Jo Billington

Jo is a mental health trainer specialising in the wellbeing of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). She is a member of the Charlie Waller Schools and Families team.

Jo’s work for the Trust is underpinned by her research in the Centre for Autism at the University of Reading where her PhD focuses on the wellbeing of autistic children in mainstream primary schools. Jo is also an Associate Lecturer in the School of Education at Oxford Brookes University where she has taught across various programmes including Initial Teacher Training. In addition to these posts, Jo is also a visiting lecturer at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families where she is part of a pioneering autistic-led clinical training programme.

Further to her teaching and research, Jo runs peer support workshops for parent-carers of autistic children at Berkshire-based charity Parenting Special Children. Jo is herself parent to two autistic sons and has extensive lived experience of the facilitators of and barriers to wellbeing for children with special needs.