Dr Serena Tomlinson and Dr Nick Gore (School of Social Policy, sociology and Social Research), both part of the Tizard project, a leading UK academic centre working in autism, learning disability and community care, were recently awarded prizes for ‘Outstanding Achievement’ by The Sharland Foundation Developmental Disabilities ABA Research and Impact Network (SF-DDARIN).
Dr Serena Tomlinson received her award in recognition of establishing a project to investigate practitioner-led research in the field, in partnership with Dr Nick Gore and colleagues from the network. This project has great strategic potential to promote further applied research, driven by the needs and experiences of practitioners, and to help identify further practical and effective ways of supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The work connects closely with founding principles of the Tizard Centre to support a dynamic and effective workforce and the impact agendas of both Tizard and SF-DDARIN.
Dr Nick Gore was awarded his prize in recognition of ongoing work to develop and research the Early Positive Approaches to Support (E-PAtS) programme. Dr Nick Gore has lead on this (co-produced and co-facilitated) group programme since 2012 and, in partnership with Dr Jill Bradshaw, trained 100s of practitioners and caregivers to support positive wellbeing for families and positive developmental outcomes for their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This work continued throughout the pandemic with rapid mobilisation of online delivery and training formats.
The programme has been widely implemented across all UK countries, is embedded in the Local Offer of the London Borough of Newham and, more recently, has been translated into other languages and implemented internationally (in Norway and Canada). E-PAtS has been the subject of prior qualitative and feasibility research and Dr Nick Gore has recently been awarded funding from NIHR-PHR to lead a full scale RCT of the programme in partnership with colleagues at University of Kent and co-investigators from five other Universities, including SF-DDARIN members.
Congratulations to Nick and Senera on this accomplishment.