I was recently asked to quality assure safeguarding in a youth work organisation staffed largely by volunteers; the process has caused me to reflect on the nature of shared trauma in communities, and the risks to effective...

Last week my fellow ALIGN Executive Board Member, @dralexandragray, and I were invited to participate in one of the DfE’s ‘deep dives’ into an aspect of the proposed SEND reforms.  The session was focused on ways in which...

The Alternative Provision Research Network recently published a blog on the PhysOrg Conversation platform referring to findings from its research into the views of children in AP about their experience in the setting. The APRN...

It’s been 2 years since the government’s SEND and AP Improvement Plan appeared; a framework of national standards is expected imminently, and many of us have been involved in the consultation work between the DfE and the sector....

I trained as a cultural critic  in a previous career as an academic. The fields of literature, cultural studies and critical theory do not appear, at first glance, to offer much in the way of transferable skills to a role...

In their 2023 crime survey the National College of Policing report that violence against women and girls (VAWG) accounts for 20% of recorded crime, and that reported VAWG has increased 37% since 2018 (though the actual figure...