Paul Brown: Director, The INSPIRE Foundation
Paul has worked in the public sector as a teacher and school leader for the past 30 years. In this time he has worked across all sectors of the education system, leading three schools as headteacher or executive headteacher. He gained his first headship at the age of 30 and has 22 years of school leadership experience.
For the last 11 years, Paul has worked as a National Leader of Education where he worked alongside school leadership teams facing challenging circumstances. During this time he coached and mentored school leaders, supported schools through and after inspection, wrote improvement and development plans and supported financial stability and sustainability planning. This work allowed Paul to work across all sectors of the education system including nursery, primary, senior, emotional and behavioural support and special educational needs provision. These opportunities have given him insight into the value and importance of equality and inclusion and a passion to add social value through his work.
Many of the strategic assignments Paul has undertaken have required stabilising schools in difficult financial situations, writing financial recovery plans, bids and applications for projects to improve outcomes and ensure financial stability and sustainability. Almost all of this work has been done when working alongside governing boards and regulating bodies to ensure strategic focus and compliance.
Paul was born in Liverpool and trained as a teacher at Charlotte Mason College in the Lake District (now part of University of Lancaster). He remained in the Lakes after graduation and worked in challenging schools on the west coast of the county before securing his first headship in Ulverston, near Barrow in Furness and then his second headship in Kendal. He moved to Ringwood with his wife, Maria, an early years’ teacher, and three children, in 2013. He took up his final leadership post in the New Forest and led a school, a teacher training unit and operated as a National Leader of Education. He was seconded part-time to a local multi academy trust in the Southampton area to support leadership development and also delivered and coached aspiring leaders nationally on the national leadership programmes for Winchester University and the Department for Education. More recently Paul has worked on behalf of the Department for Education as a mentor and coach for those aspiring to teach, visiting universities across the South West of England as the regional lead.
Paul has some insight into SCI through a colleague and a friend, both of whom were spinal cord injured (SCI), one through a parachuting accident and the other through an injury sustained whilst working in the defence industry. He is passionate about the use of technology to improve the life of those with physical disability and has seen first-hand the difference that simple, useable technology can make. Paul sees the work of INSPIRE as collaborative and highly focused on making technological improvements for those most in need, making daily tasks which could be extremely challenging more manageable whilst offering dignity and independence to the user.
Paul is excited by his new post as director of INSPIRE because it offers a role which helps improve the life of others and a new challenge working on the inspiring and practical projects which promise to bring about real change and improvement for those who are SCI. Paul has been brought up to believe in social justice and is committed to improving the lives of those he serves in his work. He intends to use this passion to drive forward the excellent foundations laid by his predecessors in this role.
Paul is looking forward to learning more about INSPIRE and the SCI community more widely. He intends to spend time listening and learning from the SCI users themselves, the National Scientific Committee, our Trustees and Patrons. He is determined to give his all to the role so that INSPIRE might offer even more inspirational, yet practical support to those with SCI long into the future.
Paul formally took over as Director of INSPIRE on 1st May 2026.