There are five members of the Core Research Team who are led by the Chief Investigator, Dr Kate Oulton. They are involved in the day to day conduct of the study and meet monthly to review progress and plan the next stages.

Dr Kate Oulton – Chief Investigator

Kate Oulton (RN Child, BA Hons, MA, PhD) is a Senior Research Fellow and Clinical Academic Programme Lead in the Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children’s Health, Illness and Disability (ORCHID) at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Since completing her PhD in 2012, Kate has led a programme of research focusing on children and young people with long-term conditions and their families, particularly those with learning disabilities and those whose condition is rare or undiagnosed. Patient and public involvement in research is a key part of her work. She is passionate about ensuring children and young people with learning disabilities have equal opportunities to take part in research and uses creative and digital research methods to facilitate their inclusion.

Kate is the Chief Investigator on the Pay More Attention Study focused on ensuring equal access to high quality hospital care for children and young people with and without learning disabilities.  Other projects underway include an evaluation of a specialist nursing post for children and young people without a diagnosis and their families and the use of art and photography to explore happiness, fulfillment and resilience in children and young people with rare conditions and their families.

Dr Jo Wray

Dr Jo Wray is a Senior Research Fellow and Health Psychologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital.  Prior to working at GOSH (2009) she was a Consultant Health Psychologist at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, where she implemented a clinical health psychology service and research programme with paediatric cardiothoracic transplant patients.  Her current research and quality improvement projects are primarily focused in the Critical Care and Cardiorespiratory Division at GOSH, where she leads on psychosocial research and patient reported outcomes. She is the UK lead for an international study to develop and test a disease specific quality of life measure for children with heart disease and is a co-investigator on a number of NIHR, Wellcome and charity funded mixed-method projects.  She is also the joint-lead for patient experience in the Critical Care and Cardiorespiratory Division and recent projects include the development of a Child Patient Reported Experience Measure.  She supervises a number of MSc, PhD and DClinPsy students and has a role within the Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children’s Health, Illness and Disability (ORCHID) supporting nursing and allied health research across the Trust.

Prof. Faith Gibson

Faith Gibson is a children’s cancer nurse. She has worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children since the mid 1980’s, and currently holds a joint appointment between the hospital and the University of Surrey. She is a researcher and Professor of Child Health and Cancer Care. Her research focuses on children/young people and family members, with a particular focus on those who are or have been affected by cancer. Her research work includes the use of creative and participatory research drawing on arts based work. At the core of all of her work is the importance of patient and public involvement (PPI) in research, ethics and the good conduct of research, and using active, engaging multi-level approaches to dissemination that impacts on the care of families. At the hospital she leads the Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children’s Health, Illness and Disability (ORCHID), where Kate Oulton the Chief Investigator of the PMA study also works. She offers academic leadership and support to Kate and others in the team, and inputs into PPI for this study.

Dr Charlotte Kenten

Dr Charlotte Kenten is a Research Fellow and the Project Manager for Pay More Attention. She is responsible for the day to day running of the study and is the main point of contact. In a voluntary capacity Charlotte has several years’ experience working with people with learning disabilities as well as with young people. She has previously carried out research with people with learning disabilities and their experiences of ‘institutional’ and ‘public’ spaces.

With a PhD in geography, Charlotte has an underlying interest in people’s use and experience of space. Her recent research has addressed issues to improve care for patients and their families particularly around end of life care for young adults with cancer and increasing consent for organ donation. She has worked on studies funded by the NIHR, BBSRC, ESRC, Marie Curie and a number of charities, and disseminated research findings through lay and peer-reviewed publications, presentations at national and international conferences and public engagement events.

Jess Russell

Jess Russell is the Research Associate on the study, involved in the preparation of each phase, data collection, analysis and dissemination. Jess also co-ordinates the patient and public involvement (PPI) activities, under Prof Faith Gibson, the PPI lead.  Jess works with groups of parents, children and young people, with and without learning disabilities on making each stage of the study design appropriate, accessible, ethical and sensitive to the needs of the participants.

Jess has previously conducted mixed methods research with multi-disciplinary teams at UCL Louis Dundas Centre for Children’s Palliative Care, Hertfordshire University and Durham University.