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The Connexions service works with all young people between the ages of 13-19 to identify their needs using appropriate assessment tools in order to overcome their barriers and ensure their progression into education, employment and training. Personal advisors, where appropriate will actively involve parents/carers and families, enabling them to contribute to the support and progression of young people.
We have 2 Disability and Inclusion Co-ordinators, one for the city and one for the county. They offer support to disabled young people, peer support and training to members of staff and sit on various multi-agency strategic groups.
We have 3 City Disability and Inclusion Personal advisers and 7 in the county, based in locality districts and teams, but working in all special schools and mainstream schools with young people who have a statement of special educational needs. We also offer advice and guidance to young people who are educated in Learning centres, other off site provision and part time learning programmes. We liaise and gather information from Connexions services countrywide in regard to young people who are educated outside the county to enable them to make a smooth transition into adult life on their return to Nottinghamshire.
We work in close partnership with a range of voluntary, statutory and community agencies and refer young people where necessary.
The Statutory requirements for the Connexions Service are outlined in the following Acts of Parliament:
- Under Section 8 of the Employment and Training Act 1973, the Secretary of State has a duty to secure the provision of relevant services for assisting persons undergoing relevant education to decide:
- what employments, having regard to their capabilities, will be suitable for and available to them when they cease undergoing such education; and
- what training or education is or will be required by and available to them in order to fit them for those employments;
- and for assisting persons ceasing to undergo relevant education to obtain such employments, training and education.
- Under Section 114 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000, the Secretary of State has the power to provide or secure the provision of services which she thinks will encourage, enable or assist (directly or indirectly) effective participation by young people in education or training. This power effectively extends the Connexions remit beyond CEG and into delivery of a wider range of services designed to tackle the NEET issue.
- Under Section 140 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000, the Secretary of State has the duty to make arrangements for the assessment (Section 140 assessment) of young people with learning difficulties and disabilities when they are undertaking or likely to be undertake post 16 education or higher education. Connexions Partnerships are to deliver these Section 140 assessments.
Within the 2002 SEN Code of Practice the role of Connexions in relation to transitions is as follows:
The Connexions Service must be invited to Year 9 annual reviews and must attend, and should also be invited to all subsequent annual reviews. This is the start of a process for longer-term decision-making. Vocational guidance should include information on further education and training courses and should take fully into account the wishes and feelings of the young person concerned. The Connexions Service should assist the young person and their parents to identify the most appropriate post-16 provision, offer counselling and support, and give continuing oversight of, and information on, the young person’s choices. Where it becomes clear from the review that a young person with a statement is likely to leave school for other post-16 provision the Connexions Service will have a particular responsibility to ensure that an assessment of their learning needs and the provision required to meet them is undertaken during the young person’s last year of compulsory schooling.
The Service will also be able to arrange assessments for young people with SEN but without statements who are in their last year of compulsory statements and also other young people under 19 years of age, whose learning difficulties develop after they have left compulsory schooling or who choose to leave school after Year 11. It is the responsibility of the Connexions Service together with FE providers to identify appropriate post – 16 education and training choices, and to ensure that Learning and Skills Council requirements are fulfilled for attendance at FE colleges, whether mainstream or specialist.
Advice to the young person on these choices and the subsequent assessment should be based upon:
- the availability to young people and their advocates of a full range of information from the Connexions Service about post-16 education and training choices, to inform placement decisions
- the involvement of young people, their parents and their advocates in the assessment process
- the advice, wherever possible, of a range of professionals to ensure expert guidance, including for example careers advisers, educational psychologists and other specialists who have knowledge of the individual’s needs.
Within the Connexions Service, the role specific to transitions is the Personal Adviser (PA) and more specifically the Disability and Inclusion Personal Adviser.
The following table outlines the key elements of the Personal Adviser (PA) in the transition process.
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