Sonay Ozkutayli

Director, Co-founder

Sonay is a respected SEND advocate, strategist, and systems reform practitioner working at the intersection of education, health, social care, and human rights. 
She is the co-founder and a director of The Neurodiversity Family Hub. 

As Director of Advocacy and Legal Services, her leadership has delivered a consistent record of successful outcomes for families, securing lawful educational provision and enforceable rights for children with SEND. Central to her approach is not only winning cases, but equipping families with the knowledge, confidence, and strategic tools to protect and uphold their children’s rights long after formal advocacy has concluded.

With a background in law, education, and advocacy, Sonay brings a rare combination of technical expertise, lived experience, and ethical leadership. Her work focuses on addressing structural failures within SEND provision, including unlawful decision-making, inaccessible processes, and systemic inequities that disproportionately affect Black children and other marginalised communities. 

She is widely recognised for her ability to translate complex statutory frameworks into practical, rights-based solutions while holding institutions to account with rigour and integrity.

Sonay’s practice is grounded in evidence, collaboration, and dignity. She works closely with families, professionals, local authorities, and policymakers to drive sustainable change, centring the voices of children and parents who are too often excluded from decision-making. Her advocacy is defined not by confrontation for its own sake, but by principled challenge, strategic clarity, and an unwavering commitment to outcomes that genuinely improve lives.

Through frontline casework, legal challenge, and systems level analysis, Sonay actively shapes national conversations on SEND reform, equity, and accountability, championing systems that are lawful, humane, and fit for purpose.

If you wish to get in touch with Sonay and the NDF Hub, you can reach her at [email protected]