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Job title: Group manager, special education, Ministry of Education


You could see it as a trip from frying pan to fire.

After five years as chairwoman of the Mental Health Commission, and seven years leading the Mental Health Foundation before that, Barbara Disley has leaped into special education.

It's a service involving 66,000 students in New Zealand - and another field marked by controversy and public discontent.

But Australia-born Disley, whose training in special education led to a doctorate in teaching vocational skills to intellectually disabled adults, is unfazed: she was looking for new challenges.

Her first task is helping to smooth the transition of special education services from a separate Crown entity back under the wing of the Ministry of Education, a switch that took place 10 days after she started.

Her annual budget of $100 milion might seem large.

But, she says, "you are dealing with people who often have very complex needs.

"For me it's about being able to find ways to work out where you can meet those needs as well as you can, although there will always be confines on resources.

"The challenge is: how can it be made as responsive as possible?"

Disley says that the job "gives me the chance to work at a higher policy level, and the opportunity to be involved in shaping the way things will be."