The Key Speaker 

Jamie Williams and Spectrum First Education

Jamie Williams is one of the directors of Spectrum First Education, a leading employer of neurodivergent people in the UK. Employing a neurodiverse team of teachers, lecturers, academics, researchers, rights advocates, mental health practitioners, social workers, artists, authors, and scientists, they use a highly specialist approach to support over 600 autistic and ADHD students in Sheffield annually. 

Founded by Christine Breakey in 2003, Spectrum First has always prioritised person-centred, compassionate, and curious approaches to supporting neurominority university students to overcome barriers within education. 

Their approach is informed by first-hand support experiences and insights from emerging social and critical model research, which foregrounds the lived experiences of autistic and ADHD people. This is translated into practical strength-focused strategies that help students identify and implement what works for them.  

Jamie manages Spectrum First Education’s outstanding Sheffield Team of study skills tutors and mentors. Jamie’s love of collaborating within and outside the Spectrum First team is supported by his background in critical psychology, literature and music, and his practice as an autism and ADHD specialist mentor, study skills tutor, workplace coach, trainer, and research project lead. He teaches scientific skills to learners in prison settings through international Science communication project ‘Think Like A Scientist’.

Project INC (Inclusive Neurodiverse Campuses) 

In the keynote, Jamie will present insights relevant to autistic postgraduate research students from this year’s research collaboration with York St John’s Professor Lorna Hamilton and Dr Stephanie Petty, funded by the Institute for Social Justice. 

Project INC adopted a collaborative participatory action research methodology to explore neurodiversity-positive best practices across Higher Education (HE) campuses through innovative data collection to: 

• identify which spaces facilitate learning

• understand where and how neurodivergent belonging and well-being is promoted

• consider what HE formats for teaching and assessment are best tailored for the widest range of learners

• highlight good practice examples to inform support, tutoring, mentoring, training, and assessment

• promote how responsibility for neurodivergent student’ success can be shared throughout HE systems, minimising the need for reactive or crisis-led support, or ‘self-advocacy burnout’ 

The project focuses on ‘what works’ as a means to inspire widespread institutional change and for barriers impacting students on a personal level to be addressed. 

The project was a cross-campus, visible, and co-produced installation of neurodiversity-affirming messaging and data collection. It concentrated on ‘what works’ to inspire widespread changes at both the ground and institutional levels.

The project’s findings are currently influencing local policy and student support practices. Practical strategies and recommendations will be shared throughout the presentation. 

The wider Project INC team

Professor Lorna Hamilton, Professor of Developmental Psychology and Inclusive Education, School of Education, Language and Psychology at York St John

Lorna is Professor of Developmental Psychology and Inclusive Education at York St John University. She is a chartered psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Lorna’s current projects seek to apply learning from neurodivergent school pupils to the university context, with the aim of creating truly inclusive experiences on campus for neurodivergent students. Lorna’s research is funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust, National Institute for Health Research, and the Experimental Psychology Society.

Profile and Publications available here

Dr Stephanie Petty: Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Associate Professor, Deputy Associate Head, School of Education, Language and Psychology at York St John 

Stephanie is a chartered Clinical Psychologist with dual doctorates in clinical practice (ClinPsyD) and research (PhD) within diverse settings. A member of the Doctorate of Counselling Psychology programme team at York St John, Stephanie also serves as Deputy Associate Head of School, leading strategic development and practitioner training in Psychology. Her professional achievements have been recognised with an award from the British Psychological Society. Stephanie’s recent research focus includes disentangling emotional distress and mental health conditions from neurodivergence, including understanding how emotion is experienced and expressed by autistic people, and how this relates to a person’s fit in their world. 

Profile and Publications available here

Research Associates

Dr Christian Hanser, Kay Louise Aldred, Brianna Ralston, Darcy Neilson 

 Participatory Advisory Group (PAG) 

A mixed neurotype group of current and former students of Higher Education contexts, who closely collaborated with the Project INC research team to shape all stages of the research design, data collection, dissemination and analysis