Claire Burton is the Director of Send & Alternative Provision and joined us in September 2025. Before joining SEND & AP, Claire was the interim Director General for Regions Group and Regional Director for the London Region, providing integrated delivery of the department's improvement programmes for schools and local authorities, including children’s social care services and special educational needs and disabilities services. Claire has worked in and around the education sector since joining the Department for Education in 2004. Over the course of her career, she has also worked as Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills; Deputy Director for the apprenticeship programme; Deputy Director and Director of the academy programme and Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the Standards and Testing Agency, an executive agency of the Department for Education responsible for the development and delivery of national curriculum tests for primary schools.