Quality of Life

The vision for Breckenbrough School is to improve the quality of life for all our students to develop into happy, healthy and successful adults. The Quality of Life framework aims to provide the structure and process for this vision to be realised and achieved.

“All individuals with autism are entitled to a good education and a good quality of life.”

The Autism Education Trust

Professor Valsa Eapen and her colleagues at the University of New South Wales developed the Quality of Life in Autism Questionnaire to provide information on the QoL of the parents of pre-school autistic children and how caring for an autistic child affected their family QoL.

It is crucial that the framework acknowledges the importance of the family and the quality of family life. Therefore, the partnership between home and school is critical to the success of the vision and the success of a placement.

Every student and their family are appointed a keyworker, who will be the significant adult for the student as they progress through the school. Transparent and trusting relationships are the key between a student, their family and the keyworker.

Quality of Life Policy

Keyworking Policy

Surveys are carried out at the start of each term and coordinated by the keyworker. The student will complete a survey and the family will complete a similar survey with the keyworker triangulating the responses to set targets and review progress. The survey questions are driven by the research of Professor Eapen and specifically designed for autistic young people. We acknowledge that some of the survey statements can be challenging to respond to but a degree of honesty is required for the framework to succeed.

The framework process is illustrated here in how the various components link together to support the vision and deliver the outcomes.

Breckenbrough is engaged in a network of other providers who are delivering the Quality of Life framework and continuing to develop and improve practice and outcomes.

A current piece of work has revolved around the mapping of QoL with the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF), which can be found here:

EIF and QoL