What do we mean when we talk about transitions for children and young people? It means we are talking about when they move from one stage of their life to another. This could be moving from infant to junior school. It could be when they leave college to go into a job.

Services in Sheffield have been working to a 12 month Accelerated Progress Plan to improve transitions for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.  This ran from May 2022 to May 2023.

The improvement plan was multi-agency.  This means teams across education, health, and care are worked together. This plan was developed after the Local Area SEND inspection revisit found Education, Health and Care providers had not made "sufficient progress" in this area.

Our progress was monitored by the Department for Education (DfE) and NHS England.

The Accelerated Progress Plan links to the Sheffield Inclusion Strategy.  This involves all services working together. It focusses on preparation for adulthood which covers all transitions, linked to the 4 areas of:

  1. Education, Employment and Training
  2. Independence
  3. Community and friendships
  4. Health

(You may see these called something similar)

Some of the things we did

  • Set up a new SEND engagement young people’s group called SENDing Voices. Contact Kerry Doxey on how young people aged 13-25 can join.
  • Set up two new teams to support young people with the transition from children’s to adult social care services. Read more here 
  • Developed multi-agency training plans to educate the workforce.
  • Trained professionals in the 24/7 Grid to support person-centred planning and better preparation for adulthood. 
  • Developed ‘SEND - the basics’ training.
  • Shared good practice around Preparation for Adulthood and the four outcome areas.
  • Held Preparation for Adulthood events.
  • Held Post 16 drop-in surgery events. 
  • Offered Phase Transfer drop-in support sessions for families.
  • Developed new information for the Local Offer website and beyond.

Our progress

The Department for Education and NHS England were monitoring our progress.

In a 12 month review, they told us we had demonstrated accelerated progress. They also said they did not need to continue with formal monitoring.

You can read more by clicking on the logo below.