Enquire, like many services and organisations who work with young disabled people and their families, continue to hear about the difficulties faced at the transition between children’s and adult services in Scotland. We feel strongly that more could be done to help young people and families during this important period of transition.
Using the evidence from enquiries from our helpline, we have pulled together a briefing which highlights some of the issues we know can cause difficulties including planning, communication, lack of information and stress caused to families and young people. We have also considered how the pandemic has impacted in transitions from school.
- The vital input of children, young people, and families with lived experience of the current system to identify solutions.
- Learning from current legislation including The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act (2004) and the legal duties it already places on local authorities.
- Learning from the ASL review around the challenges of policy and legislation translating into practice (for example Co-ordinated Support Plan implementation).
- How ownership and responsibility of plans would be managed given the diverse group of children and young people who would be covered by such a plan.
Summary
The stories we hear from the people who contact us evidence the need for changes to the system for our disabled young people and families. With any changes to the system, we believe strongly the following must be considered:
Case Study
“A young person called the helpline asking for help as they do not feel like the is getting the support they need at school. Young person feels the school aren’t listening to them or their parent. They feel the school want them to go to college, but they want to stay on at school.”
Helpline Advisor
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To read the full briefing please download the PDF below. If you need an accessible version please contact our helpline.
PDF – Enquire briefing: Transitions of young disabled people and their parents