Moving from Children’s to Adult Social Care Services

Transition meetings are held on a monthly basis for young people open to Children and Families Newcastle from 16 years old. The meetings, which include a lead practitioner and manager from Children and Families Newcastle, Preparation for Adulthood Lead from SEND, a social worker and team manager from Adult Social Care, along with specialist housing and adult services representatives, will consider a young person’s current and future support needs. This is with the aim of ensuring that the next steps and services that will benefit the young person are clearly understood and co-ordinated effectively to support as smooth a transition as possible to adult services.

An adult social care assessment will be provided at the right time for the young person or their parent/carer and at a point that makes sense for other changes in the young person’s life. There is no set age when young people reach this point - every young person and their family are different, and a Care Act assessment will take place when it is most appropriate for them.

For example, if a young person is receiving support from Children and Families Newcastle and support needs to continue when they turn 18, an assessment and support plan would be completed with the young person and family ready for when they are 18. Another young person may not need social care support while they continue to attend a special school but may need it when they leave school aged 19. In this situation, they would be assessed with enough time to prepare support before they leave school.

If a young person requires support to take part in the assessment, their social care worker can consider who else might be able to support them or, if appropriate, can contact an independent advocacy service.

Parents and carers are involved in the assessment process for young people up to 18 years old and when the young person is over 18 years old, parents and carers are involved if this is what the young person wishes.

This flexibility means that young people will move on to their future adult social care team once adult social care support is in place and is working well. For some young people, this might be around the age of 18, whereas for others, it could be up to the age of 25.