What does success really look like for autistic young people – and who gets to decide?
In this guest blog, Kiran Hingorani, CEO of Swalcliffe Park School, shares how the school challenged traditional definitions of progress by putting student and family voice at the centre of everything they do. The school was recognised as a finalist in the Innovation category of the 2025 NASS Awards for the development of its Quality of Life (QoL) Framework and the creation of a QoL Network to share best practice across the sector.
From a research-informed framework and bespoke data system, to a curriculum and culture rooted in what genuinely matters to autistic young people and their families, this is a powerful example of innovation driven by listening differently.
Thank you to our 2025 headline award sponsor ASDAN and AssuredPartners for sponsoring the Innovation category.
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At Swalcliffe Park School, a non-maintained specialist residential and day school for autistic boys aged 10-19, we started our QoL journey by asking ourselves a simple but important question: who decides what success looks like for autistic young people?
Many of our families have struggled to have their voices heard within systems that did not always understand their child’s needs. This gave us a clear starting point: listen carefully and understand what matters most.
We also know that many of the biggest barriers to making school a happy and fulfilling experience can include social isolation, sensory overload, anxiety, emotional regulation and communication difficulties can all have a profound impact on their education and Quality of Life now and in the future.
Building a framework for Quality of Life
From this thinking, we developed our Quality of Life (QoL) framework and approach, which underpins our ethos, culture and practice and informs our curriculum, operational and strategic planning. This is based on our understanding of Quality of Life being personal, dynamic, multi-dimensional and contextual.
Our framework is grounded in research, including:
- Simon Sinek’s focus on understanding ‘why’ TED Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA)
- Robert Schalock’s model for Quality of Life Hastings College, Nebraska
- Emily Gardiner’s work on Family Systems, Uni British Columbia
- David Reynolds’ work on Highly Reliable Organisations
Our QoL framework was designed to provide the common framework and language (Reynolds) in which all stakeholders can clearly see the ‘why’ (Sinek) for our school, to improve QoL outcomes for our young people and their families.
You can see two distinct but conjoined sides to the framework to take account of Emily Gardiner’s work on Family Systems. The 4 goals on the student side of the framework include the 3 pillars of Robert Schalock’s model for QoL, Communication (C), Self-Management (SM), Independence (I) remains and as we are a school we also have a strand for Achievement (A).
We also support our families in 4 main ways, School related issues (S) such as Admissions, Annual Reviews, Transitions out, Family to Family support (F2F) as a number of them are geographically and/or socially isolated, support in the home (H) where they could be issues around meal times, family dynamics, routines and the home environment and lastly any training (T) we can provide that helps families understand what support and interventions we are using in school, and research into issues around autism and our QoL approach.
Listening to students and families
All students and their families are allocated a keyworker, who is an emotionally available adult that acts as an advocate and trusted point of contact. Weekly keyworking sessions for students and regular contact with families build strong relationships and ensure we understand the issues of importance to them.
Alongside this, we use autism-specific Quality of Life surveys, developed by Professor Eapen and her team in Sydney at University of New South Wales, to capture student and family voice in a systematic and reliable way. Information from keyworking and termly surveys allow us to agree shared areas of focus each term and design support that reflects lived experience.
Innovation through our bespoke IT system
A key innovation in our approach is our bespoke IT system, designed to collate and visualise QoL data from surveys, keyworking discussions, areas of focus and evidence of progress.
Not only does the data inform Annual Reviews and areas of focus for individual students, it also supports whole-school curriculum, operational and strategic planning. Crucially, it has shifted our organisational culture, empowering staff across teaching, therapy and residential teams to become confident data-informed practitioners, able to interpret trends and respond flexibly to individual needs.
An Independence Curriculum rooted in Quality of Life
Our bespoke Independence Plus Curriculum links directly to our QoL framework. It develops communication, self-management, independence and achievement, and provides meaningful evidence of progress for review and transition planning, in collaboration with families.
Extending our impact through the QoL Network
As interest in our work grew, we established the Quality of Life Network – a community of schools, colleges, children’s homes and academics committed to improving outcomes for autistic individuals and their families. Through shared resources, workshops and action research, the network supports collaboration and learning across settings.
Looking ahead
Our QoL framework is not a project… it guides everything we do. It ensures Student and Family Voice shape what success looks like, every day.
For us, innovation means listening differently, thinking differently and working differently so that autistic young people and their families experience happier, healthier and more empowered futures.
Different Thinking. Brighter Futures.
🎥 Watch a short film about the QoL framework and network: https://youtu.be/MVqZk67lQD0
To read about our other 2025 NASS Award finalists and winners, please visit: https://www.nasschools.org.uk/announcing-our-2025-nass-award-winners/