Director of SEND and Alternative Provision, Department for Education

Alison Ismail is the Director of SEND and Alternative Provision and joined DfE in August 2022. Alison was previously with Defra as Director for Agri-Food Chain where she had lead responsibility for food policy, including protecting food supply through Covid, and the delivery of the recent cross-government Food Strategy. Prior to this Alison held a range of roles including in DHSC and the NHS (where she led the creation of an integrated children’s health service at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust). She actually began her career in the former Department for Education and Skills so is very pleased to be back with them in their current form and to be working on delivering the SEND & AP Improvement Plan.