The Origins of ‘The Complete Education Solution’ (TCES): A reflection on 25 Years of transforming lives through zero-exclusions
Thomas Keaney founded TCES in his words, ‘by happy accident’. Following some time working in New York as a social worker, he had returned to London, taking up a role supporting one young person with significant learning challenges. This was a temporary position because Thomas was determined to form his own business, continuing his family entrepreneurial legacy. The question was, just what might that business be?
As it transpired, the answer was right in front of him.
Deeply unhappy with the company who were supporting the young person he was caring for and taken aback by their lack of ethics and concern, Thomas established a new Companies House trading name; Transitional Care Ltd aka TCES. He then approached the Social Worker with his bona fides in place and began working directly with this young person, who became the first TCES placement.
Instead of being formed on the back of market analysis or strategic planning, or by private equity investment, TCES was created from deep personal ethics and strong moral values, and nothing has changed a quarter-century later. In the face of increasingly complex children, TCES still place the child at the centre of what they do. This has been Thomas’ drive since inception and will always be central to TCES’ approach.
This 5th November marks 25 years’ of TCES and our CEO, Thomas Keaney has been reflecting on his journey to date and why he remains so passionately committed to supporting young children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability.
“What began as a modest venture, driven by a firm belief that every young person has enormous hidden talents and potential, has grown into an organisation that I am immensely proud of today. From just one client, TCES has transformed the lives of over 3,500 neurodiverse pupils. This is a significant milestone that speaks to our team’s dedication and our pupils’ resilience.
As we celebrate 25 years of TCES, I’m honoured and privileged to reflect on our exceptional and amazing young people and how far we’ve come from those early days, and I am equally excited about where we’re headed.”
The TCES Journey
As mentioned above, I established Transitional Care Ltd. in 1999, initially supporting one young person at a time, determined to provide the supportive care and holistic education they deserved. Balancing this mission with financial stability was challenging; I worked as a mini-cab driver at night to keep things afloat, but that vision kept me going.
The young people I was tasked with caring for had suffered the most incredibly traumatic lives, living in crisis for many years. Their anti-social behaviours were fully entrenched by the time I began working with them and I often felt like a sticking plaster placed on a gaping wound. My company was able to provide them with stable placements, healthy attachment and relationships filled with care and love, but it was not able to save these very vulnerable young people from the crimes they had already committed, prior to us, that were likely to send them to prison.
It is often frowned upon in social care and education to describe the work we do with these amazing, gifted and talented young people in terms of care and love. I do not subscribe to that view, strongly believing that the only way to turn these children around, is to make sure they know there is always at least one adult who relentlessly cares for them and who gets them and will go the extra mile for them. To ensure that the care and love we provide for them is not an accident or lucky chance we must build it into our systems, and ideally, we must get to support these children a little earlier. If we can do that, we stand a better chance of helping them overcome the labels and stereotypes perpetuated by society including education systems, which struggle to make the required adaptations for these neurodiverse children and young people.
The majority of young people needing our support had been excluded from schools much earlier in their lives. They were being singled out and labelled as behaviour problems and attention seekers, very early on, rather than being recognised as neurodiverse and attention needing. When they needed help the most, they and their families were being marginalised and separated from normal mainstream education.
Thus, with a recession looming - which would mean cuts to the services I was delivering – and a deepening desire to make more of an impact in their lives, I moved my tiny business from delivering social care packages to the social work departments of local authorities, to a completely different proposition.
I shifted into the world of education, wanting to get involved earlier and provide preventative support to these children before bullying, marginalisation and exclusions, became their life scripts. I began working with Local Authorities education departments, but by utilising a socio-educational approach – in essence the best of systemic social work, education and therapy integrated. At TCES we call this approach ‘Therapeutic Education’.
This saw us start on a journey which led to us opening more and more school sites and related services for children from 7 to 19 years of age across London and the Home Counties. With our feet firmly in the door much earlier on, we were able to affect a bigger element of control over these children’s destinies with some excellent success. Nine out of every 10 child go on to further education, employment or training, remaining there for three to five years after leaving us. Considering where they started, this is as good as it gets.
Building Partnerships and Earning Trust (2002-2006)
Fast-forward to 2002 and Transitional Care Ltd had transformed to The Complete Education System (TCES), providing one-to-one education packages for excluded and non-attending pupils. We didn’t just deliver education; we integrated holistic care to support the emotional and developmental needs of each young person, ensuring they had a safe, supportive environment.
