The Team
Jo Coulson
Jo is a UKBA(cert) and Board Certified Behaviour Analyst; she has worked using the Positive Behaviour Support model for fifteen years. She works in a range of settings for adults and children, including schools, health and social care services and families homes. Jo develops strategies at the individual and service level to improve people’s quality of life and support. She is experienced at providing clinical supervision to enhance others practice within PBS settings.
Jo is on the board of the UK Society for Behaviour Analysis and is a co-presenter of the PBS Matters podcast discussing the application of the science within the UK with a variety of guests. She also delivers online and in person training to other UKBA(cert)s and Board Certified Behaviour Analysts to enable them to maintain their certification. She has a particular interest in ethical practice and providing effective clinical supervision.
Amy Nash
Amy is a UKBA(cert) and Board Certified Behaviour Analyst who has been working in health and social care for 10 years. She has been using the Positive Behaviour Support model for over 8 years, working across a variety of settings, including; residential, supported living and Assessment and Treatment Units.
Amy has wide experience at developing behaviour analytic strategies at an organisational, service and individual level, to improve quality of life for all affected. She has been the head of a multidisciplinary clinical team and has a particular interest in the use of behaviour analysis to make organisational systemic changes to improve quality of support provided.
Amy enjoys supervising others, specifically in adult positive behaviour support settings and is keen to promote inter organisational and multi-disciplinary working.
Chloe May
Chloe is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst and UKBA(cert) who has experience working in a variety of settings and roles. Chloe has experience providing services in home and school settings in addition to both residential and supporting living homes. Chloe is incredibly passionate about the work she completes and strives to achieve improvements in the quality of life of all those she supports using values led and evidenced based approaches. Chloe also co-chairs the UK SBA PBS Special Interest Group, which allows for a great opportunity to collaborate with other likeminded clinicians.
Chloe has a particular interest in system wide support, working with organisations to strategically support them to ensure that the infrastructure and support systems required to achieve organisational positive change are in place, particularly around good quality staff support. Chloe also provides clinical supervision to others, with a focus on ethical and evidence-based approaches to support.
Fareeha Syal
Fareeha is currently studying towards her Board Certified Behaviour Analyst qualification and is a member of the UK-SBA. She has a passion for supporting individuals with varying needs within the Positive Behaviour Support framework. Fareeha has worked to support both children and adults in a variety of settings including family homes, schools, and supported living.
Fareeha’s experience as a support worker has helped shaped her interests in trauma informed care as well as skills-teaching for individuals she supports as well as stakeholders. Fareeha enjoys providing training to organizations and families to upskill and empower them to provide high-quality support to the individuals. Fareeha values collaboration within and across teams to bring about the best possible outcome.
Anthony Cox
Anthony is a behaviour consultant who has five years’ experience of working with autistic people and their families in specialist schools and services. Anthony is currently studying at the Tizard Centre and is working towards his Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst qualification. He strongly believes in multiple partnership working with all key people whilst ultilising evidence-based practices. He believes in supports that are ambitious, honor personal goal selection, person centered and with the main aim of promoting quality of life for the focal person and their key people.
Anthony has a keen interest in organisational and system wide positive behaviour support (PBS). He believes that PBS is most effective in services through system wide implementation, collaboration, and development. Within this model, Anthony is passionate about utilising evidence-based practices with staff teams that are of a high-quality nature, and actively strive to recruit the focal person and their key people into all aspects of supports.
Jen Knight
Jen is a UKBA(cert) and Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst and Chartered Psychologist who has worked with individuals with Autism Spectrum and other Developmental Disorders for 13 years. Her clinical experience extends to include Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (EIBI), mainstream school inclusion programmes, and the provision of positive behaviour support to increase the quality of life for the individuals she supports and their respective stakeholders.
Jen has a keen interest in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, staff well-being and language development from a behavioural perspective. She also enjoys utilising systems-wide support for educational and social care settings and upskilling clinicians and staff teams through training/mentoring.
