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National Review of Assessment: Identification of the Learning and Support Needs of Young People

Chapter 4: Aspects of Good Practice and Development

Structure of this chapter

This chapter is sub-divided into two sections: section one includes examples of the development of assessment across a range of different agencies; section two highlights examples of good practice identified throughout the period of the research. The examples provide an encouraging illustration of the range of innovative and developmental work currently being done in some areas, much of which could provide a basis for developments across Scotland. They also serve to illustrate the central importance of assessment in making provision for young people with particular support needs. Careers service companies are referred to as CSCs throughout the chapter.

Section 1: Good Practice or Developments at National Level

Young offenders

It is generally accepted that assessment is a critical - and highly sensitive - element of provision for young offenders. The research looked at examples of how assessment was conducted with this group.

The range of examples of assessments used with young offenders was very similar to methods used with other sections of the youth population. The most significant difference was in the areas of personal factors that were discussed. The main emphasis was on gathering background information by interview, following a pre-designed checklist of questions, used flexibly. Informal conversations with clients were preferred, with written records being completed by staff after an interview had ended. Assessment materials were used with the aim of planning next steps and the nature of support to be provided.

The "DUN" Score was being used with young offenders to examine background factors and to help assess the risk of re-offending. This was used in conjunction with the Level of Service Inventory (Revised), which assesses eight different areas: criminal history; education and employment; housing; drug and alcohol use; health; leisure; family; and attitude. The Scottish Office Risk Assessment Framework was also used, to assess the risk of clients harming themselves and others.

Apex had produced materials to help determine the needs and next steps of this client group. This included an employability assessment, a basic skills assessment and a process to review basic competencies and core skills. Numeracy and literacy tests were also included. These were linked in to SQA Core Skills.

One Princes Trust project had developed a Risk Assessment Policy, which included a question and answer framework, designed to be used in an informal atmosphere. Needs were identified across such areas as social history, employability, qualifications, drug and alcohol use, medical and mental health issues and offending behaviour. Targets for development in future behaviour, and training and employment issues were then established.

In all the tools used with young offenders there was a strong element of partnership with other agencies. Attempts were made to clarify "next steps", including identifying an appropriate agency and a contact name and number to be made aware to the client.

Looked-After Children (LAC)

The main assessment used in the care sector was the Looked-after Children in Scotland - Good Parenting, Good Outcomes - Assessment and Action Record. The pack was originally developed and designed by researchers in England and Wales in collaboration with the Department of Health, for use with young people of 15 years of age and over. The pack has been amended for use in Scotland to meet the requirements of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. The pack (last amended in 1999) included guidelines for use and favoured interview-driven discussion of issues, to fit a framework of topics. The pack aimed to help assess progress, monitor the quality of care and plan for improvements over seven dimensions: health; education; identity; family and social relationships; social presentation; emotional and behavioural developments; and self care skills. Flexibility over who completed the record was recommended. The young person was expected to have some choice over who was the most trusted person to work with, and different workers could complete different sections. The pack included review documentation and opportunities for self-assessment.

Launchpad in Glasgow had also developed a tool for use with looked-after young people and care leavers. This was a "work readiness" assessment. The tool was developed by this employment-related support project. The assessment consisted of a questionnaire, covering 22 indicators over five main core skill areas: "hard" indicators; general attendance; willingness to take direction; motivation; and social skills. Each indicator was given a score of between 0 and 2, in negotiation between the young person and the link worker. The score had to be justified by evidence. A total score was then agreed, which gave a measure of work readiness. Barriers to employment could then be identified alongside work related action points devised to address the needs and the issues. The major benefit of the assessment was thought to be that it enabled clients to be more aware of the disciplines required by employers and to gauge their own present skill level.

Students at Further Education Colleges

A working party convened by the Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU) is currently revising the use of the Personal Learning and Support Plan in colleges. PLSPs are used to specify the nature and scope of agreed educational goals for individual students. They also identify the support measures to be put into place to enable students to attain these goals. PLSPs are prepared for students either embarking on Special Programmes or otherwise identified as requiring Extended Learning Support within the FE sector. The PLSP documentation includes details of previous assessment information, and there are also sections for background material and self assessment comments from the young person. We know from questionnaire returns and informal discussions that colleges understand the criteria for allocating additional funding and that they have developed good procedures for preparing PLSPs. We have no knowledge of how they are regarded by students.

