.
That's where we start. Not with a quick fix, but with a plan that takes the pressure off and breaks the cycle. Then we help you rebuild, one step at a time: your child's relationship with learning, your routines at home, and your own confidence that you know what to do next.
What happens in your first fortnight
- We talk. We'll look at the details: what has gone wrong, the sensory environment, what the school is doing, which teachers your child feels safe with, whether demand avoidance is part of the picture.
- You get a plan. What to say to the school and in what order. What to put in writing. What you are entitled to ask for. And, just as importantly, what to stop doing.
- I bring in whoever it needs. A former head teacher who can negotiate directly with the school on your behalf. A senior SENCO who can draft the letter for you, and tell you exactly what to say at your next school meeting. You'll know what it costs before anything happens.
Being honest about this…
When a child reaches the point where they can't go in, they are very often in burnout. Recovery from that takes time, and anyone promising you a quick fix is selling something.
What we can do is support the whole family through it: help your child back into learning in a way and at a time that's right for them, and help you manage the considerable stress that lands on everyone at home.
Get in contact
In this situation the £50 membership is usually the right one, because the email support is more intensive. You can step down to £14.95 when things feel more manageable.
Book a free 30-minute callWireframe note: every "Book a free 30-minute call" button opens the booking page. In the build it points to ThriveND's Calendly link, which is still to come from Alex. The three "cross-links" to the other audience pages (Right support, New diagnosis) are not in the mockup; I'd add a short line under the button so this page doesn't dead-end.
Is my child getting the right support?
There's a vague plan. There's "support in place". There may even be an Education, Health and Care Plan that took you a year and most of your energy to get. Everyone keeps telling you it's fine.
You're not sure it's fine. You can't say exactly why. And every time you raise it, you're made to feel like the difficult parent.
What a review looks like
You send us what you have. The EHCP, the reports, the emails, the notes from the last annual review. (If you don't have an EHCP, that's worth talking about too.)
Jessie reads it properly — and where it needs a specialist eye, she brings in a former head teacher or a senior SENCO who has written and delivered hundreds of them. If it needs taking up with the school, they can do that directly, or draft the letter and tell you what to say.
You get a straight answer. What's solid, what's vague, what's missing, and what's worth challenging. Plus what to say, to whom, and in what order.
Support should grow with your child
A plan describes your child as they were when it was written. But children change. They move up a year or change school. They make friends or lose them. Some things get easier and others get harder than anyone expected. A plan that fitted well two years ago can quietly stop fitting, and often no one notices until things start to slip.
So it's worth coming back to it and asking: Is it still aiming at the right things? Is what's written down actually happening? Does it describe who your child is now?
If your child has an EHCP, it must be reviewed at least once a year, and you can ask for an earlier review if things change. We can help you get ready for that review, so you go in knowing what to ask for. If there's no EHCP, the same questions apply to whatever support is in place.
And if it turns out to be fine?
Then Jessie will tell you it's fine, and you can stop lying awake about it.
The £50 membership suits this best — it's mostly documents and questions, and those are handled well over a few weeks by email. If you'd rather start smaller, £14.95 gets you the call and a plan, and you can move up any time.
"Your specialist's advice was absolutely bang on — realistic, practical, and delivered with real empathy. We left the call with concrete next steps and a way forward that finally felt manageable."
— Eddie and Claire, Lancashire
Wireframe note: testimonial is now live, cleared by Alex. I've swapped "the NeuroUniverse expert" for "your specialist" since the quote can't reference the old company name. Byline is my best reading of "Eddie and Claire's testimonial is cleared" as one joint quote — flag it if that's wrong, or if you'd rather quote Eddie's original wording exactly.
Wireframe note: photo to be chosen from Jessie's gallery unless Alex has one in mind.
Your child has a diagnosis, now what?
Most people expect to feel one thing and find they're feeling several. Relief that there's an explanation. Something heavier underneath it that they feel guilty about. And running through both, a low hum of what now.
A starting point, not a finish line
That relief is real, and it matters. After months or years of wondering, being told to wait, or being told it's nothing, you finally have an answer, and something to work with.
But a diagnosis is the start, not the end. It tells you what, but it doesn't tell you what to do on Monday morning, what to ask the school, or what your child needs from you now.
That's where we come in. We help you make sense of what the diagnosis means for your child. Then we build a plan around what works for them, for you and for the rest of the family. The aim is simple: a happy neurodivergent child, and a family that feels on top of things again.
What happens in your first fortnight with us
A call. What this actually means for your child, in your house, at your school.
A plan. The three things worth doing this term, and the action points that can wait until next year.
The right information. And permission to ignore the rest of it.
If you'd like to read around it, Jessie's books, Autism: How to Raise a Happy Autistic Child and ADHD: How to Raise a Happy ADHD Child, are a good place to start, and you don't need to be a member to read them. What a book can't do is know your child, your school, or the particular person in your local authority who decides things. That's what the membership is for.
Get the ball rolling…
Book a free 30-minute callWireframe note: this short books paragraph replaces the longer "About my books" section, as Alex marked in the mockup.
