How to verify a special educator's qualifications and references before they meet your child

A scanned certificate proves that a document exists. It does not prove that the institution issued it, that the course was what the title suggests, or that the person in front of you is the person named. Confirm the qualification with the college or training body that awarded it, by email or phone, using contact details you found yourself rather than ones the candidate supplied.

Ask what the course covered. Some special-education qualifications are broad; some are specific to a single need. A qualification in one area does not transfer automatically to another, and a candidate with autism experience is not, by that fact, ready for a child with dyslexia.

Check that the name on the qualification, the identity document and the bank account match. Walk through the employment history in order and ask about every gap. Contact previous employers, including schools and therapy centres, rather than relying on a letter. A candidate who left a school mid-year has a reason, and the reason matters.

At least two, by phone or video, and at least one a parent of a child the candidate supported for a full academic year. Ask what the child was like at the start and at the end. Ask what the candidate got wrong and how they handled it. Ask whether the referee would hire them again for a different child. Keep notes.

A reference that is only a WhatsApp message saying 'very good with kids' is not a reference. A referee who cannot describe a single strategy the candidate used has not seen them work.

Before anyone is placed alone with a child, they should sit a structured safeguarding interview: what they would do if they were worried about something in the home, how they handle physical closeness, what they think about photographing a child, what they would do if another adult in the home asked them to discipline the child in a way they were uncomfortable with. Listen for a reporting route and a boundary, not a reassurance.

Ask directly whether they have ever had a concern about a child's safety, and what they did. A candidate who has never seen anything worrying in years of work is either very new or not being straight.

Describe your child's hardest hour and ask what the candidate would do. Then ask what they would do if that did not work. Then ask what they would say to you afterwards. Good answers are calm, sequenced, specific to the need, and end with telling the family and the therapist what happened. Vague answers about patience and love are not answers.

Where the role involves carrying a therapist's plan, ask the candidate to explain a plan they have worked to before and how they recorded what happened. Where it involves a classroom, ask how they would sit beside a child without the rest of the class noticing.

Every candidate a family sees from us has been through each of these steps, and the file shows the trail: who was contacted, when, and what they said. Each candidate is scored across weighted categories, including experience with the specific need, qualifications, safeguarding knowledge, communication in the family's languages, reliability and references, and a family sees the score and the reasoning rather than just a name. A high score in one category never rescues a low one in safeguarding.

Families are welcome to see the reference notes, with the referee's consent, and to repeat any check themselves. The point of a verification trail is that it can be followed.