1. Quality of Life approach

2. Quality of Life approach is made
up of:
Audits
- checking people’s quality of life from rights
based approach
Practice development
- changing the way people think and work with
people with disabilities

3. Quality of Life standards
• Rights based set of
standards covering a whole
life.
• Young people through to
adult.

4. What is a Quality of Life
audit?
• A Quality of Life audit is a
person centred way of
measuring how services and
community supports enable
people with disabilities to
lead an ‘ordinary life’.
• It is person centred because
it follows the person through
their life.

5. An ordinary life
We define an ‘ordinary life’ as:
• being part of the community
• being employed
• having access to education
which enables you to
develop as an individual
• living in your own home
• being in a relationship
• having friends and family
around you.

6. Rights based approach
• The approach we take in the
standards, audit and practice
development is not about
services.
• Our approach is about having
a LIFE!
• Based in belief that to lead a
full LIFE, a person needs
more than paid services.
• People need families, friends
and other natural supports
that you find in the
community, as well as paid
services and supports.

7. Reshaping services
So in walking through people’s
lives, we encourage services to
change and reshape
themselves so they are able to
support individuals to lead full
lives.
• Supported living
• Residential and nursing care
• Short breaks including residential
respite, support in the home and a
range of community provision
• After school clubs, youth clubs and
nurseries

8. Reshaping services
• Leisure provision
• Youth and community groups
and organizations
• The impact of direct payments
and personal budgets
• The impact of social work
teams both in adult and
children’s services
• Or they are used as a person
centred way of measuring the
effectiveness of a whole
service, for example, a local
authority learning disability
service.

9. • Over the last 3 years
our Quality of Life
audit team worked
with 1241 young
people and adults
covering 165 services
and community
supports.

10. Audit tools
• spending time with individuals
and ‘walking through’ their life
• meeting with the person’s
family
• unannounced visits of
services and supports
• interviewing staff teams,
managers, Directors, CEO
• observation of practice
• checking people’s plans
• checking strategic documents
such as commissioning
strategies, business plans for
providers

11. Practice development – getting people to
think and work differently !
• Challenge events – pledges
made for cultural change
followed by audit.
• Idea’s festivals
• Dragon’s Den
• Self-authored lives –
modelling planning for
Quality of Life.

12. Quality of Life
impacts on 3 levels
impact on individuals
impact on commissioning
impact on practice development and
cultural change

13. Impact on individuals

14. Impact on individuals
• More people being part of
their local community
• People moving to a place they
call home
• More people with profound
and multiple learning
disabilities using
Communication Passports
and increased numbers of
staff trained in different forms
of communication
• More people gaining paid
employment
• Changes in support staff
resulting in individuals getting
better person centred support.

15. Jayne Gallear
• Labelled as ‘challenging’, red stickered
• Demonised
• Isolated from peers and the community
• Skirted assessment and treatment

16. Jayne Gallear

17. Jayne
“My communication is respected.”
“I’m in my own home, with good staff.”
“I’m now treated like a human being.”
“I have individual support.”
“I have got to the top of the climbing wall.”

18. No one is too disabled

19. No one is too complex

20. No one is too challenging

21. To lead an ordinary life!

22. Impact on commissioning and
practice development

23. Changing Our Lives &
Sandwell MBC
Co-produced Activities
• Interviewing
• Audit of existing placements
and providers
• Standards in provider
contracts
• Challenging how we
measure quality - Is this
good enough?
• Listening to people. Making
sure they have a voice
• Working with providers to
raise quality.
• Winterbourne
• Commissioning alternatives.

24. • The Time
Machine: How
things have
changed!
• Looking back
over the past
100 years of how
life has changed
for someone with
a learning
disability
Co-production
Changing Times in learning
disability services

25. Co-production
Changing Times in learning
disability services
• Ideas Festival: How we
want things to change even
more!
• Taking time to listen and
think
• Challenge to commissioners
and providers
• What should services look
like in 2024?
• Dragon’s Den: What’s the
offer?
• Different needs: Different
provider?

26. www.changingourlives.org
ask@changingourlives.org
0300 302 0770