Hello!  For the past 10 years I have worked in quality assurance within Children’s Services at WCC and for the last four of these I have been the Quality Assurance Officer working with the SEND team. I see my role as supporting the team to ensure the experience children and families have with us is consistently of the highest quality. We have come so far and it’s exciting to think how much more we can achieve with our expanded quality assurance team!

A bit about me - I graduated from Lancaster University with a BA (hons) in Sociology in 1991 and then completed a two-year Diploma in Careers Guidance with the University of Central England. This was followed by employment as a Careers Adviser in Birmingham and Worcestershire where I worked in schools with pupils in year 9 and above helping them plan and prepare for their futures. Throughout this work and the expanded scope under Connexions, my aim has always been to encourage children to be the best they can be and support them to overcome any difficulties they face.

I am also a qualified NLP coach and support WCC staff through the Coaching Programme.

Hello, my name is Claire Stoodley, and I am a new SEND Quality Assurance Officer.

I am a qualified teacher and have worked in special schools from the very start of my career, with 23 years’ experience supporting children and young people with physical disabilities. I am also qualified in Conductive Education. I began my career in an independent special school before returning to Worcestershire, where I have spent nearly 20 years at my current school.

During this time, I worked first as a class teacher and then in an outreach role supporting mainstream schools. I now work in a combined role, supporting a class in school alongside outreach work, as well as carrying out my Quality Assurance role. Continuing to work directly with children and schools is important to me, as it keeps my work closely linked to day-to-day practice.

I was keen to take on the Quality Assurance role because I have seen first-hand how the right support, clearly set out and well delivered, can make a real difference to children’s everyday experiences. In this role, I aim to use my experience to help ensure that EHCPs are clear, consistent, and focused on meeting children’s needs in practice.

Hi, I’m Emma, one of the new SEND Quality Assurance Officers. 

I qualified as a primary teacher in 2017, with a specialism in SEND and Inclusion. During my time at university, I had placements in a range of settings including independent, mainstream and SEND schools and decided that I wanted to work within the SEND sector.

After graduating, I spent two years teaching in a mainstream primary school, before moving to a general SEND school while completing my Masters in SEND and Inclusion part time. I quickly became interested in supporting children specifically with Social Emotional and Mental Health needs and a job opportunity arose at a local primary Pupil Referral Unit (PRU). I moved to the PRU in 2020 and enjoyed teaching children with a range of needs, in a mixed-age class of Year 1 to Year 6.

In 2022, I decided to leave teaching and move to the Local Authority, as SEND Complaints Officer. This was a new role, and I was fortunate enough to help develop the necessary processes while working in partnership with SEND Services and wider management.

I am really excited to start my new role as SEND Quality Assurance Officer, as I am keen to help drive forwards vital improvements within the SEND Service by working closely with stakeholders and drawing on my previous experience in schools and also complaints. I initially left teaching as I wanted to make a bigger impact to a greater number of children and families; the move into SEND QA will help me to continue this work during SEND Services’ time of significant change and development, and I can’t wait to get started.