Transitions Support

Education 

Transition planning and preparing for adulthood should start at year 9. All annual reviews should focus on the young person’s aspirations and ideas for their adult life and how these can be met.

This is an opportunity to look beyond educational needs and to include wider aspects of life such as: 

• health needs 
• personal and social development 
• training and employment 
• transport and independent travel 
• housing and leisure

It is the responsibility of the school to make sure that the young person, their family and other agencies are informed in good time about the planned annual review meeting and that it will have a focus on transition planning so they can prepare in advance.

Health 

It is important the key health professionals involved in the young person’s life attend the year 9 review and start discussing with the young person and their family when the key health service provision changes, from children to adult health services, will occur.

Social care

The Child Health and Disability Team will take the lead role in attending year 9 reviews for all young people known to them and will also represent adult social care, providing a range of adult services information to individuals and parents if they wish to receive it at this point.

The review meeting should result in a transition plan which records the actions needed to help the young person achieve their short and long-term goals.

Who else is involved?

The key roles involved in the transition process at this stage are:

Lead practitioner – acts as a contact point and provides additional support as required by the young person and or their family, makes sure assessments and other documents are completed by all agencies and keeps a detailed record of all activity.

SENSAP (Special Educational Needs Statutory Assessment and Provision Team) – makes sure that EHC plans are completed with the young person and their family.

Health transitions – are the most complex and often involve lots of people; a person centred approach is taken based on the specific circumstances of the young person. A health lead professional will be identified as a single point of contact who will liaise with other health professionals.

The Transitions Team at Leeds City Council work with young people from 14 to 25 years old who have a diagnosed disability and/or complex health needs.

The Transitions Team are a dedicated group of social workers and health care professionals that work alongside other professionals including health and education.

We work together to develop the right level of social care support, built around the young person’s needs. The Transitions Team work with the young person, their family and professionals to increase independence in preparation for adulthood. We also use a strengths-based approach and work to build on and promote existing support within the family and wider community.

The Transitions Team can only work with young people where there is an existing package of care in place, such as a Direct Payment or Respite. Young people should have either an active Early Help Plan, a Social Worker from Children’s Social Care or receive funding from Children’s Continuing Healthcare.

Contacts:

To make a referral to the Transitions Team for young people who are nearing their 18th birthday, call the Adult’s Contact Centre on 0113 222 4401.

If the young person is not eligible for the Transitions Team, the referral will be passed to the relevant adult social care team.

If the young person is under 18 years and has current care needs but no package of care, a referral can be made to the Children's Contact Centre on 0113 222 4403, who will assess and offer support / guidance.

You can also contact the transitions team at transitions.team@leeds.gov.uk

Click here to download the transitions team leaflet.
 

Young people (or parent /carers on their behalf) who are not eligible for the Transitions Team can still refer into adult social care and request a needs assessment, or a professional can do this on their behalf. 

To read about the support available from adult social care, families can look at the Leeds City Council website.

Third Sector & Community Support 

• Move On Up - Purple Patch Arts is a project funded until the end of April 2025 to support young people with transitions.
• Things to do - Through the Maze (through-the-maze.org.uk)  explore a range of social groups and opportunities for adults with learning disabilities. 
• Home | Leeds Directory provides information about community resources. 
• Carers Leeds – Supporting unpaid carers – Support for Carers (if families not already linked in to this organisation) 
• Leeds Autism AIM - Leeds’ Free Advocacy and Information Service for Autistic Adults -is a free service for autistic adults in the Leeds area who receive little or no funded support.
• For information about changes to benefits / Universal Credit visit the welfare rights webpage. 

For information about decision making for young people click here.   

Welcome to Go Higher West Yorkshire’s Disabled Learners’ Higher Education Transition Pack!

This resource has been designed to support you on your own journey into Higher Education (HE).

Making decisions about your future has never been easy and there is lots of information out there which can be overwhelming. We hope that this transition pack will help you to easily access information about the timelines, processes and support to enable you to progress into a destination of your choice.

We understand that starting HE is a big step, one that often begins a long time before you finally arrive there. For many students who have received support or adjustments at school or college the transition to university can be confusing and hard to navigate, not least because the language and terminology used about Special Educational Needs (SEN), disability and support is very different. This can prevent some students from accessing the support they need.

Click here to access the transition pack.

One in five podcast

The One in Five is a university support podcast created by disabled students, for disabled students who are considering university.

In addition to supporting disabled students making their university decisions, the podcast will also support disabled students currently at university, school and college colleagues, parents, and carers too!

It is called the One in Five to represent that one in five people in the UK have a disability, and tens of thousands of students with a disability attend university each year.

click here to access the podcast. 

Contact details

• Email: hello@gohigherwestyorks.ac.uk

The transition age for health is usually 18, but some services may start the transitions from aged 17.

Depending on what services your young person is accessing, a transition plan should be put in place to move them over to the relevant adult services. The current service or paediatrician would usually identify who will lead on this transition and provide information about how to contact them.

If your young person has an EHCP then this should be used to support co-ordinating the move to other services.

Children with SEND that are aged over 14, are allowed to request an annual health check to give them a chance to talk about anything that is worrying them and get them used to visiting the doctor.

If your young person is not able to be treated at their usual dental surgery due to their SEND or a medical condition they could be referred to a specialist dental service. Your GP or dentist can make this referral for them.

If your young person is over 18 and you think that they may have autism, they can self-refer or be referred to the Leeds Autism Diagnostic Service (LADS) for assessment and diagnosis.