Services for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities are notoriously fragmented. To tackle this, the government’s SEN green paper aims to streamline provision for families.
At the heart of the reforms are proposals to introduce a new single education, health and care plan by 2014, bringing together support for children and young people from birth to 25. This should result in joined-up support for children at all stages of their development and seamless transitions from children’s to adult services.
The government is expected to publish details of how it intends to enact the SEN reforms shortly. In the meantime, local areas are preparing to increase support for young people up to the age of 25.
Ahead of the game
The London Borough of Haringey is one local authority attempting to get ahead of the game. It is extending transition services for 14- to 25-year-olds with learning disabilities and has seen an increase in the number of families using services in the borough as a result.
Lisa Redfern, assistant director of adults and housing at the council, says families now receive ongoing one-to-one support from when their child turns 14. The council is also running parents’ information evenings and “transitions fairs” to showcase the different options available to young people in the borough.
“Children’s and adults’ social workers working in learning disabilities now attend some of each other’s meetings and work alongside our transitions social workers,” Redfern says. “These are complex children, who may have a package of up to £5,000 a week, so you have to get the right people around the table to develop the services.”
Phil Di Leo, head of service for children’s learning disabilities at Haringey, says that improving the data they hold on young people has helped transform provision. “We have developed detailed profiles of all young people in the area that will be 14 and up in the next three years and we’re constantly reviewing their support needs,” she explains. “Those profiles have enabled us to argue successfully for more investment in the service.”
She believes that this deeper understanding of families’ needs is paving the way for tailored provision. “A lot will change with the new single plans,” she says. “We’re putting our young people on individual budgets to help families make the adjustment to personalisation. Our families are now saying that they feel like their children have choices, even those with the most complex health and housing needs.”
Lucia Winters is senior development officer at the Transition Information Network at the Council for Disabled Children. She is working on the government’s new Preparing for Adulthood programme, which aims to support local areas to improve transitions in line with the SEN reforms.
Lack of provision
“Most local areas offer leaflets and advice on websites about transitions, but there is a lack of face-to-face provision and professionals available to help parents work through options for their children,” she says. “There is a long way to go in terms of making sure that level of support is there.”
A group of 20 pathfinder areas is testing out the government’s reforms. Winters believes the findings from these trials will be essential in developing support to the age of 25, but she urges localities to start improving relationships between children’s and adult services now.
“In many areas, there is still the attitude that when a young person turns 18, they are on the books of adult services,” she says. “In the green paper pathfinders, they’re looking at issues such as how the single plan will work for young people who have a SEN statement as children, but who wouldn’t be eligible for adult social care, for example. So we need to consider who would be responsible for maintaining their plan from age 19 to 25.”
Issues such as this will require sophisticated joint working. But Winters argues the payoff could be huge in terms of building young people’s aspirations and independence. “We’re out to change the conversations among professionals,” she says. “We no longer want anyone assuming that young people can only pursue limited options.”
A parent’s view: Catherine Sameh, mother of 18-year-old Ebongalame
“My son, who is autistic, is leaving school in July. He will be going to an education and training provider called Area 51 Education.
"I used Haringey’s transitions service to decide what was best for him because I wanted him to go somewhere that will help him fulfill his potential in life and continue learning.
"I attended Haringey’s transitions fair at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, which included exhibits from lots of service providers. You could go from stall to stall and pick up information packs to take home and read. It was very useful because it gave me all the information I needed to make a decision about where my son could go.
"Before I used the transitions service, I was concerned about what he would do. As a carer, I was worried about how much support he would get because I need a break sometimes as well. But the service has been taking him to Area 51 every Wednesday since February, so that he can get used to the place. He is settling down.
"You can’t just bring an autistic person into a new environment without any warning; he has to know what is going on so that he will be able to cope.
"At Area 51, he will be supported to carry on his education until the age of 25 and he’ll have the opportunity to take part in work experience, if he can, and learn independent living skills.
"I hope he will be able to learn to do things like make himself a cup of tea and other life skills. The transition service is helping him to make that step forward.”
