Post-16 Transitions: a Longitudinal Study of Young People with ...

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had not had any subsequent contact with any professional support services on completion of Year 11. Case studies – support The patterns of support available for young people post-16 are complex. However, there is a sense that those who become involved in working directly with a young person do all that they can to offer support – sometimes with considerable success. As has been outlined above, Carl 1 is a young man with severe autism who, after a period where his behavioural problems provoked something of a crisis, stayed on in his special school’s sixth form. At the time of the crisis, he was provided (through LEA funding) with a support worker who helped stabilise his behaviour and developed a strong relationship with him. In view of this, his first support worker now helps the development of Carl’s social life in a friend-like role, while a new support worker assists Carl in the classroom. When he works off-site, he has an additional support worker to take into account the added risks involved. Now that he is preparing to leave school, Connexions and Social Services are also becoming involved in planning his future. Meanwhile, as his teacher points out, the support through which his challenging behaviour is managed is formalised through a behaviour support plan which co-ordinates the input of both professionals and family: “So we do things like this here – this is a behaviour management plan that his parents have signed up to as well and everybody, but everybody associated with Carl has to follow this behaviour plan. It is very detailed about strategies to be used and works really well and of course I don’t know if the college does one but we will liaise with the college about these plans.” Both professionals and parents agree that the level of support offered to Carl is appropriate. This may well be connected to a number of factors in Carl’s case: he is in a stable environment where his needs are well-known; he falls into a well-defined disability category where eligibility for support is not in doubt; and there is a clear system for providing support. All this, of course, is in addition to the quality and commitment of the individual support workers. Other young people, however, are in somewhat different positions. Zoe, for instance, has also stayed on at her special school sixth form and, as a young person in public care and with a history of abuse, receives considerable support not only from her foster parents but also from Social Services and Connexions. However, there seemed to be distinct differences of opinion between professionals and family as to what Zoe’s difficulties and capacities were. The nub of the issue seems to be that Zoe has moderate learning difficulties but has also had a turbulent childhood. It is not immediately obvious, therefore, how far she lacks cognitive 1 All names have been changed to protect the identities of the young people who took part in the case studies. Post-16 Transitions of Young People with SEN: Wave 2 93
abilities and how far her previous experiences have damaged her to the extent that she cannot use the abilities she has. Not surprisingly, she is extremely insecure and finds change difficult to tolerate. However, the way she sees herself, the way her foster parent see her and the way she is viewed by other professionals varied considerably. These discrepancies about the ‘needs’ of young people are not uncommon where the difficulties experienced by young people do not fall into ‘standard’ disability categories or are complicated by other factors. A number of examples illustrate how young people are being allowed to embark on options that have proved for one reason or another to be inappropriate. In these cases, the issue is not simply lack of support as such. There are enough professionals involved with these young people to offer adequate levels of support and some at least of them are making strenuous efforts so to do. However, the nature of these young people’s difficulties means that the most appropriate form of placement and the level of support necessary are not immediately obvious. The providers of the young person’s current activity do what they can, but there seems to be no professional who both has an overview of the case and is actively involved in shaping provision to meet the young person’s needs. 6.1.3 Support losses and gains Sixteen per cent of parents/carers have stated that some of the additional support that was available to the young person whilst they were in compulsory schooling is no longer available post-16. Perhaps not surprisingly, parents and carers whose children were statemented whilst at school were twice as likely as parents and carers of those without statements to report this to be the case. In the main, the type of support that had been most commonly lost related to: (see Table 6.3) • learning support • SENCO/tutor support, and • individual or one-to-one help. Parents were asked to say how the loss of these types of support had impacted on the young person (Table 6.4) Interestingly, over one-quarter of parents and carers reporting that additional support had been lost reflected that this had had no effect on the young person whatsoever. However, as might be expected, the withdrawal of (some of) this support had led primarily to: 94 Post-16 Transitions of Young People with SEN: Wave 2
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RESEARCH Post-16 Transitions: a Lon
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Acknowledgements The authors would
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Contents Executive Summary viii 1.
