West Midlands

From the densely populated major city of Birmingham, to the rural areas of Shropshire and Herefordshire, the West Midlands is a diverse region.  Through our work so far, it is clear that there is a dedication to improve outcomes for learners with SEND across our region from families, schools, and professionals. We aim to build on existing effective practice for our population of pupils with SEND so that children experience success in their learning and parental confidence improves.

We aim to do this through Whole School SEND’s vision to grow a community – a network where knowledge, skills and solutions are shared. This will build from the successful work that already exists within our region – sharing what is working and good news stories. We will identify the gaps and seek to work with local practitioners, our partners and family groups to respond to these areas through training, resources and support.

We believe that long term relationships are important in this process of improvement for children and young people with SEND. So links with professionals such as SLEs, NLEs and advisory services, through teaching schools, consortiums, academies and Local Authorities are vital to ensure that high quality SEND provision is sustainable and embedded within our schools.

The values of Whole School SEND which are central to the community underpin all our work in the West Midlands. Sign up to access free resources and updates on training, research, opportunities to work together.

Alison Parr

Al has worked in education for 38 years, beginning her teaching journey as a mainstream history and politics teacher. Her passion for working with graduates beginning their careers as teachers took her into Keele University where she was a Senior Lecturer. She led the PGCE programme and worked in India and Thailand co-developing and leading the MA in International Education and the PGDIE.  Always passionate about ensuring that inclusion is at the heart of schools, Al moved into headship of a large 11-19 generic Special School. Al led this school for 10 years. She is WSS West Midlands Lead, supports schools and MATs in the region and facilitates the NPQSEND.