I have recently taken on responsibility for SEND Commissioning, alongside the fantastic Inclusion Commissioning Team currently working to Nathan.  I’ll mainly focus on strengthening our commissioning of Independent Non-Maintained Schools and Alternative Provision, getting data, costs and quality under control, and making use of our great relationships with our providers in Somerset.

I’m bringing my experience of commissioning residential and fostering homes for children looked after to this work, as well as experience of working on a range of services for children with disabilities.  I’ve worked across all aspects of children’s services for about twenty years now, in three different authorities and the NHS – starting in Ealing, West London, where I was born and where I got my first Trainee Commissioner job as a joint post across Ealing PCT and Local Authority.  I also have some personal experience of disability, as my parents were both born profoundly Deaf.  I’ve directly witnessed discrimination and the way services are often designed for non-disabled people, as well as the awesome community and culture which comes from facing and fighting those obstacles together.

The picture shows me attending a Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise Sector Conference at Haynes Motor Museum. 

I’ve lived and worked in Somerset for seven years now, having moved here with my little family. We deliberately chose to live in a small village amongst farmland as a contrast from suburban life, and I’m so glad we did – it is wonderful to live here.

I’m really keen to talk to anyone who has ideas about how we can change or improve things – do get in touch and say hello – Louise.palmer1@somerset.gov.uk