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Carolyn Atkinson
Carolyn Atkinson is a radio reporter and presenter with more than 30 years of experience, mainly at the BBC.
She specialises in social affairs, disability affairs, social care, health, the arts, and how the education system supports children with special educational needs or disabilities .
She was most recently a producer on the award winning ‘SEND in the Spotlight’ podcast for BBC Sounds, made by the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour team.
In 2024 she was instrumental in co-producing a 1 hour special programme for Woman’s Hour from the BBC Radio Theatre called ‘SEND: Mums bridging the gap.’
A specially commissioned opinion poll revealed almost 75% of mothers thought the SEND system was ‘broken’.
Almost 60% had either given up work or cut their hours to support their child or children with SEND.
Other reports include investigations into ‘rogue refuges’ for Woman’s Hour which won a special award at The Orwell Prize for Reporting Homelessness.
For many years Carolyn has reported on the autistic children and/or those with a learning disability who are trapped in Assessment and Treatment Units or mental health hospitals for years.
For ‘File on 4 Investigates’ on BBC Radio 4 she reported on the case of a non-verbal autistic woman with a learning disability who was wrongly locked up in a mental health hospital for 45 years, 25 of which were in segregation.
It won Gold at The Audio Academy Awards 2026.
