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Alison has been a teacher for 26 years and is currently Whole School SEND National Coordinator. She has previously been a class teacher, nurture teacher, SENDCO, Head of Chestnut Nursery School, and Head of Inclusion for Exeter Children’s Federation. She has been on the board of trustees at nurtureuk since 2016 and has a passion for improving the education and life chances of children from a background of deprivation. Her interest in children affected by social, emotional and/or mental health issues encouraged her to become a Specialist Leader in Education for the Exeter Consortium and Teaching School Alliance. Through this role she helps lead the Professional Community for SEND for South West Institute for Teaching (SWIFT). This community works to support schools identifying and meeting children’s needs and so reduce permanent exclusions across schools in the Southwest. She aims to keep the well-being of children at the heart of everything she does.

Chief Executive Officer of Pathways Education Ltd, Claire leads a fast-growing organisation that serves children and young adults not in formal schooling, to help them re-engage with learning, life and beyond. Underpinned by the values of Wellbeing, Connection and Empowerment, Claire’s work relentlessly focuses on re-imagining education to ensure all young adults have the opportunity, skills, and support to transition into high aiming paid employment in their adult lives.

Formally the CEO of DFN Project SEARCH and DFN Foundation, Claire is an experienced senior leader and public speaker with an extensive background in education, innovative curriculum design and best practice supported employment. Experienced chair and board member, Claire currently holds a number of non-exec trustee roles, one with a specialist school with the primary responsibility for safeguarding, and one with DFN Project SEARCH.

Claire supports many national workstreams around evidence-based transition to employment provision and is currently an external advisor to a large-scale national charity as well as sitting on a number of APPG groups around assistive technology and supported internships.

Operations Manager for British Association for Supported Employment (BASE) and Inclusive Trading CIC.

Nerise has worked in supported employment for over 25 years, across a wide range of services. Nerise is committed to ensuring people with disabilities have the opportunity of employment and developing their careers.  Prior to this role, Nerise has been an Associate of BASE providing all quality assurance and was pivotal to the development of the Supported Employment Quality Framework. Nerise is strongly passionate about quality assurance and leads the work across BASE and Inclusive Trading to drive quality across employment pathways and workforce development.

Caroline has worked in education since 2009 and has a passion for supporting learners with SEND. She took on the role of SENDCo and developed this working across multiple schools. Prior to taking on the role of National Delivery Coordinator for Whole School SEND, she worked as a Regional SENDCo (leading and coaching other SENDCos) for a large MAT.

I began my career as an NHS speech and language therapist in 1991 working with children in clinics, schools, nurseries and special schools. I then retrained as a teacher in 1999, completing a PGCE in primary education, specialising in Early Years and worked in primary schools, mostly as an early years teacher, for 18 years until 2018; for the final 8 years of this period, I was also the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) within the school.

In 2018, I began the journey to become an educational psychologist by teaching on a temporary, part-time basis as a SENCO in Derbyshire, at a special school in Derbyshire and at a pupil-referral unit in Derby City at the same time as applying to the Doctorate training programme for Educational Psychology. I completed the three-year doctorate course at the University of Sheffield which included placements at Nottinghamshire County Council and then was fortunate to be able to work for Nottinghamshire County Council as a qualified educational psychologist when I qualified in 2022.

My professional interests include a focus on communication and social and emotional needs as well as promoting and facilitating inclusion using a systemic-level perspective where possible, to empower schools and families to understand and support children and young people’s educational needs.

I began my career in education as a secondary school teacher before training as an Educational Psychologist nineteen years ago. The majority of my time as an Educational Psychologist has been working for Nottinghamshire County Council, where I have had the opportunity to contribute to a wide range of development projects and have been seconded to work with a large primary multi-academy trust for the last five years for a day week. In addition, I am a tutor on the Doctorate in Applied Educational Psychology professional training programme at the University of Nottingham; supervising research which provides a unique contribute to the fields of education and educational psychology.

My professional interests are wide ranging but a constant throughout my career has been my commitment to promoting and facilitating inclusion, and how children and young people learn, particularly the importance of memory, speech and language and emotional well-being.

Educational Psychologist

As I sat here writing this, reflecting on the journey I took to practice as an Educational Psychologist, one thing that comes to mind are the reasons why I wanted to become an EP and how my interests evolved. From an early age, I was interested in the ‘why,’ ‘why do certain people behave in the way that they do?.’ This interest evolved further when I discovered that there were several interpretations from a single event from a range of people. However, in certain groups and contexts certain voices/perspectives were marginalised, discredited and at times not even considered. Based on this experience I was eager to think around how we can provide platforms to hear from the perspectives of those that can often be marginalised such as children and young people. I recognise the importance of hearing children and young people’s lived experiences and what is important to them. A further interest I have is the use of language and how this shapes individuals’ identities and their understanding of themselves.

Based on these interests, and my learning of psychology at University, I was eager to apply psychology in practice. I completed the Doctor of Educational Psychology in 2020 – 2023. I then went on to work as an Educational Psychologist in 2023 at Nottinghamshire Educational Psychology Service. I continue to learn, and each day is different, but I love that I have been able to build my interests into my work, and this is what makes each day enjoyable and interesting! 

