How Neuro Ally works

Two groups, often the same people:

• People who need practical help. Adults who struggle with executive function — paperwork, online portals, time management, hygiene check-ins, medication reminders — but don't qualify for professional support.
• People who can provide it. Neurodiverse and neurotypical members offering form-filling, admin, tutoring, skill-sharing, friendly chat, or in-person check-ins for a fair fee.

Many members are both — neurodiverse people who need help with one kind of task and can offer expertise with another.

After signing up, you're walked through a wizard that builds your profile one step at a time. Each step has a "Save and continue" button that stores that section immediately, a "Skip this step" button, and an "Exit and finish later" link. You can revisit the wizard at any time to fill in missing parts.

The most important question is the first one — what brings you here? — because it shapes every later step. Picking offering or both reveals an extra question about whether you'll work in person. Picking a neurodivergent neurotype unlocks an optional traits step.

Two search surfaces, both with the same accordion-and-checkbox filters so you can combine multiple values per category:

• Find people — browse member profiles. Filter by intent, neurotype, traits, what they're looking for, or what they're offering. Cards show name, intent, and Ally score; click through to a public profile.
• Browse services — listings posted by members. Filter by type (offer or request), category, or whether DBS is required. Click a listing to read the full description and contact the poster.

On any profile or listing, you can click a pill to jump to a search filtered by that tag. Clicking someone's looking for help with form-filling pill takes you to people offering form-filling, and vice versa.

Most matches don't need formal verification — the platform leans on the Ally score and reviews to surface trustworthy members. For in-person, chaperone-style work, an extra layer applies:

• DBS checks (formerly CRB) — providers offering in-person services can submit a DBS certificate. A moderator reviews it and records the verification details (last 4 digits of the certificate number, issue date, expiry date). The uploaded file is deleted as soon as the moderator decides; only the verification record persists. We call this verify-then-discard.
• Audit log — every moderator view of a DBS document and every decision is recorded in an append-only log. The database itself rejects updates and deletes against this log, so the trail can't be quietly rewritten.

After working with someone you can leave a single rating (High, Medium, or Low) plus optional comments. Each review can only be left once per listing per reviewer.

Reviews feed into the Ally score, a number from 0 to 140 displayed on each profile. It's a rough measure of how complete and active a profile is and contributes to ordering on search results — higher scores surface higher. Components: profile fields filled, current DBS verification, listings posted, and reviews received (weighted toward high ratings).

Neuro Ally takes 5% of each completed transaction. That covers payment processing, hosting, moderator time on DBS reviews, and ongoing development of the platform. The price you see on a listing is what the seeker pays; the provider receives 95% of it.

We're open about where the money goes because trust matters more in peer-to-peer support than in most marketplaces — you're meeting in person, sharing personal details, and asking for help with sensitive admin. Knowing the platform isn't quietly extracting more lets you focus on the relationship, not the system.

Browsing, listing, profile reviews, and testimonials are all free. The 5% only applies to paid transactions that actually complete.

Neurotype and trait data are UK GDPR Article 9 special-category data. The lawful basis for storing them is your explicit consent, given by completing the relevant wizard step. You can clear any field at any time by revisiting the wizard.

We use Umami for analytics — a privacy-first, cookieless tool that doesn't track individuals or share data with third parties. We don't use Google Analytics, advertising trackers, or social-media pixels.

Sessions are stored in our own database, so revoking access is immediate (we don't use signed-but-stateless tokens that stay valid until they expire). Account deletion removes your reviews, listings, and DBS metadata; reviews you've left of others are retained but anonymised.