Jen has worked in a range of settings including home-based environments, schools and social care settings. She values interdisciplinary collaboration, a positive attitude and an evidence and values led approach to support.
Lissy Copsey
Lissy is a UKBA (Cert) and Board Certified Behaviour Analyst who has over 8 years experience working with individuals with varying diagnoses from ages 18 months into late adulthood in a variety of settings.
Lissy is passionate about supporting and upskilling individuals in a person-centred manner using a positive behaviour support framework to promote good quality of life. Lissy is dedicated to ensuring all support is personalised and meaningful for each individual.
Lissy has two brothers with Autism and other additional needs, so is devoted to ensuring the individuals, their families and surrounding network feel fully included, supported and able to work together cohesively.
Les Waugh
Les has worked in Social Care since 1988, predominantly with autistic people and people with Learning Disabilities. She started her career as a support worker and has worked in a variety of different settings for the third sector and for statutory authorities.
In 2003, she trained as a Person Centred Planning facilitator and trainer working for Buckinghamshire County Council across adult day service. In 2006, Les started with the National Autistic Society as their PCP National Lead, working across all adult services and schools. She worked for the NAS for seventeen years in differing roles, including Personalisation Lead, National Social Care Brokerage Coordinator, and was their Head of Learning and Development for five years until November 2023. During the latter role she worked closely with the Head of PBS.
Les is an advanced trainer, specialising in all social care topics including leadership and management of services, and training Social Work practitioners in autism-specific assessment. She is highly skilled in delivering Learning Disability and Autism training.
Les is passionate about person centred approaches and thinking, ensuring improved quality of life for people who are supported.
Sally Nickless
Sally is a Board-Certified Behaviour Analyst who has worked to enable children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, to improve their quality-of-life outcomes, using a Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) model, since 2010.
Sally has experience of devising and implementing system-wide PBS within educational settings, consulting within health and social care, educational and home-based environments, and providing supervision, mentorship, and training for supervisees, staff, and parents.
Sally thrives when supporting people directly and relishes the uniqueness of everyone. By adopting the PBS model, she is dedicated to personalising support, ensuring that it is meaningful and rewarding for them. Additionally, Sally is a firm believer in collaborating within trans-disciplinary teams, believing it guarantees better outcomes for the people we support.
Helen Crosby
Helen is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst with over 20 years of experience in Health and Social Care, having worked across a range of settings serving children and adults with Autism and Intellectual Disabilities. Helen implements Positive Behaviour Support to improve the quality of life of the people she works with and has a keen interest in embedding systems-wide supports across organisations to promote lasting and long-term change. Helen has experience of coaching and supervising other Practitioners, and enjoys working as an integrated partner in interdisciplinary teams to enhance practice.
Helen has spent a number of years dedicated to reducing restrictive practices and supporting services to promote more constructive ways to help people achieve their potential and live an ordinary and valued life. Having a background also in Nursing, Helen champions health and well-being initiatives for people with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism, challenges health inequalities and works to promote inclusive services.
Helen is also a parent to a daughter who experiences Autism, and can appreciate the importance of genuine co-production and providing services which ‘fit’ in with everyday life and which can be put into practice in a meaningful way. Helen focuses on putting individuals and families at the front and centre of support and respects the uniqueness of their contributions and personal circumstances.
Lavley Azad
Lavely is a Positive Behaviour Support Specialist with a wide range of experience working alongside charities such as National Autistic Society and specialist provider Elysium Healthcare in the implementation of positive behaviour support at a national level
Over the last 8 years Lavely has studied Person Centred Support and behavioural models such as Positive Behaviour Support to help provide care for services specialising in Autism and learning disability. Initially working as a support worker, Lavely has progressed though a range of roles at service level while completing an MSc in Applied Behaviour Analysis. She has also completed CQC inspections and is trained as PBS practitioner.
Being a support worker helped Lavely to understand how much we need to support each other as a society and gave her the passion to pursue a career that would allow her to help the most vulnerable people. Lavely values compassion, respect and care within her work and aims to bringing a smile and a better quality of life to those she cares for.