About us
Sixteen years of
one idea.
That the people closest to a problem should have what they need to decide well — and that the volume of material standing between them and a good decision is a solvable problem, not a permanent condition.
How we got here
Dated, from the record.
- 2010
Special Learning is founded to serve families navigating an autism diagnosis, and the professionals who work with them.
- 2019
SL Global Solutions is established as the parent of the group, and signs its first university partnership.
- 2026
ESBAP opens as an independent provider-transparency directory — 8,553 organisations, free for families to search.
- 2026
The group takes on its first information-intensive advisory matters, and builds the matter room the practice runs on.
- 2026
AI partners are named and given defined roles across research, analysis, writing and operations — working alongside our people, not behind them.
Where this is going
Our purpose is to make a positive and lasting impact on the lives of people — using AI as our partners, not just as tools, to do it.
That distinction is not decoration. A tool is picked up for a task and put down. A partner has a name, a defined role, and accountability for the part of the work it holds. Our AI partners draft, analyse, reconcile and check; our people decide, and put their names to the result. Where you are corresponding with an AI partner, it tells you so and offers you a person instead.
You can see how that is staffed on the AI partners page — each partner's role and the model configured behind it, as of today.
The group
SL Global is the parent of businesses that keep their own names and their own standards: Special Learning in education, ABA Business Growth in talent, ESBAP in provider data, AutismFLIX in media, the platform behind our programmes, our video production practice, and the investigations and disputes practice.
They are not one generic consultancy with seven brochures. What they share is the working method: subject-matter people, AI carrying the volume, and a source behind every claim.