Bonita’s Story
Lisa started working with Bonita in June 2025, she was referred into our Personal Development Service by Suffolk County Council because her and her Mum needed some support navigating the provision that was being offered to Bonita via her EHCP.
Bonita has Potts and Chronic fatigue, which is why she has an EHCP, these conditions mean that Bonita struggles to access mainstream education, as she has frequent periods of fatigue that are totally debilitating.
Her mum had been battling to get the right provision in place for Bonita, which had resulted in Bonita not being in education for around two years before we started working with her. Various provisions had been offered to Bonita by the time we started working with her, however, none of these provisions were right for Bonita.
Together with Bonita and her Mum, we explored some online GCSE options and found Maths and Psychology IGCSE’s that we felt could be funded through her EHCP. Lisa then sent this information to the EHCP contact who we were liasing with, who subsequently agreed to explore this option further. The EHCP team finally agreed that these courses were a viable option to be paid for using the personal budget attached to Bonita’s EHCP.
The personal budget funds have since been released to Bonita’s Mum who has subsequently purchased the courses for Bonita.
Both Bonita and her Mum expressed their gratitude to Lisa for her help and support with securing the right provision for Bonita.
Bonita has now started her Maths GCSE and plans on starting her Psychology GCSE within the next couple of weeks.