Claire Cordell
Founder
Claire is the Founder of Little Gate and started the charity in 2013. She is passionate about creating better opportunities for people with learning disabilities and autism.
As a parent of a young woman with a learning disability, Claire became very aware of the limited options available to her daughter as she grew into adulthood. This was in stark contrast to the opportunities available to her twin brother.
Although school provision in this area is excellent this doesn’t continue beyond 19 and, like many parents of children with learning disabilities, Claire became increasingly aware of the ‘cliff edge’ caused by the lack of aspirational provision after the age of 19.
In 2013, Claire and her husband David decided to use the family farm to create a new opportunity to help adults with learning difficulties and autism to gain real employment skills that lead onto paid work through Supported Employment.
Claire passionately believes that paid employment can be transformational and benefits the whole of society.
I want to walk into my town centre and see a workforce that reflects the society I live in; I want to be served by adults with learning disabilities and autism who look like me and my family.
Andrea Randall-Smith
Andrea leads Little Gate with passion to fulfill our mission to support young people with learning disabilities and autism into paid employment, enabling them to live happy and fulfilled lives.
Biff Mooney
Senior Project Leader
Biff helps to manage the trainees’ learning. He does the planning for the farm and makes sure that the trainees are doing activities which help them to learn valuable employment skills.
Mary Soul
Fundraising Manager
marysoul@littlegate.org.uk
Mary works tirelessly to find fundraising opportunities for Little Gate, including writing our funding applications and organising our fundraising events.
Niki Ashley
Operations Manager
nikiashley@littlegate.org.uk
Niki works behind the scenes at Little Gate Farm dealing with invoices, donations and basically making sure everything runs to plan!
Hannah Briars
Head of Little Gate Farm
Hannah heads up our Supported Work Training centre at Little Gate Farm, supporting our trainees as they prepare for employment. She helps them set their individual goals and manages the day to day training and activities which enable them to achieve their goals.
David Cordell
Estates Manager
David’s family has owned Little Gate Farm since the 1960s. Maintaining the family tradition, David manages the farming side of Little Gate Farm.
As well as looking after the livestock David is a talented builder and loves creating new spaces such as our wonderful log cabin headquarters and The Barn (which is available for hire).
Jo Rainsbury
Young Rangers Project Leader
jorainsbury@littlegate.org.uk
Jo runs our popular Little Gate Rangers schemes, providing opportunities for young people to spend time on the farm learning new skills, developing their confidence and having plenty of fun!