From responses to the FE questionnaire it was apparent that the quality of information about students was thought to be better where good relationships had been developed between college staff and colleagues in schools and other agencies. Good relationships often resulted from, for example, liaison activities associated with school-college link courses. College respondents reported that students were generally encouraged to participate in the assessment process.

Effective induction, clear referral procedures, actively encouraging students to seek help and good signposting of services were identified by college respondents as examples of good practice, but these were recognised to be resource intensive. The evidence of the questionnaire responses supports the view expressed in the Beattie report that there might be scope for extending the role of the Access Centres and helping colleges to make use of their services.

Voluntary organisations

A range of voluntary agencies was contacted, of which only a few reported that they were involved in the training and assessment of young people. The following examples demonstrate the range of support which is provided by the non-statutory sector as well as being representative of issues which were reported by the wider range of interviewees.

Interviews with key staff in non-statutory organisations indicated clear similarities to procedures in the statutory sector. Typically, clients were referred to them after initial assessment by social work, careers or education staff. In the case of school leavers with pronounced disabilities, the referrals were by way of the Future Needs Assessment which was part of the Record of Needs procedure. Where assessments were conducted by voluntary agencies they, like their colleagues in the statutory sector, reported a major use of informal techniques (e.g. interviews, observation etc.) There was also a more limited use of formal tools (e.g. checklists), many of these developed in-house or adapted from published materials.

A number of non-statutory agencies were fairly "young" and this was particularly true of those whose focus was the support of people with profound and complex difficulties. These agencies mainly reported what they would call a "person-centred" approach to assessment and training. This required that the client, their interests, needs and abilities were always at the centre of the assessment and planning process so that services were tailored to their needs. This was seen as being in contrast to a model of assessment where the purpose was to assess the client for placement into existing services.

SENSE Scotland, an organisation which supports those with deafblindness and multi-sensory impairment, had many clients who had spent a considerable part of their lives in long-stay residential care where the impact of their impairments was exacerbated by the effects of institutionalisation. SENSE is quoted in the Beattie Report (p.76), saying, 'Assessment should be recognised as a cyclical process; once the cycle is gone round once, the next cycle begins. Nor is assessment an end in itself; but should be regarded as an aid to decision-making.' Much of their assessment procedures focused on discovering avenues for the development of self-expression and the formation of relationships on the part of the clients.

Another organisation which provides services for profoundly disabled clients is Enable, and there the interviewee reported difficulties in locating suitable published assessment tools. While a range of effective tools was recognised to be available, these were thought mostly to pre-suppose a high level of skills on the part of the staff who would use them. The previously strong influence of medical, psychological and psychiatric services in every aspect of the lives of those with profound intellectual impairments had meant that assessment tools for use with this group were generally most easily accessible to personnel from these services. As services were now much more community based and staff had, typically, received much less specialised training there were issues concerning the suitability of these specialist assessment tools for those staff who worked most closely with the clients. The representative of Enable reported the development of a range of in-house materials which were designed to address this mismatch between staff skills and relevant assessment. The newly developed tools were based mainly on the use of staff observation and included input from carers and service users themselves. The last mentioned aspect was regarded as being particularly important.

Another factor which differentiated the assessment procedures used with clients with complex difficulties from those used with more able learners was frequency of reviews. Usually, reviews with this group happened on a six monthly or annual basis.

The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) provides a large variety of services to a wide range of people with visual impairment. One part of this is the specialised assessment which they offered to students and young people. These assessments focused on:

• technology needs;
• study skills /needs;
• employment support.

This service was generally directed towards young people who did not have significant additional difficulties and who required support in undertaking further / higher education or in entering the workplace. The young people were referred by colleges and universities or DEAs; they might also self-refer.

Barnardo's had a number of projects relevant to this research. In one project the target group was confined to young people who were either leaving care or had been involved with the prison system. Potential applicants had a 'live, active' through-care worker from the council or were referred by a social worker following release from prison.

The project required a high level of commitment from the clients and this was reflected in the assessment procedures. Following referral, an informal, information-gathering meeting would take place between Barnardo's staff, the young person and the through-care worker or social worker, at which the young person would be told about the project and other similar options (which they were encouraged to visit) and be given an application form. Once the young person had made an active decision to apply to Barnardo's and had completed the application form an assessment would be sought from the referral agency.

