It consists of 15 trustees who are headteachers, class teachers, college lecturers and special advisers. They meet three times a year and EQUALS pays for their travel costs. From this group there is a Strategic Group that overviews developments each half term. Trustees are practicing professionals who work in a voluntary capacity and decide on priorities to guide the future activities. In addition, each Trustee has a specific responsibility to support ongoing initiatives.

EQUALS has now been offering its services to schools for 17 Years. In this time it has built up a strong record in supporting Teachers. Members of the EQUALS Executive have been involved in a number of QCDA projects seeking to influence the development of new national initiatives. By being a member of EQUALS you can inform our Executive of issues that affect the pupils in your school and we in turn raise the issues with the QCDA and DfE.

EQUALS aims to:

• Promote the highest standards of education for pupils with learning difficulties.
• Influence educational practice and policy at local, regional and national levels by consulting and liaising with QCDA, DfE, Ofsted and the TTA.
• Support teachers in applying governmental policy in the education of children with learning difficulties.
• Foster high quality innovative practice, through the publication of relevant and rigorous support materials.
• Advance the entitlement of pupils with learning difficulties to equality of opportunity.
• Facilitate the rights of pupils to speak for themselves.
• Voice the concerns of teachers and head teachers.
• Arrange national conferences and best practice workshops
• Write new curriculum teaching materials
• Facilitate the national target setting project
• Manage a 14-19 accreditation scheme
• Maintain a website