Barry Carpenter was the UK’s first Professor in Mental Health in Education, a Chair created for him at Oxford Brookes University. He is Honorary Professor at universities in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Hong Kong, and Australia. He has been a Fellow of the University of Oxford. In July 2020, he was awarded the Distinguished Fellowship of the Chartered College of Teaching for his leadership of the Education field during the pandemic. He has been awarded an OBE and a CBE by the late Queen for services to children with Special Needs. In 2017, he was entered into “Who’s Who” in acknowledgement of his national and international contribution to the field of Education. In 2022, he was made Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) in recognition of his lifetime achievements in Education.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Barry has held the leadership positions of Headteacher, Principal, Academic Director, Chief Executive, Professor, and Director of the Centre for Special Education at Westminster College, Oxford. In 2009, he was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education as Director of the Children with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project.
He is the author of over 200 articles and many texts on a range of learning disability, special needs, and mental health topics. He co-authored two books on children with FASD, building on his postdoctoral research in this area. Additionally, his book, “Engaging Learners with Complex Needs” (Routledge), which outlined his research on Engagement as Pedagogy, has been further developed by the Rochford Review as the model for statutory summative assessment, with legislation to enshrine this enacted in 2021.
Barry lectures nationally and internationally. In recent years, this has included Qatar, China, Japan, Dubai, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong, and Germany. He is the co-founder of the National Forum for Neuroscience in Education. For the Mental Health Foundation, he chaired the National Inquiry into the Mental Health of Young People with Learning Disabilities. He also chaired the National Forum on Girls and Autism, which led to the publication in 2019 of his critically acclaimed book on this subject.
For Outcomes First Group, he is Chair of the Research, Innovation and Development Board, having previously served on the Safeguarding and Advisory Boards. He is Patron of the ADHD Foundation and a Governor at a local Primary School.
Barry has three children: one is a School Principal, one is a Senior Occupational Therapist, and one is a daughter with Down’s Syndrome, who now has a home of her own, published her first book in 2017, and considers herself an actress!
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