It is with great pride that we announce that Dr Nick Gore has been awarded fellowship funding for a three year period from the Estate of Patricia Collen. Patricia lived the majority of her life within Normansfield Hospital, an institution for people with learning disabilities in the UK (now closed). In recognition of Patricia’s experiences, it was her family’s wish that funding from her Estate be used to develop early intervention initiatives to better support young people who have an intellectual disability and complex needs.
Within the fellowship, Nick will be co-ordinating the Early-Positive Approaches to Support (E-PAtS) project. The aim of E-PAtS is to identify and deliver the most effective ways of supporting children with learning or developmental disabilities and their families at a very early stage to help limit later difficulties.
By providing specialised ongoing support during a child’s early years the project aims to help prevent the development of challenging behaviour and guard against its negative impact for children and families. Support provided will draw on best practice highlighted in the literature and from the experiences of professionals and family members.
An integral part of the fellowship will be to ensure that lessons learned are embedded in systems and processes to ensure that progress is sustained, providing a lasting legacy to Patricia.