Room 3 - Delivery Room (Section 9 of 12)
Section 9 - Post-school and Further Education provision
Description of post-school and Further Education provision
Transition from school to other placements can occur at any point in the 16-19 year age range. However, preparation for transition is likely to have started at age 13 and in the case of some young people with mobility and independence needs, the period of transition may extend to age 25. The young person may move to:
- A local FE college
- A specialist residential college of FE
- An institute of Higher Education
- Living permanently at home
- Employment or sheltered/supported employment
- Vocational learning opportunities funded through Learning and Skills Councils (LSCs) such as Modern Apprenticeships
- Students’ access to mobility and independence education is particularly vulnerable at the point of transition from school. Many children with a visual impairment, including those who have a statement of SEN which specifies mobility and independence support, may lose this entitlement when they leave school.
Responsibility for and continuity of mobility and independence provision
During the period of transition from LEA education, the responsibility for providing a mobility and independence service to children with a visual impairment may pass from education to another agency. In authorities where there are no clearly defined pathways for transition, young people’s mobility and independence needs often go unmet. This is due to a lack of clarity over which agency is responsible for the young person at the point of departure from school.
Where social services or voluntary organisations are involved in providing mobility and independence education to children throughout their school career, continuity in provision into adulthood is usually assured because there is no change in provider when they leave school. This also applies in situations where voluntary organisations provide mobility and independence support on behalf of education and social services, since they work with people who are visually impaired of all ages. However, for children who have received support during their school career from education, there needs to be careful planning to ensure a smooth transition into the care of a different agency, usually social services. The education service should be responsible for this.
Some LEA services try to aid the transition from school into FE or adulthood by maintaining good links with social services or voluntary organisations that provide mobility and independence support to adults. An example identified in the research includes the following:
If a child is on the verge of leaving school, the education service invites a social services representative to annual reviews to introduce the family to the person who will take on responsibility for the young person once they leave school. LONDON BOROUGH OF HAVERING
Another authority has a hand-over scheme that has proved successful:
For children going into FE, a ‘package’ is provided by the education service so they link in with the careers service and provide mobility reports. HULL
Sharing information about the young person is important, to inform the new agency responsible about the mobility and independence education received in the past, and to pass on any other information that will help the mobility and independence educator to continue the work and do their job more effectively. Where students arrive at a College without reports from their previous provider, an assessment could be carried out using the VIEW/FHE assessment pack (Cork et al. 1999), which provides a comprehensive framework for assessment including a section on mobility.
A key potential support infrastructure available to young people is Connexions. Connexions is a major Government initiative designed to maximise the number of young people taking up learning and/or employment opportunities at age 16. It is particularly focused on young people who either experience or perceive barriers to entering learning and/or employment at this key transition point. Broadly, the target group is those aged 13 to 19. However, young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities are likely to be included up to age 25. Under the Connexions strategy, sub-regional partnerships are being established throughout England. Central to these partnerships are the careers service, youth service and schools. However, Connexions is intended to establish a cohesive partnership between a broad range of agencies and it is seen as important that it embraces a wide spectrum of statutory, voluntary, community and private sector organisations.
Arrangements to ensure continuity of mobility and independence support upon transition need to be put in place while the child is still at school and recorded in the 14+ transition plan. In most LEA areas, Connexions will be able to facilitate networks between the key agencies that can support transition from school into post-16 learning and employment. By working pro-actively with Connexions partnerships it should be possible to ensure that inter-agency frameworks to support transition are responsive to both current and anticipated needs.
Entitlement to mobility and independence provision
Legislation in the 1990s took FE colleges out of LEA control, and gave them management of their own budgets. Therefore the availability of mobility and independence education in FE came to depend on the willingness of colleges to ‘buy in’ the services of a Mobility Officer/Rehabilitation Officer from either the LEA or another source in the locality. Colleges of FE are not obliged to provide mobility and independence education for young people with a visual impairment.
Currently, the extent to which FE colleges meet the mobility and independence needs of students with a visual impairment varies enormously. Students in specialist colleges receive mobility and independence training from a Mobility Officer/Rehabilitation Officer employed by the college. Practice in mainstream sector colleges appears to vary. Some try to meet the need by supplying a teaching assistant who guides the student around the College. In other situations students have no support and become dependent on fellow students. Note: The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) 2001 may change this situation, and the effects of the Act on mobility and independence education in FE will need to be monitored.
Some examples of good practice were identified in the research. For example:
In a mainstream college with a visual impairment resource base, a member of support staff attended a mobility and independence training programme and now offers students orientation and mobility training around the college. For students who are experienced long cane travellers or guide dog users, she offers assistance with route familiarisation to/from college and supplies information about bus services, etc. For other, more inexperienced students, the college ‘buys in’ support from an outside MO/RO.
It is important that key organisations are working strategically with the Learning and Skills Council, both nationally and locally, to ensure that LSC funded provision is meeting the current and anticipated mobility and independence needs of young people. This approach should help to ensure that young people are able to participate in post-16 learning as independently as possible. Clearly, it will be important that organisations are working with LSCs in a coherent and integrated way and it may be that Connexions can provide the framework to ensure that this happens.
Recommendations based upon good practice
Activity 23
We present below a number of recommendations (including a key recommendation) which arose from good practice identified in the M&I research project. You should read each of these carefully, and then compare them with the practice within your own service, or a service known to you.
A key recommendation made in the full research report was that:
Key recommendation 7
LEAs should ensure through transition arrangements that appropriate provision is made for young people with mobility and independence needs via contact with the Connexions Service Personal Advisors and other key players.
Where they have not been involved in providing M&I education to schools, social services departments should establish contact with young people who are visually impaired during the later stages of their education and to be aware of arrangements made for the transition period, i.e. contact should be made prior to the young person leaving school. This is essential where another agency, rather than a social services department, has been the main provider of mobility and independence education to children at school. To summarise:
- Periods of transition from statutory education to adulthood need careful planning by the LEA in partnership with the new provider of mobility and independence. Education should take the lead role.
- Reports detailing the mobility and independence education received during the child’s school career should be passed on to the new agency responsible for providing mobility and independence support. This should link up with other policies and procedures (e.g. Connexions).
- Mobility and independence educators who have previously worked with children throughout their school career should be directly involved in the transition of young people especially to local colleges where there is no mobility and independence provision. This may have funding implications.
Previous Section -Next Section