If the report showed either a high level of offending or of drug/alcohol abuse which was not acknowledged as a problem by the applicant then the application would be turned down at this point.

A young person who appeared open to the aims of the project would then begin a six-week period of assessment, although this might be extended if they had a particularly chaotic life-style. This assessment was based mainly on the looked-after children assessment procedures but also included additional attention, as appropriate, to such aspects as:

• problem solving;
• communication skills;
• budgeting & living skills;
• consequential thinking;
• values.

At any point during this process either the young person or Barnardo's could decide that it would be inappropriate to proceed. In some cases young people got as far as moving into a Barnardo's flat and then pulled out of the arrangements. There was also a follow-on service which supported young people after a year in the programme, or could allow re-entry to the provision if arrangements had broken down.

Skillseekers

The Enterprise Network has recently conducted research into the delivery of training through Skillseekers to young people who are currently endorsed by the careers company as having Special Training Needs (STN). This research identified that there were gaps in current service provision, which could be met by the introduction of a national Personal Adviser Service (PAS) to provide specific services to Local Enterprise Companies.

The main roles suggested for the Personal Training Advisers (PTAs) are:

• identification and recording of clients' special training needs;
• matching of clients to appropriate opportunities;
• monitoring and reviewing of clients' learning/training progression;
• supporting clients' progression transitions;
• verification of effective training delivery.

Careers Scotland has been identified as the preferred supplier of these services.

It is recognised that these services cannot be produced in a uniform, prescribed manner throughout Scotland, and flexibility in approach will be required to meet different local demands. A minimum level of service, however, is aimed for across Scotland.

In April 2002, a new model for delivery of training and learning provision aimed at young people with additional needs will be introduced by Scottish Enterprise. It is proposed that this new model will comprise four strands of support, open to individual young people dependent upon their identified needs. The four strands are:

• core employability;
• personal development;
• vocational skills;
• lifeskills.

A range of assessment methods will be used to identify need.

Psychological Services

Psychological services stressed the importance of the contextual assessment. Both strengths and areas for development should be assessed in as close to a real life situation as possible, as establishing an accurate baseline of a young person's skills might take time to emerge and could not be assessed by a simple "snapshot" approach. Increasingly psychologists worked systematically at the level of the college, training provider or key worker rather than directly with the young person, as it was felt that assessment was an ongoing process which directly impacted on the daily learning experiences of the young person. As such it should be carried out by colleagues who were known to, and working with, the young people rather than by an expert "dropping in". This model was thought to mirror good practice already well established within the school and pre-school sectors.

Psychological services were currently involved (August 2001) in a Scottish Executive funded three-year pilot project linked to the inclusiveness agenda. A National Development Officer full-time equivalent post has been created to extend good practice from experience in schools to post-school young people. Protocols are to be developed covering links with other professionals working directly with young people in this age group. Another task will be to develop leaflets explaining psychological services to young people in a clear and straightforward way.

In one area, the Inclusiveness Project will involve joint work between Psychological Services and the Careers Service Company on the assessment of emotional intelligence.

Research on the assessment of social and emotional competence

A joint research project between community education staff in Strathclyde University and the Prince's Trust has begun to examine the assessment of social and emotional competence in informal educational settings. This will include a consideration of how such competence may be measured and of the types of evidence that might be gathered.

Connexions Service

The Connexions Service was introduced in 12 areas of England in April 2001. This service was created to introduce a range of guidance and support services through one single point of access for 13-19 year olds to help prepare for transition to work and adult life. The service integrates careers, health and youth services, including Youth Offending Teams to minimise the amount of different support agencies young people have to deal with. Personal advisers provide a universal information, advice and guidance service for all young people, when and where they need it. Connexions is also aimed at reducing the number of young people not involved in education, training or employment. The Connexions Framework for Assessment, Planning, Implementation and Review (APIR) has been introduced as a policy strategy document to equip personal advisers with a process for identifying client need, effective planning and taking action to address needs. It aims to provide a framework to co-ordinate service delivery to young people facing significant or multiple barriers to learning. It also includes support materials to assist in the assessment, planning, implementation and review processes. These include sample recording forms and profiling information. The process involves using client centred plans designed to empower young people to mobilise services over a comprehensive range of personal factors.

The Connexions service is now implementing the APIR process and an evaluation is in progress. Each area is providing its own assessment menu, training activities and delivery mechanisms. There is interest in measuring the "distance travelled" of young people .The Quality of Life tool in particular is being trialled in a number of Connexions service locations.

