‘Transition’ in education terms means moving into, between or out of educational settings. There are three key transition points in your child’s school life:
Moving from one school or educational setting to another can be stressful and children and young people with spina bifida and/or hydrocephalus often find transition more challenging than their peers. By following this guide, parents and teachers can help to make transition easier.
The best type of planning has the child or young person at its centre. Services should not simply focus on the process or what is thought of as ‘right’ for the child or young person. The young person should always be consulted and be involved in the process.
Secondary school is the time when parents and carers help their child to understand their condition so that they can explain it to new people they meet. Young people need to know how to keep themselves healthy, safe and supported as they grow up and become adults.
By the start of Key Stage 3, many parents and carers have already introduced self-advocacy, where a child or young person starts to take charge of describing their own condition, learning to speak up for themselves and making their own decisions about their own life. With support, many children and young people learn about their rights, their responsibilities, who to turn to and how to take charge of their own needs as they become more independent.
Preparation for adulthood should be discussed during regular planning meetings
Careers advice and information should give high expectations and a wide range of options. Young people and their parents should be helped to explore options and what support will be needed to achieve ambitions.
Good transition planning provides a clear handover to new professionals and services so that young people and their families know and feel confident in the professionals, who they are working with and where they need to go to for help and advice.
There’s a duty on schools to ‘make reasonable adjustments’ where pupils with disabilities are placed at a ‘substantial disadvantage’. This duty is anticipatory and should be planned for well ahead of your child attending a school or moving through to transition to a new setting.
Schools need to anticipate the requirements of pupils with disabilities and to make adjustments in advance
Schools can do this by:
From Year 9 onwards pupils with an EHC plan should have an Annual Review meeting, which considers what provision will be required to assist the young person in preparing for adulthood and independent living. This Annual Review is often called an Early Transition Review meeting.
Preparing for Adulthood planning should include support to prepare for:
If your child has an EHC plan AND it is unlikely that they will be able to undertake unsupervised learning at college or it is unsafe to leave them at home unsupported, then the LA should consider providing a package of support across education, health and social care, covering 5 days a week. Five-day packages do not have to be with one provider and could be achieved with a range of appropriate providers in different settings.