RSS Amplifier

Podcast

Special Needs Jungle, In Conversation

Join Special Needs Jungle's Renata Blower, Tania Tirraoro and team, in conversations about current issues and interesting aspects around special educational needs and disabilities. The team will be chatting with a variety of voices from the world of SEND, explaining, exploring and educating on everything you need to know. The programme is also available in vision on YouTube. Theme credit: Luca Tirraoro

specialneedsjungle.comSource feed ↗10 episodes

Live Last read · last published · next check

Written by

Latest episodes

Saves to your Listen queue, to pick up on another day or another device.

Will school SEND funding be ringfenced?

Education Minister, Georgia Gould, who has responsibility for the Schools White Paper's SEND reform proposals, speaks to Special Needs Jungle about the Government's plans for SEND. The Minister answered questions sent in by SNJ's audience and those attending the webinar. She mentioned ringfencing of SEND funding in schools twice--but does she mean what we mean by it? Ms Gould repeatedly stressed…

Play

SNJ's Legal Round Table on the SEND Proposals in the Schools White Paper

On 23/3/26, Special Needs Jungle held a webinar focusing on the legal implications of the SEND proposals in the 2026 Schools White Paper. This webinar is just under 1' 30". The webinar features solicitors Hayley Mason Seager, CEO of SEN Legal, Polly Sweeney, Partner at Rook Irwin Sweeney, Eleanor Wright Legal Officer with SEND legal charity SOS!SEN, and Kate Cox, Senior Solicitor with SEND legal…

Play

SNJ in Conversation: CFA 10 years on Brian Lamb OBE says building good parental relationships is the key to fixing SEND

SNJ's Sharon Smith and Tania Tirraoro talk to veteran SEND expert, Brian Lamb OBE a new episode of SNJ in Conversation on the Children and Families Act 10 years on. Brian says building good parental relationships is the key to fixing SEND Find the webpage for this episode here

Play

SNJ in Conversation with Edward Timpson CBE KC “You’ve got to really care about families and their lives …”

In the third podcast in our series on a decade of the Children and Families Act 2014, SNJ ’s Tania and Renata talks to former SEND Minister, Edward Timpson, who steered the legislation through parliament. We discuss the battles he had to fight to create a legal duty on health in the Act, and to bring in Ofsted /CQC SEND inspections. What does he wish he’d been able to push further? And what else…

Play

SNJ in Conversation: 10 years of the Children & Families Act: Philippa Stobbs on the wins and losses

Philippa Stobbs OBE worked for 30 years at the centre of developing national SEND policy with the Council for Disabled Children—she's the highly-respected doyenne of SEN. Few people have as encyclopaedic knowledge of special educational needs as she does. She spent decades negotiating with the government of the day to ensure legislation and new policy supported children with disabilities, pushing…

Play

10 Years of the Children & Families Act 2014: Stephen Kingdom

This is Part 1 of a series on a decade of The Children and Families Act that was passed in 2014. What went wrong and what went right? First up is Stephen Kingdom, now of the Disabled Children’s Partnership, but in 2012, he was the SEND man at the DfE. Stephen looks back at the creating and implementation of the CFA and discusses with Tania Tirraoro and Sharon Smith what he'd do differently now…

Play

SNJ in Conversation with Dame Christine Lenehan

SNJ's Tania and Renata chat to newly-retired Director of the Council for Disabled Children about her career, her biggest achievements and who her favourite SEND minister has been... Find the webpage for the episode, including pictures from Dame Christine's Valedictory address to the SEND sector, here

Play

What are Labour ‘s plans for SEND? We speak to Helen Hayes MP

While few except the DfE think the Government's SEND Improvement Plan is going to fix special educational needs provision in England, Tania & Renata ask Labour's spokesperson on SEND, Helen Hayes MP, for her views on the issue. Find the podcast webpage here: https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/snj-in-conversation-labour-send-spokesperson-helen-hayes-mp-fixing-send/

Play

SNJ in Conversation with Carrie Grant: Supporting children at the intersection of SEND, Race and Gender Identity

Vocal coach and celebrity, Carrie Grant MBE is well known for having a diverse family. Along with her husband, singer, David Grant, she has four neurodivergent, mixed race children, several of whom also identify as transgender. Two are also up and coming actors, including in the series, Hollyoaks. In an interesting and entertaining episode of SNJ in Conversation, Carrie discusses these…

Play

SNJ in Conversation with public lawyer, Steve Broach: SEND Law in 2023

In the first SNJ in Conversation podcast of the year, Renata and Tania put your questions to public lawyer Steve Broach about SEND law in 2023. Your questions answered about EHCPs, Annual Reviews, what, if anything, has changed, group challenges via Judicial Review and much more! Listen to the show and find the show webpage here:…

Play