The "Connexions Card" is also being operated in nine project areas. This aims to reduce some of the financial barriers to learning by giving young people access to a range of discounts in areas such as public transport, books and equipment. It also aims to encourage young people to remain in learning by rewarding their participation and achievements through the provision of further discounts at leisure facilities and in the high street. The young person can be rewarded for loyalty, attendance and progress. Assessment measures therefore are very closely tied into financial benefits.

The Humberside partnership has a website which gives extensive details of developments in assessment ⁸. This includes an Assessment Toolkit, which is designed to support the work of Personal Advisers. This reviews and evaluates tools and approaches that have been identified as particularly useful. It also provides information about topics of interest, such as social skills training and measurement of self-esteem. A tool search facility is also available.

Employment Services

The Employment Services (ES) policy and practice is decided at a UK level. Personal Advisers across the UK had been using a document called the Client Progress Kit. It was initially developed in 1999 for work with New Deal and Restart clients, and now is used as part of any Work Targeted Interviewing by ES staff. This document recorded the situation of clients under a number of headings including basic, social, personal and employability skills, and was intended to be a basis for decisions on appropriate next steps, such as referral to training or support providers or for basic skills development. Details of the client's profile of skills were to be passed to these other organisations who would be expected to show that clients had progressed in skill development as a result of the intervention. The assessment evidence recorded was primarily based on earlier records of contacts with clients, on interview assessment or on initial assessment materials produced by the Basic Skills Agency.

The document incorporated a tracking grid and prompts and probes to assist interviewing and provide indicators to clarify the assessment of need.

Developments in the near future include:

• the referral of a Job Centre client whom the Personal Adviser has reason to believe may have basic skills needs to an independent assessor for a basic skills assessment procedure lasting one hour. This task of independent assessment will go out to tender. At the time of writing the tools for the independent assessment were still being developed by Learning and Skills Councils;
• independent assessment may result in a decision that the client is not ready for employment or needs more tailored support (perhaps with the help of the Disablement Employment Advisor). But a more common result of assessment is likely to be that the client is referred for a four-week assessment - Short Intensive Basic Skills (SIBS). This will include a specially designed basic skills test accredited by City and Guilds. The delivery of SIBS support is also out for tender.

New Futures Fund projects

Scottish Enterprise managers of New Futures Fund (NFF) projects had decided to standardise assessment. This was done by adopting the Rickter Scale across all projects. A similar decision with respect to NFF projects was made by Highlands and Islands Enterprise. Standardisation is one answer to the difficulties that funders face in measuring progress and comparing value-added across different projects and approaches.

Section 2: Good Practice or Developments at Local Level

Examples of good practice are grouped under seven headings. A short paragraph describes the key features of each aspect of good practice and this is followed by a series of practical examples.

1. Multi-disciplinary approaches/networking

The Beattie Committee recommended that careers service managers should develop multi-agency approaches to supporting young people (Paragraph 6.28). The present research has highlighted the need for improvements in the ways in which agencies collaborate in making provision for young people. In particular, there need to be opportunities for all local agencies to meet to discuss and agree consistent arrangements for the transfer of information, conduct of assessment and maintenance of confidentiality. This might be best achieved if one agency had responsibility for local co-ordination. Examples of good practice in inter-agency working identified by the researchers are listed below.

• Initial, ongoing and pre-exit case conferences for young people on Initial Training or pre-exit case conferences for those on STN provision. These could include the young person, the careers adviser, the training provider, the placement provider, a LEC representative and others such as parents, Adult Basic Education staff and social workers if desired:

'You could call it a Future Employability Needs Assessment. There's a minute resulting from it and a training plan at the beginning or a forward plan at the end. Milestones are agreed for young people at the initial needs assessment and these are monitored. It's likely to be about more than employability, to include behavioural issues, personal hygiene etc. We're trying to introduce the same approach for young people going through college and for adults needing the same approach in training. In fact anyone of any age or status who needs the support.'

A similar pre-exit case conference from further education was also noted as good practice; in this case, a member of the Social Work Department's Employment Disability Unit also attended.

• Informal meetings between the CSC central specialist and the social work officer responsible for through-care and after-care for the area. These discussed the situations of clients and potential clients:

'It's a very relaxed procedure: we look at education, social skills or circumstances, personal circumstances, career planning, accommodation, recreation.'

