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

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she does not succeed, her Connexions PA, of whom she speaks highly: ‘She just builds up my confidence’, has offered her an alternative on an ‘Education to Employment’ scheme. Whatever the truth about Emma’s difficulties and capabilities, the model of provision is clear. Once she is judged incapable of entering employment or more ‘open’ forms of education and training, she is placed on a programme which gives her time, and support, to mature personally and academically. After a year of this, she is then allowed to enter vocational training, but when she is again judged incapable, she returns to a further placement on a ‘maturational’ programme. Unresolved issues Stuart, the young man with visual impairment had transferred at 16 from a mainstream secondary school to a specialist college. The college offered a classic but, to all appearances a well-thought-out, ‘deferred transition’ package of social and independent living activities alongside vocational learning activities. Stuart explained the benefits of the college in these terms: ‘…it’s benefited me on the social terms…Before I came to the college I didn’t really have good social skills with people of my own age or – and now it’s helped me progress and get some friends. One good thing about the close communal structure of the college is that well, even if you’re a new student you’re guaranteed to know every single person’s name within six months of being there.’ Stuart and his parents were enthusiastic about the benefits of college attendance, but the extent to which unresolved transition issues remained became evident when his family learned at the last minute that funding for a further year’s placement from their local authority was not automatic and had to be applied for. It was evident that the issue of progression from college had not been considered, despite the fact that Stuart was not yet in a position to function in a mainstream setting. Amongst other things, there had been no effective support from a Connexions service which had undergone reorganisation and which had suffered from staff absence. In the event, the funding issue was resolved and Stuart returned to college. However, his Connexions PA was clear that major issues remained regarding Stuart’s social skills and that she had a great deal of work to do to get to know him and plan the next transition. Moreover, although she was optimistic about Stuart’s employment prospects, she felt he would need longerterm support and was much less optimistic about securing this from Social Services unless his parents were prepared to push extremely hard for this. Post-16 Transitions of Young People with SEN: Wave 2 159
Chapter Six: Support Finances, benefits and Social Services Case studies – finances, benefits and Social Services By and large, financial issues do not appear as major factors in the case studies. One reason for this seems to be that the system of state benefits and allowances appears to be effective in meeting the financial needs of young people whose expectations of reward are relatively low. Li 1 for instance, who has somewhat low expectations of himself, sees his £30 Educational Maintenance Allowance as an important inducement to stay on his course. Asked what are the good things about the course, he replied: “I get to paint and I get paid and everything just to be there, that’s the only reason.” Gareth has his benefits paid to his mother and then she places a proportion into his bank account for him to manage himself. However, he has modest personal needs. His social life revolves around family activities, a youth club and attendance at voluntary schemes, he cannot travel independently and all he really needs money for is to spend on his computer. Not surprisingly therefore, he is perfectly happy with the allowance he receives. Stuart is in a similar situation, paid an allowance from the disability benefit managed by his parents and finding that perfectly adequate to meet the limited needs that arise whilst he is in residential college. Similarly, Matthew, although capable of greater independence, seems content with his Jobseeker’s Allowance, though he is heavily subsidised by his family. Indeed, family support seems to be a common pattern and is a second reason why financial issues do not feature prominently. Simon is delighted with his financial independence, but he makes no contribution to his upkeep, his mother buys him all his clothes and he has no ambitions to set up house for himself. Joshua is one of the more independent young people in the sample, has an active social life and holds down a part-time job, but nonetheless remains living at home and therefore has no great financial needs. Emma receives Jobseeker’s Allowance but gives her mother only £10 per fortnight of this towards her upkeep. Her parents are relaxed about this situation, however: ‘…now she has a bit of cash in her pocket that’s hers, she has gone a bit wild with it and not thinking about the important things. To her it is buying a couple of CDs, unnecessary things but that I suppose is being a teenager, they all go through that.’ There are two situations, however, where financial problems do seem likely to arise. The first is where the young person has ambitions to be more independent than their financial situation will allow. The obvious 1 All names have been changed to protect the identities of the young people who took part in the case studies. 160 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
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Table 4.15: Most helpful person whe
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Table 4.18: Extent to which school
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In cases such as these, transition
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were choices but young person and f
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Figure 4:6: Young People’s views
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“In school he had quite a lot of
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Figure 4.7: Whether gained qualific
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Figure 4.11: Level of qualification
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• Over three-quarters of all youn
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Table 5.1: Current main activity Al
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Table 5.4: Current main activity, b
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Table 5.6: Current main activity, b
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college for people with LDD, and we
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transition plan to have sought advi
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5.2.3 Ease of transition The majori
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Table 5.14: Occupation/training typ
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5.3.3 Method of jobsearch and advic
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• help to progress into work/trai
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Table 5.21: Reasons for current ina
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Table 5.24: Advice received when lo
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However, he was finding this new co
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years, often in quite productive ac
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Table 5.25: Parent/carer view on ex
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employment or a training placement
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Figure 6:2: Benefit receipt, by SEN
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had not had any subsequent contact
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Table 6.3: Type of support lost sin
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Table 6.5: Additional support recei
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met by his special school sixth for
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education since their child left Ye
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• colleges (33 per cent of parent
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published information against just
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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
Page 156 and 157: and most reported that they had mor
Page 158 and 159: the most severe and complex difficu
Page 160 and 161: Appendix One: Wave 2 survey Summary
Page 162 and 163: Table A.1: Profile of participating
Page 164 and 165: 10.5.2 Weighting Table A.3 reports
Page 166 and 167: • Economic factors • Structural
Page 168 and 169: gave their consent and who lived in
Page 170 and 171: Gareth is a young man with learning
Page 174 and 175: examples here are Maria who wants t
Page 176 and 177: time to themselves. The problem for
Page 178 and 179: here. He is one of the nicest peopl
Page 180 and 181: Appendix Four: References Bignall T
Page 182: Copies of this publication can be o
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