Who they are
The Tizard Centre is a leading UK academic research centre based at the University of Kent, focused on intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, and community care. Founded in 1994, the centre is named after Jack Tizard, the research psychologist and Professor of Child Development who pioneered deinstitutionalisation and epidemiological research on learning disabilities in the mid-twentieth century.
The Tizard Centre is recognised internationally as one of the foremost academic groups working in learning disability and community care. It houses the participatory research network PARC, where Damian Milton holds his lectureship.
Focus areas
The centre’s research and practice spans:
- Deinstitutionalisation and community living — continuing Jack Tizard’s legacy of examining how people with learning disabilities can live, work, and participate in community
- Autism and neurodiversity — spanning research, teaching, and autistic scholarship through partnerships like PARC
- Challenging behaviour — functional assessment and behaviour support planning informed by an understanding of what behaviour communicates
- Sexuality and relationships — ensuring people with learning disabilities have their sexuality and relational needs acknowledged and supported
- Supported employment and economic participation — examining conditions that enable people with disabilities to work
- Quality of life and wellbeing — person-centred approaches to defining and measuring what constitutes a good life
- Staff support and training — developing effective training and consultation models for care workers and service providers
History and recognition
Jack Tizard’s work in the 1950s and 1960s challenged institutional policies through scientific evidence. His epidemiological studies, including the landmark Wessex Project surveying all known people with learning disabilities across Hampshire and Dorset, demonstrated that many people institutionalised could live and work in the community. This work underpinned the development of ordinary-life models for children and adults with learning disabilities, fundamentally shifting disability policy.
The Tizard Centre celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019. In 2013, it received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in recognition of outstanding work in intellectual and developmental disabilities over 30 years.
Notable outputs
The centre produces research across multiple disciplines — psychology, sociology, social policy, and disability studies. Key outputs include:
- Peer-reviewed research on deinstitutionalisation, community participation, sexuality, challenging behaviour, and quality of life
- Postgraduate teaching programmes (distance and campus-based): MSc Intellectual Disabilities and Autism, MA/PhD Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, MA/PhD Mental Health of People with Learning Disabilities
- The journal Tizard Learning Disability Review, published by Emerald Publishing and dedicated to research in learning disability and community care
- Consultancy and practice development work with service providers, local authorities, and health systems
- Participatory research through PARC, bringing autistic and disabled scholars into research design and knowledge production
Related pages
- PARC — Participatory Autism Research Collective — autistic-led research network based at the Tizard Centre
- Damian Milton — lecturer at the Tizard Centre and co-founder of PARC