Principles into Practice is a programme aiming to improve the experiences of young people with additional needs aged 14-25, and their parents and carers, as they make the transition to young adult life in Scotland.  

This practical framework will help those with strategic responsibility for transitions to design and oversee approaches that improve transitions in their local authority area.

Who should use Principles into Practice?

It can also be used by individual services and teams. However, long term sustainable improvements are more likely to be achieved when working in collaboration with others, with a strategic commitment at a local authority level.

This includes managers, commissioners, planners, policy makers, directors and key frontline practitioners from the following professions:

• Paediatric and adult health services (including mental health)
• Child and adult social work and social care
• Education – secondary, further and higher
• Employment and training
• Third sector
• Public sector services (e.g. housing, welfare)
• Youth justice
• Advocacy
• Local government
• Scottish Government
• Young people
• Parents and carers

Principles Into Practice invites you to explore and improve practice within your own organisation and to work in partnership with others to better co-ordinate support across all services. This will involve you working with external partners as well as with young people and their parents and carers. It will enable you to collectively meet legislative and regulatory requirements while supporting the implementation of a range of Scottish Government policy areas including: 'A Time of Change', Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), Additional Support for Learning, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

Principles into Practice should be used in conjunction with the Principles of Good Transitions. These bring together everything the law requires to support transitions, and what research tells us about the approaches that work best. It will help to ensure you are aware of all your legislative and statutory duties.

Getting Started

Introduction

How to Use

The Principles into Practice Framework

Practical steps are given for you to deliver each of the seven ‘Principles of Good Transition’ from both within your service and through working with others.

Principle 1

Principle 2

Principle 3

Principle 4

Principle 5

Principle 6

Principle 7

How to implement Principles into Practice

Involvement and feedback from young people, parents, carers and practitioners is essential to enable you to continually refine and improve what you do based on people’s experiences.

To support this, ARC Scotland has developed ‘Compass’, a digital tool that provides information and gathers feedback from these groups. Compass is freely available to all young people who require additional support and their parents and carers in Scotland. There is also a version of Compass dedicated to the professionals involved in transitions.

With a data sharing agreement in place, ARC Scotland can provide collated and anonymised data from Compass users to local authorities. This data can help to inform, refine and improve both planning and practice and the application of Principles into Practice in your area, by helping you to highlight priorities for improvement.

Data and Evaluation

ARC Scotland is available to provide expert support, resources, training and guidance for local authorities who wish to use the Principles into Practice framework.  

Contact us to discuss and we will send you further information.

transitions@arcuk.org.uk  

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