Others noted the importance of good relationships between careers advisers and social workers over young people leaving care.

• Specialist assessments by psychologists were thought to be very useful. Several respondents noted the value of an assessment by the occupational psychologist, arranged through the Disablement Employment Adviser from Employment Services. In another project, an educational psychologist had been able to access formal assessments on behalf of young people and their advisers. This had the effect of reducing duplication of assessments:

'He was able to check if evidence already existed before arranging for specific aspects to be tested.'

• Good links between CSCs and managers of behavioural support provision and of college link provision for young people on alternatives to exclusion provision had proved effective.
• A Service Level Agreement had been in place for a number of years between the careers service and school medical services.
• A unit for behavioural and other support as part of alternatives to exclusion helped to integrate the assessments of school and the link college with the Individualised Educational Programmes (IEP).
• DEAs in one area worked closely with an occupational psychologist, who worked with clients requiring more specialised assessment. One benefit was seen to be that the involvement of another agency provided a very useful double check on subjective assessments of clients.
• A Placement Partnership Network was being developed between training providers and the local council. This was seen to be a way for providers to work together to channel resources towards a more coherent approach to employers who might wish to support Beattie clients. The aim was to streamline contacts and paperwork to improve health and safety matters and quality systems overall.
• One organisation supporting young people with joint accommodation and employment needs stressed how important it was from their experience to 'keep all other workers in the loop' of information exchange and of updating of each other on client progress. Clients tended to have had contact with a number of agencies in possession of background information. Social Work staff had been able to play a particularly helpful role in this situation, and continued involvement was encouraged by regular information exchange.

2. Documentation, guidelines, recording systems and support booklets

Good practice is client centred, and this means placing particular emphasis on helping young people to understand the assessment process, and the purpose and outcomes of work experience or training programmes. Details should be clearly explained and documents should be uncomplicated and explicit. The use of common protocols for recording information would facilitate the exchange of information between agencies and thus improve the practice of referral.

• Colleges and the CSC produced a handbook for young people who had special needs and who were planning to enter any one of the local FE colleges. This was for use by young people and their teachers in careers education classes in special schools and units. The handbook included self-assessment exercises about work readiness, perceptions of the need for skill development, expectations of what would be gained in college etc.
• An interview schedule had been produced for a pre-FNA careers interview. This was often used in conjunction with Photofit or sometimes CID. The careers interview was part of an integrated package of careers education which was included in the Higher Still Access 2 unit "Sampling Work" provided in a special school.
• There were a number of directories or guides that indicated good practice. These included a Directory of Social Inclusion, guidelines for referral of young people with additional needs, and a menu of assessment methods and a test and guides policy statement for guidance to CSC staff.
• An explanation sheet was attached to the young person's copy of the endorsement form for supported training under Skillseekers.
• In one area the CSC administrative database had been designed to hold details of the number and type of assessments provided for each client, but not the details of the assessment result.
• An STN assessor's handbook had been created for careers advisers from the specialist assessment team to use as part of the assessment process. This included interactive games and activities which covered:
  • a list of employability issues to be assessed on a scale of 1 to 5;
  • issues to be identified as significant or not significant for each client;
  • exercises which covered barriers to employment, assessing whether a client had a realistic view of training/wage scales, awareness of the opportunities in local industries, the value of employment and training to the individual, and awareness of local agencies.
• Two training providers in one case study area reported that reviews and records of progress were documented on a regular basis with clients signing all official reviews. Sometimes informal reviews were used to inform official discussions. An opposite view was held by one training provider who was reluctant to document everything:

'too much paperwork is off putting to the client'

This would suggest that good practice in documenting assessment information requires to balance the need to keep the client involved with the impact of the volume of recording on the client. Only relevant assessment, at an appropriate time is needed.

3. Transfer of assessment information

The Beattie Committee was concerned about inadequate information transfer.

' …the variable content and quality of information from school to post school providers (careers service companies, FE and training) about young people. This lack of information can lead to inadequate assessment and subsequent inappropriate provision. (Paragraph 7.22)

The research confirmed that transfer of information between agencies in general remains a significant issue. Few examples of good practice under this heading were identified, underlining the difficulties involved in the transfer of assessment information across agencies. The problem arises due to agencies' different understandings about the meaning of confidentiality, the use of different assessment protocols and a lack of standardised documentation.

