Speaker
Professor Barry Carpenter OBE, CBE – Board Member
co-founder of the National Forum for Neuroscience in Special Education (with Professor Francesca Happe and Dr. Rona Tutt)
Biography
Barry Carpenter has been appointed to the ACAMH Board with special responsibility for disseminating our work to schools, teachers, and others involved in the education of children and young people. In 2017 Barry was appointed to the UK’s first Professorship in Mental Health in Education, at Oxford Brookes University. He is an Honorary Professor at universities in Ireland, the UK, Germany, and Australia. He has been a Fellow of the University of Oxford. He has been awarded an OBE and CBE by the Queen for services to children with Special Needs. In July 2020 he was awarded the Distinguished Fellowship of the Chartered College of Teaching, for his leadership of the Education field during the pandemic.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Barry has held the leadership positions of Headteacher, Principal, Academic Director, Chief Executive, Inspector of Schools and Director of the Centre for Special Education at Westminster College, Oxford. In 2009, he was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education as Director of the Children with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project. Since completing that research, Barry has overseen the development of a national project developing online ‘Training materials for teachers of children with severe, profound and complex learning disabilities’ www.complexneeds.org.uk
He is the author of over 200 articles and many texts on a range of learning disability/special needs topics. In recent years, his work has been translated into German, French, Dutch, and Russian. His recent book publications (with Carolyn Blackburn and Jo Egerton) focus upon Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). He co-authored ‘Engaging Learners with Complex Needs’ (Routledge), and his book ‘Enabling Access’ has been included in the Routledge Classic series for its seminal contribution .
Until recently he was Chair of the Girls and Autism Working Group for the National Association of Headteachers. With Professor Francesca Happe and Jo Egerton he co-authored the highly acclaimed book “ Girls and Autism “ (Routledge 2019) and launched the book in 12 countries around the World .
Barry lectures nationally and internationally. In recent years this has included Australia, New Zealand , China, Japan, Dubai, USA, and Norway. He is the co-founder of the National Forum for Neuroscience in Special Education (with Professor Francesca Happe and Dr. Rona Tutt). For the Mental Health Foundation, he Chaired the National Inquiry into the Mental Health of Young People with Learning Disabilities. He has co written ‘The Recovery Curriculum’ (2020), with his son Matthew, a Secondary School Principal, which has made a major contribution to school initiatives around emotional resilience during the Pandemic, especially through the resource based website – www.recoverycurricululum.org