Services and Costs

Each Tugboat plan will be individualised and determined in conversation with you. We charge an hourly rate, and your plan will determine how many Tugboat hours you need. To help you determine how much help you need and want, we have offer three types of support. It’s likely that your Tugboat plan will be a pick and mix of all three levels.

Steer and Assist

At this level, we will write letters for you, make phone calls where appropriate, and we can attend meetings with you as an advocate. Our ethos is to do this WITH you, to support you to become increasingly confident, and we will follow your lead if you choose to take some tasks on yourself.

We will help you organise your child’s paperwork and we can take you through forms such as disability benefits (DLA, PiP), EHCP requests, drafts and reviews, social care assessments and health communications.

We will undertake research relevant to your family and needs, such as finding innovative and local solutions to the issues we identify together. For example, we might aim to find a way for your child to socialise and make friends.

We are always here for a chat, to listen and offer options for you and your self care.

Coaching

We aim to help families build the skills they need to understand and navigate disability services. At the support level, you may choose to have a regular session with us to check letters you have written, discuss next steps or consider how best to tackle a meeting or professional relationship.

As with the Steer & Assist level, Tugboat is also available to listen when things feel especially difficult for you or your child.

Support

After the initial consultation, you may feel ready to fly and tackle the tasks we’ve identified on your own. Tugboat is always there when you need, but the support is likely to be less regular.

Costs

Tugboat charges £50 per hour.

Your Tugboat proposal will include a summary report and a proposal of next steps. After this, we will discuss how you would like to proceed, based on the services described above. This will create your Tugboat plan including the length of time we expect to work together. An example plan might look like this:

Plan timing:		4 weeks
Task	Tugboat level	Tugboat hours
Contact XXX	support	0
Write to Y school	steer & assist	1
Write to doctor	coaching	0.5
Contact ZZ	coaching	0.5
Review EHCP	steer & assist	2
Apply for Pip	steer & assist	4
Total		8

We will then discuss the best payment plan for you.