Knowledge Transfer Partnership success!

10 July 2018

We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in our Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) bid with the Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University.

Knowledge Transfer Partnership success!

10 July 2018

We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in our Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) bid with the Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University.

Boy with a female carer, smiling.

We are delighted to announce that we have been successful in our Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) bid with the Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University. This KTP is funded by Welsh Government and Innovate UK. This is what it is about.

What is a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP)?

The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme helps businesses in the UK to innovate and grow. It does this by linking them with an academic or research institute and a graduate. A KTP enables a business to bring in new skills and the latest academic thinking to deliver a specific, strategic innovation project through a knowledge-based partnership.

Each KTP is a 3-way partnership between:

  • a UK-based business or a not-for-profit organisation
  • an academic or research institute
  • a suitably-qualified graduate, with the capability to lead a strategic business project

We have support from Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, Cardiff Business School and The National Centre for Mental Health (NCMH) at Cardiff University. The KTP will allow us to develop new skills that we can use in other ongoing Cerebra work, and vice versa. The skills we have learnt from other Cerebra projects will also be beneficial in this project. The KTP has synergy with our academic partnerships with the universities of Birmingham, Warwick and Leeds.

Who are the Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University?

The Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences (IPMCN) conduct high quality research into neurodevelopmental disorders and mental health problems. A main research interest is to learn more about the early origins, development and impacts of neurodevelopmental and mental health problems on children, young people and their families.

Their overall aim is to improve prevention, interventions and policy. The experiences of people with copy number variants (ECHO) study group within the Institute is led by Professor Marianne van den Bree and focuses on people with genetic conditions caused by chromosome changes called ‘Copy Number Variants’ (CNVs).

The Project

The project aim is to develop more effective ways of ensuring families of children with intellectual and developmental disorders (IDDs) have greater access to modern personalised genomic and integrated psychiatry services according to parents’ needs and preferences.

The project focuses on children and young people with CNVs. Some children with CNVs have a small segment of their DNA repeated (a duplication), other may have a segment missing (a deletion). Some CNVs appear to have little or no effect on children’s health or development, but some can be very serious. CNVs are a significant cause of learning difficulties, developmental delay, serious medical health problems and increased risk of psychiatric disorders, such as ADHD, autism, of schizophrenia.

Our project aims to develop more effective ways of ensuring children with intellectual and developmental disorders (IDDs) have greater access to modern, personalised genetic and integrated psychiatry services according to parents’ needs and preferences. This KTP aims to transform our capability to support families of children with these genetic disorders by taking advantage of new knowledge and capabilities from the Cardiff University Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences to develop new solutions and joint partnerships that will bring lasting benefit to thousands of children and their families.

The Chief Medical Officer’s report 2012 on children with IDD stated many disabled children have serious difficulties accessing statutory services, and inadequate co-ordination within and between services is a major concern. Our own Accessing Public Services work certainly supports this finding. The Welsh Government’s Strategic Plan for Rare Disorders is committed to promoting equality of access for everyone with a rare disease to follow clear care pathways providing high quality services through integrated personal care plans. This KTP will address the problems identified by The Chief Medical Officer and contribute to turning the Welsh Government’s strategic goal into a reality for children and their families.

This KTP has the opportunity to benefit at least 3,500 children in Wales with rare developmental disorders attributed to CNVs. In England over 10,000 children per year are diagnosed with CNVs. As genetic testing becomes even more effective, cheaper and informative the numbers of children receiving genetic diagnoses will accelerate. The long-term potential impact of this KTP is therefore significant in this emerging branch of medicine. Knowing which CNVs carry risk of debilitating psychiatric illness; understanding environmental influences; and being able to recognise key signs of high risk will help earlier and more appropriate intervention. Thus, this KTP has the opportunity to improve longer term outcomes for children and their families.

The ECHO study research team consist of world leading academics and clinicians. Over the last 10 years it has built one of the largest and most detailed studies of individuals with CNV internationally. Studying these children over time, major insights have been gained into their development, strengths and weaknesses. In harness with our expertise around working with families and developing award winning information resources this partnership will further Cerebra’s goal of maximising the empowerment of anxious families to access the best care for their children and also enable us to engage with and influence multi-disciplinary services on behalf of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The KTP will develop efficient cross-disciplinary working between Cerebra, IPMCN, Cardiff Business School, and The National Centre for Mental Health and statutory and voluntary sector partners. We will pilot new approaches within Cardiff and Vale NHS trust with the long-term aim of advising and supporting other NHS Trusts to adopt similar approaches thus improving outcomes for children and their families.

As part of this KTP we will:

  • Identify other voluntary organisations supporting children with IDD and involve them in the stakeholder advisory panel.
  • Develop strong partnerships with small condition specific support groups developing cooperative approaches to sharing and developing information resources.
  • Use our current skills, capabilities and family contacts to develop high quality accessible multimedia resources for families.
  • Work collaboratively with service providers to develop and test a model way of working to achieve improved health and education outcomes for children. An approach that can be shared and developed across authorities.
  • Contribute to teaching and training at the University Medical School, ensuring future generations of clinicians are better equipped to deliver services to help children with intellectual and developmental disorders in harmony with the wishes of their families.

Costs

Two thirds of the cost of this ground-breaking and very exciting new project is being met by the Welsh Government with the balance needing to be raised through the generosity of Cerebra’s amazing supporters.
Our contribution to this project, which will have far-reaching effects, is just under £2,000 per month for the next three years.

If you would like to be a part of something amazing and help make a real and lasting difference to the lives of children with brain conditions and their families then please make a donation towards the costs – your contribution, no matter how small, will help others.

You could call Debbie on 01267 244206 to make a one off or regular donation or donate on-line. Our website also has some great fundraising ideas.

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