Birth to Settled Adulthood

What is Birth to Settled Adulthood?  

Every child and young person deserves the same opportunity to meet their potential. Some need extra support to help them achieve this. 

Dorset Council is excited to be working with partners to improve the way we support children and young people with complex needs or who are disabled as they grow into adults.
These partners include:

• those who work in health organisations
• the Dorset Parent Carer Council (the Department for Education recognised Forum for Dorset)

This means we are reviewing what support and help we provide for children and families who: 

• currently need 
• will be needing 

a service from our education, social and health care teams from birth through to adulthood. 

We are changing the way we give this support by creating a new service that supports children and young people from birth to 25 years of age. This is so that our young people can progress smoothly at key stages of development in their life, rather than those changes being dictated by age. By the age of 25, every young person eligible for support from the service will experience a smooth transition into adult services. 

Since spring 2022 we have been working with children, young people and their families. We have also worked with stakeholders to develop services that will bring:  

• children’s social care
• adults social care
• transitions services
• special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) services
• health services 

much closer together to provide the right contact, from the right person at the right time. 
Due to the volume of work to complete as we develop the new service, we will deliver the programme in two phases. The first phase will be integrating adult’s, children’s and education services across Dorset Council
The second phase will be to align the new service with NHS Dorset and the Integrated Care System (ICS). This will ensure that all Health and Care services in Dorset that support children and young people will work together.

What will change?

A flexible service for children and young people from birth up to 25 years of age.

There will be a more co-ordinated approach to working with individual children and young people from all system partners. Starting from birth or first contact with us, we will support and guide:

• children
• young people
• their parents and carers

as they grow up and move towards adulthood. This is to reduce the risk of a sudden change at the age of 18. It will ensure the move to adulthood is flexible to meet the needs of the young person. For young people and their families there will be seamless support offered. This will work on the basis of need rather than chronological age. 

How have we involved children, young people, and their families? 

We have used:

• face to face events
• virtual events
• surveys

to get feedback from children, young people, and their families. We have incorporated the feedback we have gathered into the design of the new service.

What have children, young people and families told us?  

Children, young people, and their families have told us that: 

• we should keep children and young people at the centre of what we do 
• they don’t want to keep repeating their story 
• having a single point of contact would be helpful 
• we should adopt an outcomes focused approach 
• we should improve joint working across education, health, and social care 
• we should consider the need for care and support assistance when preparing care leavers for adulthood 
• we should plan earlier to enable children and young people to gain the right skills for independence.
• we should enable smoother handovers between services 

What outcomes will be considered? 

The service will achieve successful outcomes for young people in nine areas: 

1. I feel safe
2. I have my views, wishes, and feelings listened to 
3. I know how to look after my health and wellbeing
4. I am learning
5. I am building my independence 
6. I am living in the best place for me
7. I am liked and feel included 
8. I can manage my money or have support if I need it 
9. I know that the people who care for me are well supported to meet my needs

Each child or young person will have a different set of outcomes. These will depend on their individual circumstances. 

Each young person and their family will have access to good quality information and advice. This will be in a format they need to make informed decisions. 

We have produced a Preparing for adulthood guide to help young people and their families. 

Which children and young people will be in this group? 

The children and young people who will make use of the birth to settled adulthood service are: 

• children and young people with SEND who have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and are likely to have care and support needs into adulthood 
• children and young people known to services who have a disability 
• young people aged over 14 requiring support for mental health who are likely to need care support 
• children and young people with high cost education packages (above £50,000 per year) 
• young people who are at risk of abuse or exploitation and may not meet Care Act eligibility criteria
• children and young people who have Continuing Care funding 

What will the service do? 

The Birth to Settled Adulthood service will: 

• provide good quality information advice and guidance 
• provide early identification of complex needs to services that need to know 
• give targeted support to develop skills and strategies to build independence 
• support children, young people and families to plan ahead 
• contribute to working out what services we need to provide in future 
• give clear oversight of complex young people aged over 14 who are likely to have care and support needs into adulthood 
• contribute to Dorset Council meeting its statutory duties to young people and their families 
• give targeted support to prevent deterioration of conditions. This will reduce the risk of admission to hospital or into care 
• provide safeguarding, addressing abuse and neglect 
• support parents and carers to build resilience, knowledge, and confidence in caring for their child or young person