• In one area where the Scottish Executive's Matrix of Support Needs had been adapted, it was used as part of the process to review the progress of young people on STN Skillseekers, and could transfer via the CSC to another training provider if the young person changed programme.
• Another area had a range of arrangements for the transfer of assessment information. There was an adapted school report form (from school staff to the CSC) with a section on additional support needs for transition, which included sections on medical issues, learning support provision and behavioural issues. A basic transition form (from school staff to college staff) was an aid to identifying the needs of young people applying to college: this linked to college funding. Thirdly, if test results were available from the CSC, the name of the test and the date it had been completed was included in the endorsement form for supported Skillseekers training. In this area, the Local Enterprise Company (LEC) was willing to pay for any specialist assessment needed if a young person wishing to enter training had complex needs.
• DEAs in one case study area maintained ownership of client data which might be passed on to other agencies, mainly within employment services or, for example, to employers to aid negotiation of work placements or supported employment. Information was only passed on with the client's permission and strict protocols on confidentiality were observed. This approach had the support of other agencies in the locality, which meant that relevant information was being collated on behalf of the client. The only professional group unwilling to provide information to DEAs on this basis were GPs (with respect to medical information).
• There was considerable support from voluntary agencies for the assigning of a key worker from a multi-disciplinary team to a client.

4. Examples of provision

A wide range of provision was identified as indicative of good practice. This could include school, college, training provider or voluntary organisation programmes that showed good assessment and development practices operating in an integrated way, or it could be particular methods of assessment, or approaches to meeting the needs identified through the assessment process.

• Lifeskills provision for young people with profound and complex needs was available. Observation was used to assess independent living skills and social skills, and the young people were accompanied by a worker at all points. In a college in another area, assessment of learning and support needs was done through project work and social activities. For example, the karaoke machine was used to help assess literacy, learning skills, confidence and presentation skills while enterprise and other projects assessed form filling, handling money, planning, travel skills and literacy and numeracy. At another college, prospective students were invited to engage in self-assessment of study skills and organisational skills using a proforma contained within the student handbook. A very common form of good practice across Scotland was the use of college link courses to assess the needs of young people prior to leaving school.
• Vocational assessment programmes funded by Skillseekers were often run in colleges. There was evidence that some of these included comprehensive assessment across a number of work areas and these helped to identify "distance travelled" through recording systems and regular review meetings.
• Initial Training with a training provider could be a useful "first steps" arrangement.

'For young people with social, emotional and behavioural issues, vocational assessment is better done in a small unit like Initial Training than the Special Needs department of a college (which is too large an organisation for them). My observation is that they have more staying power in a smaller unit than a larger one, and they're also easier to assess…. And for young people who're not well motivated, the real work environment is better than a simulated one.'

• A number of interesting approaches to assessment by training providers and voluntary agencies identified. These included:
  • a self assessment booklet completed with the support of a trainer, resulting in a wheel diagram showing where the young person's skills were at any moment, and identifying progress;
  • a rigorous basis for individual vocational profiling matched to placement;
  • residential provision for young people with emotional trauma, learning difficulties and communication disorders which had a highly structured review and progression procedure and where the young person held the statement of needs as their own document;
  • the use of ASDAN or Pacific Institute programmes which provided assessment of need within the context of ongoing client development.
• A specific bid for funding had led to the provision of a job coach for a small number of school pupils with Asperger's Syndrome. A key part of this was assessment which resulted in an identification of the ongoing support needed in the workplace.
• Some CSC respondents in one particular area of Scotland remembered the value of an occupational psychologist employed by the former Regional Council. This allowed CSCs to refer young people for specialist assessment and provided both training and ongoing support; the occupational psychologist could be contacted to discuss and advise on the needs of individual clients.
• Those support bases attached to mainstream schools which used, and passed on, assessment information resulting from Higher Still access units in ICT, Personal and Social Development, communication and number were thought to have particularly useful practice.
• One example of the CSC being assessor of needs and also provider, was the use of a self-assessment checklist on employability for school pupils. Those who rated themselves poorly on these skills were then offered the chance to join a booster group work session prior to leaving school.
• One organisation dealing with homelessness had been involved with two other groups in building up and piloting the Bridges to Progress "soft" indicators. The experience of this organisation was that it was necessary to be able to measure progress as young people liked to see progress through their assessment. Feedback to clients was given when working on "soft" indicator grids and as part of the negotiation of an action plan. In this situation it was planned that the Bridges to Progress measure would be fused with the organisation's own Quality Audit format in the future. Voluntary agencies generally felt that assessment could help them to give positive reinforcement and more directed help. From the perspective of young people, assessment could help them to see that they were coping and achieving something.
• Young people saw that assessments could be useful in extending skills, describing feelings, helping to secure training or employment placements and in practical job search tasks. They helped to develop, in their words , 'an ability to see things clearly in black and white'. More realistic ambitions were also reported. They liked the Rickter Scale which was described as an easy and speedy way of expressing issues and topics that were difficult to explain. One young person particularly liked the exercise called The Pit which measured progress in climbing out of a pit of difficulties. These young people said that they were always well informed about the nature and purpose of any assessments including self-assessment, and could accept assessment if they saw the point. A step-by-step approach was more helpful in young people's eyes.

