Join us

About our membership

Natspec is the membership association for organisations offering specialist further education and training for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities aged 16 to 25. We exist to improve Further Education for these learners, and our vision is that they will all have access to high quality education and training, which meets their individual needs and supports their aspirations for skills, work and life.

If you are a provider of specialist FE, please consider joining us. The options are:

• Become a Natspec member: for specialist colleges/ providers, where the provision has been established specifically to deliver post-school SEND/ALN, and this is the main business of the provision
• Become a Natspec affiliate: for General FE colleges and other incorporated institutions, and other FE sector providers such as independent learning providers or local authority providers, where SEND / ALN provision is available as part of a wider FE offer

We also have a corporate membership scheme for organisations that supply products or services to Natspec member colleges, offering discounts and early bird booking for conferences and exhibitions, and the opportunity to talk to member colleges in network meetings.

Schools please note: If you are from a school, you are welcome to book onto any of our training sessions, as well as take up our consultancy services but we do not extend membership to schools because many of our other services relating to funding and policy only apply to the specialist FE sector. You might also find it helpful to look at the Whole School SEND and NASS websites.

If you aren’t sure which option you should select, please view each page to find more information. If, after reading both pages, you are still unsure, please contact info@natspec.org.uk with further information about why you feel your organisation may not fit neatly into one of the above options.

Once your organisation has joined as a member or affiliate, all staff can take advantage of our generous discounts on training and consultancy, access specialist advice from Natspec staff, and access the wider member network for peer support across a range of platforms.

Opening new provision for 16 to 25-year-olds?

If your organisation is setting up new provision for high needs students aged over 16, you can access support, training and information in our resources section.