How membership works
Every membership starts the same way: a free thirty-minute call with Jessie, and a plan written down afterwards. What differs is how much of Jessie's time you need after that.
Getting started — £14.95 a month
For when you need to know what you're doing, and then you'll get on with it.
- A thirty-minute kickoff call with Jessie
- A written plan: what to do, in what order, what to ask for
- A fifteen-minute check-in every three months
- Access to our specialists at member rates
- Cancel any time
- To get started either book a call or click here
In the thick of it — £50 a month
For when something is live and it keeps throwing things at you.
Everything in Getting started, plus:
- A forty-five-minute session with Jessie every three months, rather than the fifteen-minute check-in
- Email Jessie whenever you need to through our Ask Jessie email service — answered within 24 hours on weekdays
- Cancel any time
- To get started either book a call or click here
Wireframe note: both "click here" links are now wired to the live Stripe payment links Alex sent (£14.95 and £50). Please test each opens the right checkout page, but don't complete a payment. The highlight on the Ask Jessie line is Alex's from the mockup.
Who you'll be working with
Former head teachers. Senior SENCOs. People who work with neurodivergent young people every day. All of them experienced, and all of them neurodivergent themselves.
Between them they cover Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), school and social care; school difficulties, emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) and home education; demand avoidance (PDA); sensory differences and emotional regulation; burnout and emotional wellbeing; parenting support and family coaching; mentoring for young people; and eating, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) and nutrition.
Specialists are paid separately, at member rates, and only if you need them. Working out whether you do is part of Jessie's role — and sometimes the answer is not yet.
Questions people ask
Can I switch between the memberships? Any month, in either direction. Most people move up when something kicks off and back down when it settles.
I don't know which one I need. Start with the free call and Jessie will tell you honestly.
Is there a contract? No. Cancel whenever you like.
What if things are urgent? Say so when you book and Jessie will get you in as soon as she can.
Start with a call.
Book a free 30-minute callWho we are
ThriveND helps neurodivergent children thrive, at home and at school. We work with families who need clear, honest advice and a plan they can act on, and with schools that want to get inclusion right.
What we believe
Neurodivergence is a difference, not a disorder. A child who is struggling is usually telling you that something around them isn't working, not that something is wrong with them.
So we start with your child's happiness, look at the whole family, and give you straight answers, including when things are fine and when there's no quick fix.
The people behind ThriveND
CO-FOUNDER
Jessie Hewitson
Jessie is the SEND agony aunt for The Times and the author of Autism: How to Raise a Happy Autistic Child and ADHD: How to Raise a Happy ADHD Child. She leads ThriveND's work with families: the first call, the plan, and deciding which specialist, if any, a family needs. [Bio to be confirmed by Jessie.]
CO-FOUNDER
Alex Ardizzone
Alex leads ThriveND's operations, project delivery and strategy. She has more than 20 years' experience leading strategy and change programmes, including delivering projects alongside consulting firms, and founded the advisory practice Savvy Accounting in 2016. She oversees how ThriveND runs, from bookings to school projects.
Our specialist team
Behind Jessie is a team of specialists: former head teachers, senior SENCOs, and people who work with neurodivergent young people every day. [All of them experienced, and all of them neurodivergent themselves–confirm this is true for the whole ThriveND team.]
Between them they cover:
- EHCPs, school and social care
- School difficulties and EBSA
- Home education
- Demand avoidance (PDA)
- Sensory differences and emotional regulation
- Burnout and emotional wellbeing
- Parenting support and family coaching
- Mentoring for young people
- Eating, ARFID and nutrition
You don't need to work out who you need. Jessie will introduce you to the right person, and only if you need them.
Working with schools
We also help schools review, shape and deliver their inclusion strategy, and measure whether it is making a difference for pupils. Find out more about our work with schools.
Start with a conversation
Every family starts with a free 30-minute call with Jessie.
Book a free 30-minute callWireframe note: Alex's photo still needed. This page is not in the mockup menus; I've added it as "Who we are" in the main menu, so tell me if you'd rather it lived only in the footer. The schools page is reached from here (the "Find out more" link) and can also be shared as a direct link.
Inclusion strategy support for schools, trusts and local authorities
Turn your inclusion strategy into everyday practice
We work alongside school leaders to review what is in place, shape a strategy that fits your setting, train staff to deliver it, and measure whether it is making a difference for pupils.
Four stages, one joined-up approach
- 01ReviewUnderstand where you are now
- 02Co-createShape the strategy with your team
- 03EmbedTrain staff so it happens in every classroom
- 04MeasureTrack progress against what you set out to do
Led by Jessie Hewitson
A trusted voice on autism, ADHD and SEND
Jessie is the SEND agony aunt for The Times and the author of two books for families of neurodivergent children. For more than a decade she has interviewed researchers, clinicians, teachers, parents and neurodivergent people about what helps children thrive at school and at home.
[One or two sentences, in Jessie's words, on why she is bringing this to schools.]
Who we work with
Support can be commissioned by an individual school or across a group of schools.
Schools
Headteachers, senior leaders and SENCOs who want an independent view of their provision and practical help putting their strategy into action.