5. Client-centred guidance and ownership

Our respondents emphasised the importance of client centred practice, and particularly the need to involve young people as partners in their own assessment and planning for the future.

• Person Centred Planning was in use in one area:

'A number of transition workers use Person Centred Planning as an approach. This is where planning for the present and the future means seeing that people have rights and control over the services they receive and the lives they lead. This allows young people to drive their own action plan and will be a major element of inclusiveness.'

• A Guidance Mapping Exercise had been designed and used with young people in special education by careers advisers in one CSC area:

'This is about people in their life who influence them and those who don't (and it's interesting to see that the agencies that the Careers Service would normally liaise with don't usually feature). This gets young people to say who's in their support network, then the careers adviser gets the young person's permission to speak to them, then the careers adviser will tell the young person what others have said about them. This can be a very positive experience for the young person. We call it a "collage" when we're drawing it up with them.'

• In the same CSC the Johari window was also used ( see Chapter 3).

'The careers adviser explains that the Johari window will help them to open up hidden windows about themselves if they are brave enough. … Careers advisers explain that it's not always an easy process but the difficult bits and the negative bits are often the bits you can learn most from. It just gives young people confidence, and often the careers adviser and the young people together have had to deal with a lot of difficulties. In some respects, you could say that the less you have, the more you have to gain in learning about yourself. This process ⁹ recognises the importance of the value of informal guidance, and is about how to give over professional power to young people.'

• Self-characterisation was also mentioned as an effective strategy for accessing self-assessment information. It was recommended that completion of the self-characterisation exercise should be led by the careers adviser to ensure that the pupil determines the content and should not be prompted by others either in the school or at home: this is a critical aspect of the process. The self-characterisation exercise is basically a blank sheet with the lead-in statement:

'Write down everything you think a careers adviser would need to know about you in order to help you. You can write as much as you like. It is up to you to decide what to include, there are no right or wrong answers…. The more you include, the easier it will be for the careers adviser (me) to help you.'

This is based on the principles of personal construct psychology which underpin its use. A similar approach was mentioned by an adult client of the CSC in another area. "Passport" involves a blank sheet of paper on which clients could complete their own needs assessment. This had been a technique suggested by SKILL to the client, but was recommended as most effective where the client had a long-standing relationship with an adviser.

• Also mentioned in Chapter 3 were various checklists of employability skills from three different contexts: New Deal, special schools and school leavers. CSC staff in another area had developed (from a model used by a Barnardo's 16+ project for care leavers) a "soft" indicator in which both the young person and the careers adviser completed a rating scale of 1 to 6 and then compared answers.
• A number of assessment approaches were commended by respondents from a range of organisations. These included a Getting to Know You pack from Foyer and the Bridges Project's initial and progress assessment measures (included in the Digest, a separate product of this research). Other voluntary organisations had used elements of the Bridges materials and adapted them to their own organisation.
• The level of significance placed by the young people interviewed in the case studies on the quality of the relationship with a professional/worker was very noticeable. A client centred approach to assessment was strongly recommended by young people - 'it's all about you'. The ability of young people to contribute to assessment and review procedures was seen as beneficial. They spoke highly of the Foyer Lifeshaper programme where they felt that they were consulted and involved and felt that being able to contribute helped to build self-esteem. Although young people liked to be able to contribute to the assessment process, they recognised that this was not always possible when they were not in a frame of mind to participate effectively.

'It was a shame it took so long to get help but you have to be wanting help to make the best of it.'

