Acceptability and Feasibility of Bloom: A Co-Produced, Co-Facilitated Parent Program to Enhance the Quality of Life and Wellbeing of Young Autistic Children

Background: Improving quality of life (QoL) and wellbeing is consistently identified as a research priority by Autistic people and the broader autism community. Despite this, few evidence-based supports explicitly focus on these outcomes. Bloom was developed to address this gap by being a fully co-produced, neurodiversity-affirming parent program integrating lived and professional expertise to support child and family wellbeing.Methods: Bloom is an 8-week, co-designed and co-facilitated parent group co-facilitated by an autistic adult and an allied health professional. Seventy-five parents of autistic children aged 3–8 years enrolled. Feasibility and acceptability were assessed via recruitment, attendance, retention, and session ratings. Parent-reported child and parent wellbeing were measured at baseline, post-intervention (T2), and 3-month follow-up (T3), alongside caregiver global ratings of change.Results: Feasibility, acceptability, and retention were high. Parents attended a mean of 84.3% of sessions and provided consistently strong session ratings (relevance: M = 93.25/100; respect: M = 96.13/100). At T2, 87% of parents reported improvements in their child’s wellbeing and 86% in their own wellbeing; these improvements were sustained at T3 (90% and 83%, respectively). Medium effect sizes were observed for pre–post improvements in child, parent, and family QoL and wellbeing. Caregiver global ratings of change were consistent with these findings, indicating perceived meaningful improvements over time.Conclusions: Bloom is a feasible and acceptable, co-produced intervention associated with sustained improvements in wellbeing for young autistic children and their caregivers. These findings highlight the potential of centring lived experience within neurodiversity-affirming approaches to address priority outcomes that have been historically under-targeted. Controlled trials are now required to establish effectiveness and mechanisms of change.