Memorandum submitted by Valuing People
Support Team, Department of Health
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 I am the London regional adviser for
the Valuing People Support Team. Valuing People is the Government's
national learning disability strategy. My main task is to support
London local authorities to implement Valuing People's objectives.
Each local authority has a Learning Disability Partnership Board
which brings together local authority and mainstream community
services (including health) and has representatives of people
with learning disabilities and family carers.
1.2 In addition, I am the team's national
lead on education for adults and children. This includes "transition"
from school to adulthood. Objective 2 of Valuing People is to
improve the experience of young people in transition. The importance
of transition is also recognised in the National Service Framework,
which is concurrently impacting on local work with Health, Social
Services and Education.
1.3 One of the key strands of Valuing People
is "person-centred planning". This is a move away from
simply slotting people into existing service structures, and towards
supporting them to plan for themselves. The aim is that resources
can then be used to help people to lead the lives they choose.
2. WORK IN
PROGRESS
2.1 I am currently leading a national programme
to introduce person-centred planning into the Year 9 (age 13-14)
transition review for young people with SEN statements. Simply
by bringing what we have learned through planning with people
in adult services to the school-based SEN reviews, it has been
possible to create meetings which concentrate on what is really
important to and for the young person and their family, rather
than what has often been a process determined by bureaucratic
priorities.
2.2 This work, based on a pilot which took
place in four London boroughs in 2004-05, is now taking place
in half of English local authorities. In the first year, the Valuing
People Support Team funded the programme. It is now joint-funded
with the DfES. The remaining local authorities will become involved
in 2006-07, and the programme will be complete in 2008 (funds
permitting).
3. OUTCOMES
3.1 At these reviews, young people and their
parents are involved in the planning, in ways that were previously
impossible. The transition reviews have been led by their own
issues, interests and concerns. The evaluation by parents, young
people and professionals, so far, is that this is a far more effective
and productive way of working, and people particularly like the
problem-solving approach. In fact the approach is so popular that
we are having to restrict the pace of development somewhat so
that we can guarantee its quality.
3.2 What we have learned is that this way
of working is applicable to children of all ages in mainstream
and special schools, and with the whole range of SEN. It would
be a very positive way of involving families in planning as soon
as children are identified or diagnosed. We can see the potential
for it to become a tool for self-assessment, as outlined in the
Social Care Green Paper. It also links closely to the ideas contained
in "Life-Chances for Disabled People", "Every Child
Matters" and the Green Paper "Youth Matters".
4. RECOMMENDATION
4.1 That what we have learned and continue
to learn from this programme is used to establish ways of working
that will reduce the conflict inherent in the current SEN processes,
by the introduction of person-centred approaches which are more
meaningful to young people and their families.
October 2005
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