Catherine Barry

I joined the Surgical Intervention Trials Unit (SITU-NDORMS) as a Paediatric Research Physiotherapist working on the SPELL and ROBUST trials. Funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme, the trials investigate the clinical effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions for children and young people with cerebral palsy.  In addition, I am a Co-Chief Investigator for PREPARE Kids, an NIHR-funded multi-centre RCT looking into the clinical and cost effectiveness of prehabilitation in children’s elective lower limb surgery.

After graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Physiotherapy from the University of Southampton in 1996,  I specialised as a Paediatric Physiotherapist. I developed  a specialist interest in the musculoskeletal management of cerebral palsy, including rehabilitation following lower limb multi-level orthopaedic surgery, working in both Melbourne and Oxford Children’s Hospital.  My most recent clinical role was as an Extended Scope Physiotherapist (in paediatric neuro-orthopaedics), which I combined with the role of Children’s Musculoskeletal Therapy Team Lead at The Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

A member of both the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the Association of Paediatric Chartered Physiotherapy, I have a professional focus on improving the physiotherapy management of children with cerebral palsy. My extended roles include Secretary of the Cerebral Palsy Integrated Pathway (CPIP) National Network.