North East Region
The Regional SEND Leadership team in the North East work to promote and celebrate the effective and exciting SEND practice across our region.
The North East is a large geographic area with a huge amount of excellent practice and incredible SEN and SEND expertise already present and active within our schools and communities. Currently we are working to connect with and, where needed, develop professional networks to best support all schools in prioritising SEND within their practice.
We encourage people to connect with us by emailing us, joining Whole School SEND, attending our regional events and join us in sharing good SEND practice locally and regionally.
Local authorities in this region
- Darlington
- Durham
- Gateshead
- Hartlepool
- Middlesbrough
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- North Tyneside
- Northumberland
- Redcar and Cleveland
- South Tyneside
- Stockton-on-Tees
- Sunderland
Meet your Regional SEND Leads
Regional SEND Lead
Rachel is the CEO of Ascent Academies' Trust, a six-school specialist MAT in the North East and North Yorkshire. In her twenty-eight years in education, Rachel has worked across the sector in special schools, a mainstream secondary school with resourced SEN provision and all age mainstream and specialist Multi Academy Trusts. Rachel has been a headteacher/executive headteacher for 15 years and took up the post of CEO in January 2025.
Rachel has been Nort East regional lead for Whole School SEND since 2019.
Rachel has a National Professional Qualification in Headship and Executive Headship, an MSC in Leadership and Organisational Change and is an accredited Coach. Rachel is committed to improving the quality of provision for all children and young people with Special education needs and disabilities and developing the professional practice of colleagues in all settings.
Rachel Hargreaves
Deputy Regional SEND Lead
During her seventeen years in education, Sarah has worked as Literacy Lead, Specialist Provision Lead, Senior Mental Health Lead and SENCO. Sarah has Specialist Leader in Education status, an MA in Education and is a Specialist Assessor.
Sarah has a particular interest in supporting children and young people with cognition and learning needs access an ambitious curriculum. Sarah also has experience with low incidence needs, leading two resourced provisions for children and young people with sensory impairments. Recently, Sarah has worked as a Lead Practitioner to contribute to guidance for school leaders developing SEND units and Resource Provisions. Sarah is passionate about improving inclusion in all settings and joined the Whole School SEND team in 2021. She is currently the Assistant Principal, SEND, at The King’s Academy in Middlesbrough.
