Announcing the shortlist for the 2020 Natspec Awards

The Natspec Awards aim to recognise and celebrate excellent practice in the specialist further education sector. We want to promote innovation, continuous improvement, and raise standards across the sector. As specialist colleges strive to carry on supporting their learners despite the uncertainties and challenges presented by COVID-19, we hope to celebrate the hard work they do.

Today, we are pleased to announce the shortlisted entries for the awards.

2020 is the inaugural year of the awards, recognising six areas of practice where specialist providers are doing amazing and incredible things. Shortlisted entries will now go forward to be considered by an independent panel of experts chaired by Nigel Evans former lead HMI for High Needs.

Initially, the awards were to be presented at Natspec’s National Conference in May. This is, unfortunately, no longer possible. But we are determined to celebrate this year’s awards winners and have therefore decided to postpone the announcement on winners to the 8 October, at the Principals’ Forum. This will give us a chance to present the awards the way we want to, and celebrate the specialist sector amongst friends.

Clare Howard, Natspec’s Chief Executive said:

“At Natspec we greatly value the skills and talents of staff working in the specialist further education sector. Their work deserves to be recognised and celebrated and the Natspec Awards provide the perfect opportunity to do this.

In this first year of the Natspec Awards we were delighted to receive over 50 entries from members. The entries covered a great variety of work illustrating the diverse and innovative practice across the specialist further education sector.

Overall, the standard of entries was high, and some difficult decisions had to be made when finalising the shortlists.

I am pleased to announce the shortlisted entries for each award category. Many congratulations to all who have made to the shortlists and many thanks to everyone who sent in entries this year.”