Quarterly Newsletter January 2020
Embracing autism
Transforming lives
Big data is being used
by Prior's Court to better
understand our young
people's autism and
transform how we support
those in our care.
Prior Insight - our ground-breaking,
bespoke digital platform which gathers
rich data about autism as a condition -
has officially been launched.
Through Prior Insight, Prior's Court staff
members log information about the
young person they are working with
every day.
This data - called 'diary entries' - cover
records such as food and drink intake;
toileting; and activities undertaken
such as a walk, a puzzle or watching
TV.
On average, more than 10,000 diary
entries are made every week.
We revealed a short explainer video
(still pictured right) about the idea
behind Prior Insight on the same
day we were visited by a news team
from BBC South (pictured above) to
explore how we are using technology
to enhance how we are educating
and caring for our young people. This
included looking at Prior Insight and
our recently-purchased VR headsets
(see page 5). Our passion for technology
calls back to the ethos of our founding
patron Dame Stephanie Shirley, a
pioneer in the field of IT.
Elaine Hudgell, Prior Insight
Operational Project Lead, said: "This
data gives us unprecedented insights
to map and analyse autism-related
behaviours and triggers. With this, we
gain a deeper understanding of each
of our young people and so produce
informed, tailored support for them
to have more good days. Essentially, it
helps to communicate to us digitally
what our young people are not able to
tell us verbally - it's bridging that gap
and helping to give them a voice.
"For one young person, Prior Insight
helped us to recognise certain
behavioural patterns he displayed in
the build-up to a seizure. This meant
we were alerted in advance that a
seizure might be imminent and could
provide appropriate support.
"These insights, and the future research
opportunities the rich data can inform,
can then be shared with the wider
autism sector and potentially influence
approaches and policy outside of Prior's
Court.
"It is no exaggeration to say Prior
Insight has been a gamechanger
for us and has the potential to be a
gamechanger for the wider autism
world."
A fundraising project for Prior
Insight is ongoing. To discuss
how you could help, contact
the fundraising team on 01635
247202 or email fundraising@
priorscourt.org.uk.
Using big data to transform lives
www.priorscourt.org.uk