Progression into Adult Services / Community Activities
Transitions and Preparation for Adulthood Service
The Transitions and Preparation for Adulthood Service offers advice, guidance and support to disabled young people, with a range of disabilities and or complex health needs who are between the ages of 18 to 25 years.
Young people approaching adulthood with a disability may be thinking about their future. They may think about what happens when they leave school or college. How they can be as independent as they want to be to live a fulfilled life.
Supporting the young person through ‘transition’ is key to building a good foundation for the young person’s early adult life.
This can be an exciting time in their life but the changes also might be worrying.
The council's Transitions and Preparation for Adulthood Service wants to ensure that, during this period of change, the young person and their families are fully supported to make the right choices.
We work with the young person to:
- understand what their ongoing care and support needs might be
- help them to identify and achieve their goals
- connect the young person to services that are available to support them
How we support you
We work with a range of people to help the young person with their journey to adulthood; this might include:
- children social workers
- adult social workers
- teachers
- SEND workers
- health professionals
- voluntary and independent sector providers
These agencies work together to make sure that the young person has the right support in place that helps them to live a fulfilling and independent life.
Three Conversations
Leading up to the young person’s eighteenth birthday a social worker will arrange a meeting to find out all about the young person and their family. This is also to make sure their family needs are also identified and understood.
Birmingham Adult Social Care calls this part of the process ‘a conversation’. This ‘conversation’ is based on the 3 conversations and strength-based model which enable social workers to identify the young person’s care and support needs including goals or aspirations.
The social worker will help the young person and their family through this process.
The transitions worker will always make sure the young person has someone to help them with the process of the ‘conversation’ and where there is no one to support them then an advocacy service is used.
The young person’s ‘eligibility’ is determined under the Care Act 2014 legislation. This means that the transitions worker considers the young person’s care and support needs that arise from, or are related to a physical or mental impairment or illness. The social worker also need to know what the young person is able to achieve with or without support, and as a result, if the young person’s wellbeing is likely to be significantly affected.
Support plan
The social worker will work with the young person, their family or carer to put together a support plan, also referred to as a move-on plan. A support plan is a document that shows how the needs and outcomes identified in the young person’s conversation will be met. It will be tailored to the young person and their needs and outcomes, and so it will be unique to the young person. Once the social worker identify with the young person what their needs are, they will work out how much support hours are needed to meet the needs.
Financial assessment
The social worker will discuss with the young person whether they need to pay for some of the support through their own funds or benefits, and what Adult Social Care will help fund. The young person will also receive a financial assessment to work out if they need to make a financial contribution towards their care. This financial assessment will also help the young person to maximize their income.
The funds that pay for the young person’s support are called a ‘Personal Budget’. The support can either be provided via a ‘Directly Commissioned Support’ or via a ‘Direct Payment’. If via a Direct Payment’ Adult Social Care will usually provide the young person with a pre-paid card, a third-party managed account, a self-managed account to help the young person to pay for any services that the social worker have identified with the young person they need.
Regular reviews
Once the young person’s support is up and running, the social worker will check that the support is working in the way the young person want, that it is meeting the young person’s needs and that it supports their whole family.
These regular reviews help the social worker to update the plan if anything changes as the young person go through transition to adulthood. The young person’s support will continue with the transition team to the age of 25 year, when they will be transfer to their Local Constituency Team.
How to get in touch with Adult Social Care services
If you are already receiving services as a young person, speak to your Social Work team who arrange the service for you.
If you are under 18 and need help and support now, contact Children, Young People and Families on: 0121 303 1888.
If you are 18 or over and you may need help and support, contact customer services Adult Social care on 0121 303 1234
For enquiries email: CSAdultSocialCare@birmingham.gov.uk
For Transitions and Preparation for Adulthood enquiries, email: Transitions-PFA@birmingham.gov.uk
For further information, visit Adult social care services.
For community information and service providers, visit Connect to Support.
Page last updated: 23 January 2023