TCES successfully partnered with Local Authorities like Barking & Dagenham, Brent, and Hertfordshire to run emergency education projects. These projects were designed to meet the immediate needs of pupils who had been let down or had no schools.
During this period, we developed our own five-part curriculum—covering Academic and Vocational learning, Therapeutic support, Engagement, and Enrichment—to create a well-rounded, supportive experience. By 2005, we had secured a long-term contract with Essex County Council and opened our first Independent Special Day School, marking our transition from emergency support to a stable and sustainable education model.
Expanding Across London (2008-2014)
2008 was a pivotal year for TCES. We launched TCES North West London School and in 2009 we opened our TCES East London school, offering therapeutic support that reflected the needs of our children and young people with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and associated needs including Social, Emotional, and Mental Health (SEMH). 2008 also saw TCES hold our first graduation ceremony, a moment that has since become a tradition celebrating each and every pupil’s achievement and growth.
By 2014, we had launched CREATE Services marking a new chapter to support young people who couldn’t manage small group education without our Step-down programmes, thus expanding our commitment to inclusion.
Innovating and Adapting (2015-2020)
In 2016, we opened our Create in the Community Hub in Barking, providing support directly within local communities. In 2018, I was honoured to welcome Dame Esther Rantzen as our patron; her commitment to children’s welfare aligned beautifully with our vision and we wholly welcomed her support.
That same year, we launched the Alumni Mentor Scheme, enabling former pupils to become mentors, a powerful initiative that reflects the lifelong impact of TCES. One such example of this positive journey of change is our Alumni Mentor employee, Maison.
Before joining TCES in 2017 he was suffering severe difficulties with social interaction and had been out of on-site education for over 5 years. During his time with us he experienced several therapeutic strategies to support his educational journey.
In January 2021 Maison became a full-time member of TCES staff, having transformed during his time with us. He discovered a passion for music, mentoring children and developed an interest in family counselling, trauma care and bridging the gap between schools and families. Now adept at communicating with staff and pupils, Maison is a valued key support member who has transformed from a secluded student into a confident young man.
We are in the business of finding our young people’s hidden talents as we recognise that all of our pupils have the greatest gifts often lying deep inside beside the worst wounds and now Maison has found his amazing leadership and mentoring talents and in a virtuous circle, he passes these gifts on to other younger pupils.
Continuing to Innovate and Expand (2020-2024)
2020 saw us launch our Home Learning (online) Service (now National Online School), enabling us to reach pupils wherever they were. During a global pandemic this initiative was particularly crucial in ensuring their support continued during these unprecedented challenging times.
In 2021, we opened TCES Nurture Primary (formerly Create Primary), which provides a foundation for some very complex younger students. Then in 2022, we officially opened our North West London Post-16 Therapy Hub & Café, a very proud moment that showcased our commitment to community integration and skills building for our neurodiverse post-16 students.
And we haven’t slowed down! In 2024 we reached several new milestones. Our National Online School became the first DfE-accredited Online special school, a recognition that reaffirms our dedication to quality education and inclusion for all neurodiverse pupils. We also internally launched our TCES Training Academy, developed several Ofqual registered courses in Therapeutic Education and opened our national Great Minds Therapy Services to attempt to close the significant gap in therapy services for child and young people across the UK.
This is the ‘Reach Out’ programme that I promised 5 years earlier at our 20th Anniversary and with the advent of online training and therapy services, we will have it in place years earlier than originally predicted. This will provide much needed training and therapy services to thousands of children and young people as well as Local Authorities, Schools and the NHS. This has always been my dream, to ‘reach out’ to thousands of children and their parents and carers rather than the hundreds of children and young people, we reach today.
As I stood in the Houses of Parliament five years ago, making a speech to all our stakeholders at our 20th Anniversary, I little believed that just five years later we would be on the brink of achieving that dream.
That is the truly the Art of the Possible.
A Legacy of Resilience and Inclusion
As I look back, it’s truly remarkable how far we’ve come. TCES’s “no exclusion” policy has been our cornerstone from the very start and it is a promise we have upheld, with no pupil ever excluded.
We’ve always believed that every young person deserves a chance to succeed, and we never give up on any pupil, no matter how complex their needs may be. This ethos has allowed us to grow from a small social enterprise to a wider network of schools and outreach services, each supporting thousands of lives.
Coming up this month are further blogs from CEO Thomas Keaney as he tackles topics, including trauma-informed practices, therapeutic education, project-based learning and more.
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