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

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time to themselves. The problem for her is that negotiating an appropriate package takes a great deal of time and is extremely frustrating: “…a lot of talking, a lot of meetings but no action.” Moreover, if Marcus receives a grant, she believes she will lose her carer’s allowance. Not surprisingly, therefore, her view of the transition process is that it is fraught with uncertainty: “At the moment through transition its just as if you are going across stepping stones. You go on one stone and you clear that one and you go to the next one and like the next problem comes up, the next change in his life comes up so you’ve got to negotiate one at a time and its just so scary…It’s a horrible feeling, transition, because you’ve seen him through 16/17 years and you have got all this established and then somebody just comes along and just takes it all away and you’ve got to start again.” Support Simon is now following an NVQ level 2 brick-laying course with a training provider and his tutors are highly supportive of him. They have taken care to build any theoretical work on an extensive practical base, have offered a range of social activities to Simon (though he has in fact declined to participate) and have allowed him to stay on beyond the formal end of the course. Much of this has worked well. Simon’s attendance is good and he appears to be enjoying the course. However, there is considerable uncertainty over the level at which Simon should be aiming. Simon himself believes he is likely to get NVQ level 2. His mother thinks he already has level 1. His SENCO thinks he is not without academic ability. However, his tutors believe he is struggling with level 2 work and will not achieve the award. He was, they believe, wrongly assessed by the Basic Skills Department of their own organisation. However, when they asked for a re-assessment, the result was the same. Simon’s progress is reviewed regularly with his tutors. Unfortunately, however, since he did not come to the training provider direct from school, liaison with his school has been non-existent and with his family it has been limited. Simon has a Connexions worker who could potentially help in resolving differences of perception and there had been good links between Connexions and Simon’s school. However, the same link does not operate in practice with the training provider. Simon’s tutors commented that although they did have regular contact with the Careers Service, they had not seen anyone since it became Connexions. There had been some changes in the Connexions PA working with Simon and the reality seems to be that there will be no direct involvement with him unless he or his family approach Connexions directly or until the automatic ‘flagging’ system indicates that he has reached the end of his current placement. Post-16 Transitions of Young People with SEN: Wave 2 163
Parents and carers as sources of support Devesh’s family is committed to supporting his transition. He is the young man with hydrocephalus-associated learning difficulties who has embarked on a college course without, it would appear, adequate support. The importance of his parents’ support and high ambitions for their son is obvious: “We made him to feel that it is important for his life to do — achieve something and he decided to do that but it was entirely up to him what he wants to do... He wanted to do the cleaning job for people in school, he decided to do that but then we persuaded him to go on to course. In the end, the teacher and us parents, we advise him and then he started this course which he wanted to do so we said alright, whatever but do something.” Not surprisingly, his parents are deeply worried by the difficulties he is now experiencing, but their own account is that they have been unable to get any help from the college. Again, there are no doubt two sides to this story. The point, however, is that the undoubted commitment of these parents towards their son is not being harnessed effectively. Chapter Seven: Outcomes Carl, whose severe autism was for a time associated with such challenging behaviour that his special school was on the points of excluding him. His support worker describes what he has gained in recent years from school in the following terms: “What has he gained from school? I would think he has gained control, self-control, I’d say self control. I’m talking about behaviour, self control over his own social behaviour because these are big issues aren’t they? They are for him and I think he has gained friendship, stability and continuity…Yes, he has socially progressed a hell of a lot and a lot of that is because he is so much calmer now, he is so much more settled.” For young people who are troubled or have intellectual impairments, the emphasis on personal and social outcomes is particularly great. Marcus’s mother, for instance, wryly comments that although his school has awarded him a certificate for his curricular achievements, it means nothing to him: “His bestest things in the world are bumpy rides and trees.” Even for young people who come close to success of some sort, there are usually significant difficulties. Joshua, for instance, is highly committed to his Intermediate GNVQ work at a sixth form college and has already achieved a pass in Business Studies. His tutor describes him in the following terms: “I would say that he absolutely loves studying and I think that he is one of those rare students in a way…he fits right in and he just wants to be 164 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
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Table 6.12: Parent/carer knowledge
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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 172 and 173: she does not succeed, her Connexion
Page 174 and 175: examples here are Maria who wants t
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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