Bread & Beyond

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Bread & Beyond

Baking extraordinary futures for young people with complex autism at Prior's Court

11/05/2023

Plenty of smiles from young baker Kaylan while working away in the bakery this week

05/04/2023

Easter is coming up, and that can only mean one thing. Trainee Baker Daniel has been hard at work prepping bus-loads of hot cross buns. We've tried them and can confidently say they're his best work yet. Well done Daniel!

12/12/2022

Baking brings people together, and it's no different for bakers with autism! The joy of creating something delicious and sharing it with others is a powerful experience that unites us all.

29/11/2022

Meet our Trainee Baker, Oliver.

With the right support, Oliver is happy and engaged in the bakery and making exceptional progress with his baking skills, confidence, and broader life skills that support him in other areas of life.

25/11/2022

Meet our Trainee Baker, James.

James' love for working in the bakery was immediate. With his inquisitive mind and thirst for knowledge, he quickly grasped various baking techniques and learnt to make a wide range of products.

When James is in the bakery, he can often be found laughing and chatting with the rest of the team while he works and frequently shares ideas of different bakes to try.

22/11/2022

Meet our Trainee Baker, Jamie.

Jamie started at Bread & Beyond in September 2022 and has begun developing his mixing, moulding and scaling skills to help the bakers create the on-site bread and seasonal orders.

18/11/2022

Meet our Trainee Baker, Kaylan.

Kaylan started in the bakery in 2022 and is just beginning his bakery journey. He is starting to develop all the basic skills he needs to know in a bakery and is enjoying learning new skills every week.

15/11/2022

Meet our Trainee Baker, Fred.

Fred has been working with Bread & Beyond since 2020. He has supported the bakery staff to make the Prior’s Court residential homes bread and all the seasonal products. He is an integral part of the team.

11/11/2022

Meet our Trainee Baker, Ricardo.

Ricardo is our most accomplished baker and alongside working with Bread & Beyond, he has a weekly work experience placement with Warings Bakery, where he works as part of the finishing shift creating all the pastries and sweet treats for the shop attached to Warings bakery.

08/11/2022

Meet our Trainee Baker, Daniel

Daniel started in Bread & Beyond in 2022 and is learning new skills every week. He is currently working on our seasonal bakes and stocking our shop for our other young people.

04/11/2022

Meet one of our Trainee Bakers, Felix.

Felix started with Bread & Beyond in 2022 and currently has a 1-1 session with Laura while he gets used to the new noises and equipment. He is progressing well and has started supporting Scott with commercial breadmaking.

26/10/2022

Our (new to us) bread moulding machine takes dough and moulds it to the loaf size needed.
So bakers with sensory issues or cannot apply much pressure with two hands can be involved in bread production.
Daniel saw the machine used once and then made 20 loaves independently!

Address

Thatcham

Website

https://www.priorscourt.org.uk/vocational-skills

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Baking extraordinary futures for people with autism

“A bakery is just a bakery; the young people at Prior’s Court makes ours extraordinary” Dylan Needham, Artisan Bakery Manager

Autism and the Workplace

Only 32% of autistic adults in the UK are in paid employment, despite over 80% stating a clear wish to work. This figure falls to a shocking 16% in full-time employment. This hasn’t changed in over a decade and for people with severe autism, the picture is even bleaker with the current expectation being that they will never enter the world of work.

Prior’s Court, a residential school and young adult provision for young people with severe autism, wants to change the outlook for young people with autism and already 83% of 19-25 year olds enrolled at Prior's Court are successfully engaged in a work placement. The transformations seen through existing workplace programmes sparked the ambition to do a whole lot more...and Bread & Beyond was born.

Building our bakery

The concept of a bakery was inspired by a trip to America where staff at Prior's Court were able to see some exceptional projects developing real work opportunities for people with autism. They came back enthusiastic and inspired. The idea for a self-sustaining bakery at Prior’s Court was born.

Baking really suits the strength and skills of people with autism; highly process driven, practical and with an end product which is rewarding and motivating. Using Prior's Court expertise in supporting young people with severe autism and consulting industry experts, our state-of-the-art bakery was built to provide work-skills training by teaching our young people to make amazing bread – the best in Berkshire our staff say!

The bakery aims to be self-sustaining but was built and equipped thanks to some generous donations to the Prior's Court Bakery Appeal. We have been fortunate to have had valuable support from Fudge's Managing Director, confectioner and bakery guru, Steve Fudge. He was completely won over by the potential of the project while conducting a baking session with two of our star bakers in the making, Jenny and Shaun.

Bread & Beyond into the future

We called our bakery Bread & Beyond because it's about going beyond the expected or what's possible with bread and with our bakers' futures. The aim is that eventually Bread & Beyond will benefit many young people with autism outside of Prior’s Court as explained by Mike Robinson, CEO:

“Prior’s Court is one of a small number of organisations in the UK with the skills and experience to successfully support people with severe autism into the world of work. Our ambition is that our bakery makes the single largest contribution in the UK to reducing the disability employment gap for people with severe autism by providing a ‘template’ for others to copy.”

If you are interested in our 'template', or in becoming a stockist, please get in touch.

Professional Standards

Being able to provide workplace experiences for our young people changes their lives and future prospects. In addition to this, we also aim to make amazing bread to professional standards. Currently, all bread being sold is made by our very own Master Artisan Baker, Dylan Needham, but our ultimate aim is to involve our young people in this production process. They are currently taking part in taster sessions but will eventually be working towards a certification as part of a bespoke training programme developed by Dylan.

Shortly after opening our bakery, we gained the highly sought after 5* hygiene rating from the Foods Standards Agency and our training programme ensures that young people learn to adhere to the very highest standards.