Multi-academy trusts
Trust leaders looking for a consistent approach to inclusion across their schools, while respecting each school's context.
Local authorities and commissioners
Teams commissioning inclusion and SEND support for schools in their area, who need delivery they can track and report on.
How it works
A strategy on paper is only the start. We support you through each stage, or at the point where you need us most.
Review
We look at your current inclusion strategy and SEND provision: how it is organised, who delivers it, what training staff have had, and what it looks like in lessons. This includes conversations with leaders and your SENCO, and time observing in classrooms.
You receive: a written review with a prioritised action plan.
Co-create
We work with your leadership team and staff to develop or refine your strategy so it reflects your pupils, your staffing and your priorities. The strategy stays yours: we help you shape it, not hand you a template.
You receive: an agreed strategy and delivery plan your team owns.
Embed
We train staff to put the strategy into practice, through whole-staff sessions and more focused work with the teams and year groups that need it. [Add named training topics, e.g. classroom adjustments, visual supports, SEMH.]
You receive: a training programme matched to your plan.
Measure
We agree with you at the outset how progress will be judged, then return to review it. That gives leaders, governors and commissioners a clear picture of what has changed and what still needs attention.
You receive: a follow-up visit and a progress report against your strategy.
Where most schools start
Provision Review and Action Plan
A focused, independent review of your inclusion and SEND provision, ending in clear priorities you can act on. It is the foundation for any further work with us, and a useful piece of evidence in its own right.
[Price from £X / Request a quote]
Ask about a reviewWhat's included
- Pre-visit questionnaire and preparation
- Half-day fact-finding on site with senior leaders and your SENCO, mapping staff structure, training and experience
- A day of observation across classrooms and year groups
- A written review with a prioritised action plan
- A whole-staff twilight session feeding back the findings
- Coordination and liaison with your school throughout
Who you'll work with
[One or two sentences on the team's combined experience in schools and neurodiversity. Factual, verifiable claims only.]
Jessie Hewitson
Co-founder. SEND agony aunt for The Times and author of books on autism and ADHD. [Bio to be confirmed by Jessie]
Sara Donnelly
[Role and short bio, to be confirmed by Sara]
Alex Ardizzone
Co-founder, project delivery and strategy. Alex has more than 20 years' experience leading strategy and change programmes, including delivering projects alongside consulting firms. At EDF she led a large finance-function change programme, and as Managing Director of HybridHero she moved app development from an external supplier to an in-house team. She founded the advisory practice Savvy Accounting in 2016. She makes sure each engagement is planned, delivered on time and measured against what was agreed.
Talk to us about your school
Tell us a little about your setting and what you would like help with. We will arrange a call to talk it through, with no obligation.
Or email us at hello@thrivend.co.uk
Wireframe note: this page is built as a landing page, reached from Who we are and shareable as a direct link (planned address /schools), so it has its own menu and footer as in Alex's mockup. Still pending from the team: price line, training topics, Sara's bio and photo, Jessie's sentences, the dropdown options, and the registered office address. The enquiry form sends to hello@thrivend.co.uk once wired up.
Preview only. The live booking page and these questions sit in Calendly, not on the site. This shows Alex's draft as it will look to a parent, after they choose a date and time. The yellow "Suggested cut" tags mark the three questions I'd trim (child's first name, diagnosis, EHCP). Jessie is still reviewing the draft.
Jessie
Free 30-minute call
To help Jessie make the most of your call, please answer a few quick questions. Only share what you're comfortable with, and you can always tell Jessie more on the call.
1Phone number Optional
2Your child's first name OptionalSuggested cut
3Your child's age Required
4What would you most like help with? Required
- My child isn't going to school, or is struggling to go
- We've had a new diagnosis
- I'm not sure the support my child is getting is right
- Something else
5Does your child have a diagnosis? RequiredSuggested cut
- Autism
- ADHD
- Autism and ADHD
- Another diagnosis
- Being assessed or on a waiting list
- No diagnosis
- I'd rather discuss this on the call
6How is school at the moment? Required
- Attending full time
- Attending part time or on a reduced timetable
- Not currently attending
- Home educated
- Other
7Does your child have an EHCP? RequiredSuggested cut
- Yes
- Applied for, or in progress
- No
- Not sure
8In a few sentences, what's happening at the moment, and what would make this call useful for you? Optional
9How did you hear about us? Optional
10Privacy consent Required
- I've read the privacy notice and I'm happy for ThriveND to use these answers to prepare for my call.
Privacy notice
Wireframe note: the existing privacy page is swapped for Alex's new ThriveND version when she sends it. Same page address, so the footer links keep working. It should mention Calendly and the pre-call form.
Terms & cancellations
Wireframe note: swapped for Alex's new ThriveND terms when she sends them. The old NeuroUniverse version is saved before it is replaced.
Safeguarding
Wireframe note: linked in the schools footer in Alex's mockup. No content received yet, so ask whether this page is needed for launch.
Accessibility
Wireframe note: linked in the schools footer in Alex's mockup. No content received yet, so ask whether this page is needed for launch.