We are at a pivotal time. Schools are dealing with the consequences of lockdown and missed schooling, online learning and an increase in exclusions. More children with neurodiverse conditions and poor mental health are being home educated.
We also have a government that has put money into a National Tutoring Programme that has reached just 15% of its target group, while cuts have decimated services such as speech therapy and CAMSS and some children are waiting for two years for assessments.
Nasen is The National Association for Special Educational Needs – a charitable organisation with a growing membership. It provides information, resources and training, for those working with children and young people with SEND and learning differences. Annamarie is insistent that the 46,000 membership is central to all developments and that anything that happens will be additional to, and not instead of, services they already provide for this core group.
We started by talking about interagency working. There has long been an ambition to bring together education, health and social care to provide an all round service for young people with SEND. But given the legacy of cuts just how realistic is this aspiration?
Annamarie plans to broaden their networks and extend nasen's influence into social care and health. She believes this was the key reason she was appointed. She is an associate member of The Association of Directors of Children Services so once again she has the insider's perspective.