"As children grow up, become teenagers and move into adulthood, a lot of things change in the young person’s life, including the services available and how they are delivered. This period in a young person’s life is often called ‘Transition’ by professionals.
There is no perfect approach to transition but if the emotions of the people involved are kept at the heart of planning and support throughout, then children, young people and their families have the best chance of moving through each stage as smoothly as possible.
This page aims to offer information about local services and support available to give people and their families the opportunity to make informed choices about their future.
Transition - An article, found at the Teaching Expertise site, although aimed primarily at professionals working in child care and education, may be of use to parents & carers. Click here to go to the article.
The article highlights some feelings the child may have and suggests possible solutions to overcome any problems. It may be worthwhile contacting the SENCO at the school your child will be attending to overcome any barriers prior to your child starting ensuring a successful and easy transition.
Home to nursery/school - The Childcare Group within Extended Services and Attendance provide support to parents and carers of children with additional needs in the transition from home to childcare or nursery education and from childcare to education. Support is available to liaise with providers to arrange placements and to remove barriers to access such as the provision of specialist equipment or additional training for staff.
Primary to secondary - The transition from Primary to Secondary education can be a daunting step for any child and their families. Many schools and services are involved in innovative approaches to ensure the happiness, well-being and achievements of children.
Into Adulthood - As a child moves into adulthood there are many choices available.
Connexions offer confidential advice support and information and practical help to 13 to 19 year olds. Visit their website for information on careers, housing, money, health and many other matters.
The Family Fund Trust also produced a book in 2001 for teenagers called 'Your Life, Your Future' that offers help and guidance. You can download a copy here.
Sunderland Transition information pack project - Your Future's Out There
Your Future's Out there is a project that has been developed by a team of young people, who want to inform and empower young people who have a disability and their families. There are a range of short video provide an introduction to some of the services available to young people and their families during the transition into adulthood and showing the success stories of others.
Transition into Adulthood for disabled young people - National policy and guidance produced by a number of organisations all state there is a need for agencies to work together to provide careful preparation, multi-agency planning and excellent communication to ensure that disabled young people get the support they need so they can move from child, to young person, to adult as seamlessly as possible.
This newly developed Sunderland multi-agency pathway and protocol helps all young people with a learning difficulty and/or disability (LDD) make a successful transition by addressing the roles, responsibilities and accountability for all partners whilst making sure the young person and their family are at the heart of the transition process.
Connexions Sunderland provide confidential information, advice and guidance for all 13-19 year olds, up to age 25 for young people with special needs, on a wide range of lifestyle issues including education, training, careers, employment and personal development opportunities.
All young people with special needs or those with any kind of disability will have a named Connexions Personal Adviser from Year 9 onwards. Personal Advisers are linked to each secondary school.
In addition, there is a dedicated Learning Disabilities and/or Difficulties (LDD) Team of 5 personal Advisers who are linked to schools for pupils with special educational needs.
For more information visit the Connexions website at www.connexions-tw.co.ik/movingforward or telephone Sunderland on 0191 443 2950 or Washington 0191 443 2986.
Moving Forward is an introduction to ‘Transition Planning’ for young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and gives information about the process, what happens when and what the options are.
The time when a young person gets ready to leave school and move into adulthood (known as transition) can be a worrying time. Moving Forward has been designed to help explain the transition process and answer some of your questions.
Moving Forward gives a brief introduction to transition and the many opportunities after 16. There’s a lot more information available and Moving Forward gives details of who can help and where to find more advice and information.
‘Futures’ a Person Centred Transitions Team - ‘Futures’ is a Person Centred Transitions Team that is jointly funded with Children’s Services and is based within Health Housing and Adult Services in Sunderland.
The overall aim of Futures is to facilitate a smooth transition for young people into adulthood using person centred tools, involving and engaging with the person throughout the process using creative communication techniques to gather evidence of what is really important to the individual and their family at a time of great change.
Futures will help people to create a comprehensive transition plan that will take into account 6 key areas including; education, employment, social activities, friendships and relationships, health and housing. Futures will help a young person to create a circle of support that will include everyone who needs to be involved in an individual’s transition to make it successful and positive.
The Futures team is made up of four facilitators, two transitional healthcare co-ordinators and one business support assistant. The inclusion of the healthcare co-ordinators in the team maintains health expertise and important links with professionals throughout transition.
With facilitators dedicated to an individual and their family throughout their transition from the age of 14 - 25, the model is designed to provide the ongoing support that will help young people achieve a smooth transition into adulthood.
For more information contact: Futures Team on 0191 520 5555
Contact a Family - who work with families who have children with a disability or learning difficulty - have been awarded the Department for Education contract to provide a Special Educational Needs advisory service as part of their existing helpline/on-line service for families.
It will be staffed by experienced SEN advisers to be a one-stop-shop for parents and other family members caring for a child with SEN, on all education issues.
The telephone helpline will enable parents and carers to get in-depth, personalised advice from fully-trained SEN advisers. General advice and guidance will be available on-line, via e-mail, the Contact a Family website, Facebook and Twitter.
Contact the helpline service on Freephone 0808 808 3555 between Monday-Friday, 9.30am-5pm, or visit the Contact a Family website at www.cafamily.org.uk
College
There are several colleges in the North East, the local Sunderland mainstream college being City of Sunderland College. Young people can access a range of courses here including A Levels (AS and A2), vocational courses, GNVQ and NVQ. The City of Sunderland College state "we are committed to ensuring that disabled people, including those with learning difficulties, are treated fairly. All reasonable adjustments to provision will be made to ensure that disabled students and other disabled people are not substantially disadvantaged. If you are a disabled person, please let us know what you need so that we can make the adjustments needed to help you succeed."
For more information contact the City of Sunderland College on telephone 0191 511 6060
Into Work
Remploy - is one of the UK's leading providers of employment services and employment to people with disabilities and complex barriers to work. We are passionately committed to providing sustainable work opportunities for those who need it most - making a positive difference to the lives of individuals and communities, and realising commercial benefits for everyone we work with.
Northern Pinetree Trust - specialises in helping physically disabled people to work from home, in an environment and at a pace that will suit their abilities. The main are of the Trust's work is IT training and resourcing that will enable their clients to carry out administration, marketing, customer relations and any other functions with an IT dimension arising from their line of work.
People Into Employment (PIE) - assists people with disabilities, carers and ex-carers back into employment on an individual, relaxed and informal basis.
For more information telephone 0191 514 6150
Shaw Trust- is a national charity providing training and work opportunities for people who are disadvantaged in the workplace due to disability, ill health or other social circumstances.
For more information telephone 01225 716350 or visit the Shaw Trust website at www.shaw-trust.org.uk
The Transition experiences at any stage are often varied and dependent on the individuals involved. Please use our Forum and Feedback pages if you would like to share your experiences, good or bad, to help others in similar situations.
Local Sunderland Information
