> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://med-techinsights.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# NHS Psychologist wins £75k Innovate UK award to build AI tool for SEND pupils
- URL: https://med-techinsights.com/nhs-psychologist-wins-75k-innovate-uk-award-to-build-ai-tool-for-send-pupils/
- Published: 2026-08-12T10:11:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-22T08:43:50.000Z
- Description: Dr Sarah Rudebeck, a senior NHS clinical psychologist, has won a £75,000 Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award to build an AI learning tool for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). She is one of 61 award winners, selected from a record 1,590 applications. According to the t
- Author: Oliver Johnson
- Tags: Digital Health & AI, News, Artificial Intelligence

[**Dr Sarah Rudebeck**](https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-rudebeck-12475372/?ref=med-techinsights.com), a senior NHS clinical psychologist, has won a £75,000 [**Innovate UK**](https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/?ref=med-techinsights.com) Women in Innovation Award to build an AI learning tool for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). She is one of 61 award winners, selected from a record 1,590 applications.

According to the team, Recallify Classroom will help young people with memory, attention and organisation difficulties take part in lessons more independently. It works from a pupil’s own notes, recordings and lesson materials, so the support matches what they were taught in class. The 12-month project began in July 2026 and adapts Recallify, the app she co-founded, for use in schools and colleges.

The award comes as pressure on England’s SEND system reaches its highest recorded level. Department for Education figures published in June 2026 show more than 1.8 million pupils receiving SEN support or holding an Education, Health and Care Plan, more than one in five pupils in England.

In her clinic, Dr Rudebeck sees what that pressure costs. Children recovering from brain injuries return to school unable to keep up. The specialist support they need is slow to arrive, or never comes at all. Staff are stretched too thin, and councils are facing major cost pressures on the budgets that pay for that support.

Dr Rudebeck says that Recallify Classroom is designed to put that support directly in the learner’s hands. It produces short summaries, practice quizzes and reminders from the material a pupil captures in the lesson, such as notes, recordings or photographs of the board.

Use in school will be bounded and supervised, working only from materials provided by the learner or staff, with clear rules for consent and oversight. It is not a substitute for a teacher. The aim is to reduce the time staff spend on prompting and catch-up.

Over the next 12 months the project will co-design the tool with students and education staff, build a browser-based version that runs on school devices, complete an independent safeguarding and data protection review, and run a pilot at a secondary school in Surrey, working with the school’s SEND department.

The project team includes Dr Berkan Sesen, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Recallify, and Dr Gemma Costello, Consultant Educational Psychologist. Recallify has been available on the App Store and Google Play since January 2025 and supports around 3,000 people with additional cognitive and learning needs.

Dr Sarah Rudebeck said: “In clinic I saw young people with SEND return to school without the support they needed, unable to keep up, and some stop attending altogether. They deserve technology as current as the tools being built for business. Recallify Classroom will test whether AI can support their independent learning and memory through something as simple as transcribing and summarising their own lessons. We need to innovate faster for young people with special educational needs.”