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Executive Summary Introduction This
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help or information from the young
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profound difficulties and those whi
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1. Introduction This report present
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Main-stage fieldwork The aim in the
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Table 1.2: Estimates of the number
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• Chapter ten draws together the
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when educational options have a str
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of work-related training schemes. I
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without very considerable effort on
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introduction of a Children’s Bill
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3. Characteristics of Young People
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difficulties. The less common forms
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Table 3.6: Statement of special edu
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Table 3.10: Change in SEN status N
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severe learning difficulties/profou
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4. School and Outcomes A primary ai
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Table 4.2: Young person’s recall
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Table 4.5: Reasons why transition p
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Table 4.7: People involved in the t
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Table 4.9: Coverage of transition p
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Table 4.10: Coverage of transition
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Figure 4:3: Reasons why Year 11 dis
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Table 4.13: Provider of help to pre
Page 56 and 57: Table 4.15: Most helpful person whe
Page 58 and 59: Table 4.18: Extent to which school
Page 60 and 61: In cases such as these, transition
Page 62 and 63: were choices but young person and f
Page 64 and 65: Figure 4:6: Young People’s views
Page 66 and 67: “In school he had quite a lot of
Page 68 and 69: Figure 4.7: Whether gained qualific
Page 70 and 71: Figure 4.11: Level of qualification
Page 72 and 73: • Over three-quarters of all youn
Page 74 and 75: Table 5.1: Current main activity Al
Page 76 and 77: Table 5.4: Current main activity, b
Page 78 and 79: Table 5.6: Current main activity, b
Page 80 and 81: college for people with LDD, and we
Page 82 and 83: transition plan to have sought advi
Page 84 and 85: 5.2.3 Ease of transition The majori
Page 86 and 87: Table 5.14: Occupation/training typ
Page 88 and 89: 5.3.3 Method of jobsearch and advic
Page 90 and 91: • help to progress into work/trai
Page 92 and 93: Table 5.21: Reasons for current ina
Page 94 and 95: Table 5.24: Advice received when lo
Page 96 and 97: However, he was finding this new co
Page 98 and 99: years, often in quite productive ac
Page 100 and 101: Table 5.25: Parent/carer view on ex
Page 102 and 103: employment or a training placement
Page 104 and 105: Figure 6:2: Benefit receipt, by SEN
Page 108 and 109: Table 6.3: Type of support lost sin
Page 110 and 111: Table 6.5: Additional support recei
Page 112 and 113: met by his special school sixth for
Page 114 and 115: education since their child left Ye
Page 116 and 117: • colleges (33 per cent of parent
Page 118 and 119: published information against just
Page 120 and 121: who had a statement of SEN and/or h
Page 122 and 123: Table 6.12: Parent/carer knowledge
Page 124 and 125: Figure 7:1: Qualifications gained (
Page 126 and 127: Parents were also asked to reflect
Page 128 and 129: “(He is) a bit more independent;
Page 130 and 131: immaturity and the fact that she is
Page 132 and 133: 8. Leisure Activities and Social Li
Page 134 and 135: Figure 8:2: Weekday evenings spent
Page 136 and 137: For some young people, the involvem
Page 138 and 139: For Li, who has found his own way o
Page 140 and 141: Figure 9:2: Parental views on young
Page 142 and 143: Table 9.1: Views on the future, all
Page 144 and 145: Table 9.5: View (4) on the future,
Page 146 and 147: 9.3 Next activity Almost three-quar
Page 148 and 149: plans for their futures but for var
Page 150 and 151: 10. Conclusions 10.1 Introduction T
Page 152 and 153: Transition planning is purposely fo
Page 154 and 155: needs in both the academic and the
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and most reported that they had mor
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the most severe and complex difficu
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Appendix One: Wave 2 survey Summary
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Table A.1: Profile of participating
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10.5.2 Weighting Table A.3 reports
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• Economic factors • Structural
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gave their consent and who lived in
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Gareth is a young man with learning
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she does not succeed, her Connexion
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examples here are Maria who wants t
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time to themselves. The problem for
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here. He is one of the nicest peopl
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Appendix Four: References Bignall T
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