Transitions Support

Support for young people moving into adulthood.

'Transition' is the process when a young person is preparing to move from childhood into adulthood. 

Life for adults is different to life for children, which may include moving to adult services if you have care and support needs. It is important that you have the right information at the right time to make sure you’re preparing for adulthood.  

From year 9 (age 13 – 14 years) preparing for adulthood conversations should begin at school, which should include: 

  • what jobs you might like to do when you're an adult
  • your options for education or training
  • your future goals
  • where you might want to live and how to be as independent as possible
  • things you want to do in your community, like your hobbies, interests, and meeting friends
  • how you're going to be as healthy as possible 

This page will provide you with information on transition, including support that may be available. 
 

Transitions Support

What happens and when for a young person with an EHCP

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

If the young person has an allocated social worker, they should be invited to the year 9 review. They would talk through the preparing for adulthood approach to support, and give an overview of adult social care if a representative from the Transitions Team is not present.

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.

Transitions Team at Leeds City Council (14 to 25 years old)

The Transitions team sit under Adult Social Care in Leeds City Council and support the transition for young people from Children’s Services into Adult Social Care.

The Transitions Team are a dedicated group of social workers, learning disabilities nurses and wellbeing workers. 

14 to 18 year olds

The young person must have an open and active case to a social worker with services in place before their 18th birthday. The team will be secondary worker to the children’s social worker until the young person is 18. 

Transitions Team involvement ideally will start by attending the Year 9 Review. 

The young person will then be allocated a Transitions Social Worker on or around their 16th birthday; A Transitions Worker may attend any relevant meetings before they are allocated if there are any major concerns that would impact on their transitions into adulthood. 

Once the young person is allocated a Transitions Social Worker, the focus of the work age 16 to 18 will be preparation for adulthood, this will involve working with the young person, their families, carers and professionals to explore existing support, the young person’s aspirations and shape the support moving forward. This will involve, wherever possible, attending all statutory meetings relating to the young’s persons development. 

The young’s persons wishes and feelings will also be taken into consideration to inform their decision making post 18 [mental capacity Act 2005] and maximise their human potential through relevant, support and intervention post 18.

The young person must have a diagnosed disability

  • Learning Disability (IQ below 70)
  • Physical Disability
  • Complex Health Needs
  • Sensory Impairment            
  • Autism / Asperger’s
  • Note not Primary Mental Health alone

The young person must also be eligible for services under the Care Act 2014. Those young people who are not, will be signposted to universal mainstream services.

17 year olds

Early Help Plans

We may become involved with young people at 17 years old with no social worker who have an Early Help Plan and have Direct Payments / Services that will need to continue into adulthood (services must be in place before their 18th birthday).  A referral should be made through the Adult Contact Centre 0113 222 44 01.

Complex Health (continuing health care only)

We will also work with young people who do not have a service from children’s social care but receive children’s Continuing Health Care under 18.

It is important that this health care is transitioned to adult’s health post 18.

We will not become involved with young people under or over 18 who have not had any services from Children’s Social Care.  A referral through to the Adult Contact Centre will need to be made and they will send the referral through the relevant team.

All clients must be Care Act Eligible, and work can involve the following: -

  1. Conversation Record (Adults)
    1. Support Plan
    2. Mental Capacity
    3. Best Interest
    4. RAMT
    5. Safeguarding

We also offer advice, guidance and posting

18 to 25 year olds

We will become primary worker if already involved prior to 18 until their support plan is in place and their Review is undertaken within 3 months of their 18th birthday, if everything is settled the case will be transferred to the relevant Care Management Team which will be decided by the Transitions Panel.

We will Case Hold until complex transitions issues are resolved and Support Plan settled; the case will then be transferred to the relevant Care Management Team.

Mental health transitions

Young people who do not have a disability but an enduring and primary mental health issue will Transition from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to Adult Community Mental Health Teams.

This is an established pathway and the CAMHs team has a dedicated mental health transitions worker to facilitate this process.

Vulnerable young peole transitions

Young people without a disability who may be at risk of homelessness, substance misuse, exploitation or abuse should be referred to the adult contact Centre at 17.5 years 0113 2224401.  If screened as Care Act Eligible a referral will be taken and passed to the relevant Adult Area Team.

Some of these young people may not be care act eligible, in that they do not have a physical or mental impairment.

However they are vulnerable and at risk.

Some may have Looked After Children status, many will have experienced significant childhood trauma but are not willing to engage with support.

Contacts:

To make a referral to the Transitions Team, call the Adult’s Contact Centre on 0113 222 4401. For those under an Early help plan a referral should be made in advance of the young person’s 17th birthday. For young people with a social worker, a referral can be made by the social worker through ‘Mosaic’ (their case recording system).

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.

Transitioning to Higher Education

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

Health Transitions

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.    

SENDIASS - free, impartial and confidential advice and support

Leeds Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice Support Service (SENDIASS) is a small team comprising a coordinator and 3 full time equivalent officers.

SENDIASS have a duty to provide information, advice and support to disabled children and young people, and those with Special Educational Needs (SEN), and their parents. They are a statutory service. They are free, impartial and confidential.

SENDIASS can provide information, advice and support to families about transitions. 

Contact details

Services to support transition

Social Care support

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

If a young person is under 18 years of age, speak to the school / college SENCO and they can make a request into Children's Social Care for an Early Help Plan. 

If a young person is 18 years old or older you can contact Adult Social Care via the contact centre on 0113 222 4401. Please note however, that although referrals can be made at 17.5 years old, services cannot be implemented until a young person is 18 years old.

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

 
Third sector and community support 
Decision making 

For information about decision making for young people click here.   

Financial support

For information about financial support available please visit our financial support page

On this page you will find information about:

  • Personal Independence Payment (PIP) 
  • Disabled Student Allowance (DLA)

For information about changes to benefits / Universal Credit visit the welfare rights webpage