Your County - Putting Kent First

Kent 4 star Council

Transition to adulthood

Making plans for leaving school and thinking about the future is an exciting thing for most young people to do.

But the challenge of moving from youth to adulthood can be especially daunting for disabled young people and their families because of the changes involved in how they are supported.

Kent County Council wants to improve the process of change for disabled children. While there are already strong processes in place for this transition, the people involved have told KCC that some aspects need to be strengthened.

KCC and its partners have developed a new set of protocols, or ways to work, called Kent Transition Protocols. These will help young people and their families have a better experience of the move to being supported by Adult Social Services.

The protocols have three main aims:

  • to make sure young people with complex needs who are moving from adolescence to adulthood get the integrated, continuous support they need
  • to make sure young people are involved in decision-making and get the outcomes they are looking for through planning and services designed for the individual
  • to establish when and how information should be shared between agencies and to help with strategic planning and commissioning services for the future

Adolescence should be a time of opportunity for young people and should be a positive experience as they take steps towards adulthood and the processes set out in Kent's Transition Protocols have been developed to help disabled young people achieve this.

Associated documents

Copyright Kent County Council 2009