Early planning which involves supportive, personalised discussions about a young person's future can have a profound effect on future life opportunities. These discussions can take place at school, at home or with a trusted professional.
To avoid rushed or abrupt transitions, the planning process should provide reassurance to children and young people that professionals understand their roles and responsibilities and systems are in place.
Unfortunately, transitions planning in some cases starts too late. Many carers, professionals and young people report this as being a significant contributing factor to unsatisfactory and ineffective transitions.
Getting this right means:
Planning begins when a young person is at school and can involve discussions with relevant people as early as S2. These can be with guidance teachers, support for learning staff or an appropriate agency such as Skills Development Scotland. These discussions should explore a young person's strengths, areas for development and ambitions for the future, which are likely to evolve over the transitions period. Plans begun at an early date should be regularly reviewed and updated by those involved in the planning process, their carers and their support team.
Children with exceptional healthcare needs will have involvement of multiple agencies and health professionals. Consideration should be given to the amount of times parents, carers and young people tell their story and planning needs to be coherent and joined-up.
Everyone needs to be made aware of what supports are available early on to help inform the planning process. To help with effective planning, social work should provide an indicative budget for young people who meet eligibility criteria no later than one year before they are due to leave school.
The Scottish government's strategy on Getting It Right For Everyone (GIRFE) aims to create a more joined-up approach to service provision and continue the work of GIRFEC. The GIRFE toolkit helps practitioners to deliver the key principles of GIRFE when delivering public services.
Joined up approaches and documentation for adult assessments should incorporate GIRFEC, GIRFE and Self-directed Support principles. Holistic needs assessments should be used for service planning, and diagnostic assessments should be completed on time to avoid delays in access to services.
Post-16 transitions are often treated as a leaving-school event rather than an on-going process lasting several years. This means that subsequent transitions, for example, when leaving further education are often unsupported. To prevent this, we recommend young people with additional support needs should have access to transitions support until their 26th birthday. This extended period of support may include exploration of care needs, accommodation, respite, short breaks, health services, leisure and social activities, income maximisation and the implications of guardianship.
Children and young people have a right to education in accordance with the UNCRC and the Standards in Scottish Schools (2000) Act. Further education plays an important role in supporting many young people's personal and career development. However, this is not always the right option for some young people and programmes like 'Developing the Young Workforce' can support planning towards modern apprenticeships or work placements.
Long-term and sustainable improvements are most likely to be achieved with a joint commitment to improvement between agencies at a local authority level. Strategic leads can shape improvement through the use of data collection to identify:
This data can be collected through Compass and local authority reports available if a data sharing agreement is in place.
‘Principles into Practice’ is a programme to help those with strategic responsibility for transitions to design and oversee approaches which will improve the experiences of transition for young people with additional support needs. It has been widely adopted by local authorities in Scotland and can help with evaluation of current practices to make improvement.
Contact us to discuss the support available.
