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Peter has been working as a consultant to local and national government on a range of children's service issues since 1997. Prior to that, he was a local government officer for 16 years, his last post being Acting Senior Assistant Director (Pupil Services) for Nottinghamshire County Council. His main focus has been on developing inclusive and high quality targeted services and support for young people who are particularly vulnerable, but he has always recognised the need for a close link with developments in universal provision. He has substantial experience in a range of areas including social inclusion and engagement of young people who are hard to reach, integrated service and inter-agency/multi-agency working, and consulting directly with young people . Most of Peter's consultancy inputs have been linked to complex and challenging strategic issues. He has been asked on a number of occasions to facilitate/mediate on difficult inter-agency issues (for example, leading a 24 hour residential involving SMTs from Education and Social Services in a large shire county on residential placement issues; and involving mainstream Heads and local authority officers in a unitary authority, around the topic of exclusions). As a result of the work he has carried out nationally and for a range of different agencies and authorities, he has a substantial network that he can draw on when required to help identify good practice, or compare/contrast a range of approaches. He has also been involved in innovative work for the East Midlands region, linked to improving definition of desired outcomes and assessing value for money. Sue Leyden has extensive experience in working with and for children with special needs. She is a qualified educational psychologist and worked over a period of 10 years within two LEA educational psychology services. For 12 years she was inspector and advisor for special educational needs for Nottinghamshire, with particular responsibility for the provision for pupils with sensory impairment, physical disability, speech and language disorder and pupils with autism. During this time she led many reviews into provision and services for children in the LEA. She was a member of the Authority’s Special Needs Executive, and was involved in the strategic planning for service development. Her current work within Ofsted inspection teams is mainly directed to inspecting unit provision for pupils with low incidence disabilities (severe learning difficulties, sensory impairment and communication disorders). Sue’s current work covers a wide range of activities including: inspecting provision for children and young people with special educational needs in mainstream schools, special schools and units and those being educated by their parents at home, conducting research activities on behalf of local authorities, evaluating centrally funded projects and initiatives and advising schools, organisations, and authorities on matters relating to special educational needs and children’s development. Her research and evaluation work with local authorities has included: services for families of young children with autism; CAMHS provision; young people’s experience of local authority services; teenage pregnancy projects and centrally funded multi-disciplinary initiatives for combating anti-social behaviour. Jackie Dearden is currently Senior Educational Psychologist (Social Services) with Nottingham City LEA. In addition, she works nationally on a freelance basis, with a particular interest in inclusion and supporting young people who are the most vulnerable in the system. She has extensive mainstream school experience, having worked for a number of years as deputy head teacher and SENCo in one of the largest primary schools in Nottingham, before training as an EP. Her interests include the development of resilience for young people at risk (including those in public care) and the creation of effective peer support systems. She has published work on mentoring schemes for pupils at primary-secondary transition and has considerable experience in ascertaining the views of young people on the provision of support from children’s services providers. She is currently developing new approaches to enable teams to manage conflict in a constructive way. Jackie has recently completed a doctorate in applied psychology (educational) at Nottingham University and has extensive knowledge of research methods including recent action research experience and the use of focus group interviews. Pat Bullen is currently part-time joint Co-ordinator of the East Midlands SEN Regional Partnership. The work of the Partnerships reflects priorities of the DfES in ‘Removing Barriers to Achievement' and of stakeholders at a regional level, and currently includes developing the role of special schools; developing minimum standards for SEN Support Services; managing a regional disagreement resolution service for the East Midlands LEAs; regional CPD for low incidence needs/minority needs; work on out of authority placements; SEN funding and resources; Regional Commissioning, and support for Looked After Children. Pat was previously Headteacher of a special school in Staffordshire LEA, and has 22 years in education management and teaching. She has held a range of posts in mainstream and special school settings, having originally qualified to teach children with severe learning difficulties. As a deputy head and Headteacher, she has chaired groups in three authorities on leadership and management of schools initiatives. She has worked with the British Council in Russia, working on local management/funding issues for schools and local authorities. She completed a MA in education management at Loughborough University in 2000, where her dissertation looked at SEN funding issues within local education authorities. During the 1990s, Ian Pollard was Principal Educational Psychologist and Lead Officer for Learning Support and Special Educational Needs in Essex, where he had significant responsibilities for strategy and provision development. Since 2001, he has worked as a consultant to a number of Authorities in the North East of England, focusing particularly on behaviour and support issues. He has also been part of the Price Waterhouse team, monitoring the implementation of the Government’s Behaviour Improvement Programme. More recently, he was part of the Special Needs Consultancy team that carried out the DfES National Audit of Support, Services and Provision for Low Incidence needs and is a member of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST). Lynne Duckett has worked in a number of roles in local authorities and schools over the last 25 years. Until recently, she was Head of the Inclusive Education Service (IES) in Nottingham City. Previously, she was a Policy/Training Development officer and Head of an LEA Home Tuition Service. She has 10 years experience as a secondary mainstream school SENCo and has a Master of Education Degree in Special Educational Needs. |
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