Fiona Broadley is a Registered Qualified Habilitation Specialist and manages a Specialist Outreach team delivering Habilitation, Reprographics and  Specialist ICT support to children and young people with vision impairment (CYPVI) across Birmingham. She has worked in the VI field for more than 40 years, and for the last 34 has worked in education, teaching in specialist, mainstream and special settings.  She also lectures to student Habilitation Specialists at Birmingham City University, and with her team, delivers the Habilitation elements of the training for Specialist Teachers of the Vision Impaired (QTVI) and for MSI teachers at the University of Birmingham. Fiona is the Chair of Habilitation VIUK and strives to raise profile of habilitation at all levels. Habilitation encompasses the range of orientation and mobility skills, environmental and access recommendations, and independent living skills for CYPVI. Fiona is the author of 2 books on habilitation, that are written in an easy access style, suitable for parents as well as professionals:

• Supporting Life Skills for Young Children with Vision Impairment and other Disabilities: An Early Years Habilitation Handbook (Routledge 2021)
• Supporting Life Skills for Children and Young People with Vision Impairment and Other Disabilities: A Middle Childhood Habilitation Handbook (Routledge 2023)

After graduating from the University of Nottingham with a degree in Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, I spent time working as a teaching assistant in a busy secondary school. Upon realising I wanted to undertake further study and expand on my use of psychology in education, I returned to the University of Nottingham to study the Doctorate in Applied Educational Psychology. Since qualifying in 2018, I have worked at Nottinghamshire Educational Psychology Service as a main-grade educational psychologist and, more recently, as the senior educational psychologist for training and projects. I am also the Nottinghamshire County Council lead for the NottAlone project which aims to bring together support and signposting to local mental health support services in the area.

I am passionate about organisational psychology and I enjoy working with schools to make changes which support the school community as a whole. I am also interested in Narrative psychology, supporting children in care/ previously in care and equity & inclusion.

Sharon Smith is mother to a 19-year-old daughter who has Down syndrome. As a result, she has volunteered and worked for several disability related organisations over the past 18 years, including being co-founder of a Down syndrome support group and being the Chair of her local parent carer forum. Sharon is also in the final stages of undertaking PhD research in which she explores the experiences of mothers of disabled children in relation to their education. Sharon's daughter has benefited from using person-centred ways of working with her education settings at key transition points, and she is happy to share this personal experience.

Until July 2023, Tina was the Head of an Outstanding all age special school for children and young people with severe and profound learning difficulties including those with an additional diagnosis of autism. Tina held this post for over 30 years, during which time the school expanded its roll by 90%.

Tina trained at Birmingham University and holds a Master’s Degree in Childhood Autism, and has spent all of her career working within the special education field. Tina was a National Leader of Education until her retirement from Headship. Tina continues to work as a member of the South East South London Regional SEND team for Whole School SEND (nasen).  Aside from Special Educational Needs, Tina's particular interests are school improvement including ethical leadership and leadership development at all levels including governance. Tina firmly believes in the power of coaching as a supportive professional development tool for colleagues.

Tina is the Deputy Regional SEND Lead for South East region.

Magdalene was a primary class teacher and a SENDCo for many years. She then worked for the Local Authority as a Learning Support teacher and, as a keen mathematician, joined the Maths Hub LLME Team with a focus on SEND. She now works as an SEND and Maths Consultant Teacher, both independently and with the Maths Hubs, working with pupils and school staff in primary, secondary and special schools across South Yorkshire and beyond. 

Victoria Osborne is a secondary mastery specialist with the NCETM and was in the first cohort of specialists trained in the five big ideas. She has worked in primary, secondary and special schools as a maths teacher and leader. She now works in the Meridian Trust and the Cambridge Maths hub, splitting her time between curriculum development and teacher professional development. 

Jamie, a founding member of Special Networks and a chartered Developmental Psychologist, has dedicated more than 20 years to the fields of inclusion, psychology, innovation, participation, and learning, with a focus on empowering children and young people. His work explores the intersection of psychology and social justice, aiming to foster genuine social change. Jamie strongly believes in the power of inclusion by design. His expertise extends far beyond the theoretical aspects, guiding the education sector and wider industries, products, and services in adopting and implementing this groundbreaking approach. His diverse professional background spans roles in play work, family support, lecturing, teaching, training, strategy, policy work, and international consultancy. Jamie's career has seen him partner with a wide array of institutions, from charities and government bodies to global corporations.

Literacy and Numeracy Inclusion Advisor

Janet Goring has taught for over twenty years as a class teacher, maths subject leader, Advanced Skills teacher and most recently as a specialist teacher for pupils with specific learning difficulties. She has a Masters in Specific Learning Difficulties, specialising in Dyslexia and Maths difficulties. Her dissertation researched how playing a board game can increase number sense, following a career-long interest in using games to develop understanding and increase enjoyment in maths.

Janet is an accredited Professional Development lead for the NCETM and has led SEND work groups for the last six years in her local Maths Hub. The two current projects are looking at an approach to Maths Anxiety using Zones of regulation for mainstream schools and a smaller steps curriculum for special schools. She is also on the Dyscalculia committee of the British Dyslexia Association.

Assistant Maths Hub Lead – Primary

Kate is the Primary Mastery Lead for the Hub and is also the Strategic Maths Lead for GLF Schools Multi Academy Trust. She is passionate about teacher professional development in mathematics, believing that this is the key to improving teaching and learning. Having led work groups for the Maths Hub, she continues to be inspired by the teachers and leaders who are transforming mathematics practice and policy in their schools for the benefit of all of their pupils. She is a co-author of the NCETM Curriculum Prioritisation Materials and is a Professional Development Lead. 

Maths Hub Lead – Primary

Nicki is one of our Maths Hubs Leads, having been involved in the leadership team since the very beginning and as Primary Mastery Lead and Work Group Lead. She is based at one of the hub’s lead schools, Chesterton School, where she also oversees CPD Partnerships for the Wandle Teaching School Hub.

Nicki has 20 years’ experience as a consultant in supporting, developing and training teachers in their maths classroom practice. She loves working with fantastic and inspiring colleagues in the Maths Hub!