• Examples of Personal Learning and Support Plans completed in college were provided to the research team and a number of examples of good practice in involving young people in the process were identified.
• A special school for young people with physical impairment in one area prepared young people for their Future Needs Assessment meeting by supporting them in drawing up their own statement of where they wanted their lives to go: this was presented to the FNA meeting by the young people themselves.

6. Early identification

The Beattie Committee was concerned that young people's difficulties were not being identified early enough to ensure that intervention would be effective. Our research found evidence of greater efforts at early identification of learning and support needs by CSC staff, and these were expected to continue to increase. These included:

• generic careers advisers sought to identify needs at S2 stage. Young people with identified needs were then interviewed at this point, and this often encouraged very useful contacts with parents. Part of this early identification was the use of the On Track "soft" indicators;
• in another CSC, everyone receiving learning support was automatically given a careers interview at an early stage;
• in one area where an adaptation of the Support Needs Matrix was used, this was started with young people at school. Careers advisers worked with guidance teachers to use the matrix to get an overall picture of needs.

7. Continuing contact and progression

A number of respondents felt that quality assessment could best be done over a period, and that it was assisted by continuity of contact. This was particularly the case in relation to "soft" skills which could not simply be assessed in a "snapshot" fashion.

• Work done with young people in special education over a period was thought to be a particularly good way of assessing need and ensuring appropriate provision was identified:

'It's a balanced careers and transition programme for young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties and most have learning difficulties too. Assessment is done practically through their first hand experiences of post-school opportunities, visits, placements. Young people are fully involved in the review meetings. The impact of all this is that they are no longer on the conveyer belt to college, other options are considered more. They're also more likely to have aspirations to employment rather than to just a social work centre.'

• Long term involvement in FNAs was also regarded as good practice:

'All young people with a Record of Needs in (this area) are encouraged to stay on till 19 so there might be a future needs meeting 4 years running for some. This gives a really rounded picture of the young person's skills and development and their needs. Consistency of staff across transition points is also very important, it makes a great difference to young people.'

• In one CSC where a specialist team had in a previous system assessed young people both in the careers office and in the training provider's premises as part of their initial move into work, there were many good practice aspects noted:

'A member of the assessment team did initial assessments, literacy and numeracy and pre-exit assessments also. The relationship between the trainer and the assessor, built up through the assessment process, helped people to go on to the programme, and encouraged trainers to take them on and move them forward. Previously the careers adviser signed off external milestones. The real strength of the relationship is between trainer and trainee, but this approach is helpful to the assessor who could take on an advocacy role to support the trainee's viewsthroughout the training process, but also be the mediator in case of difficulty.'

• In one area a gap was identified in provision to non-mainstream educational units. Additional funding was sought to enable a specialist careers adviser to work solely with this client group to maintain continuity of contact within the units and on the point of transition.
• In another area multi-disciplinary teams had included careers staff on secondment, in order to highlight the importance of training, education and employment prospects and planning can have on very fundamental lifestyle, housing and well being factors. This allowed for enhanced assessment of employability and for continuity of contact.
• Training providers also reported a desire for more "named contacts" to support the referral, placement and review of trainees to ensure continuity and consistency. It was felt that this type of approach better facilitated progression of some trainees.

Key Issue 1: characteristics of good practice in identifying the learning and support needs of individual clients

The sub-headings of this chapter in themselves describe the characteristics of good practice:

• A multi-disciplinary approach operates in practice, based on sound networking and mutual understanding of the differing contexts, rationales and strategies for assessment.
• Documentation, guidelines, recording systems and support booklets are produced and reviewed. These recognise the importance of client involvement and ownership and provide a system whereby the client and appropriate others can understand and access assessment information in a form which is uncomplicated and explicit. Common protocols for recording information facilitate the exchange of assessment information between agencies.
• Transfer of assessment information happens with the client's consent and involvement, according to agreed cross-agency protocols in an area. Assessment approaches which synthesise details of the client's learning and support needs are in use.
• Provision of assessment itself, and approaches to meeting needs identified in assessment, are focused on the situations of individual clients. This may mean having a range of strategies for assessment or for meeting support needs: the choice would depend on the individual client. It might also mean operating in an integrated way such that assessment and provision outwith one's own organisation is considered as part of a menu on offer to a client. It would include the willingness to link client assessment with client development in a particular programme, or to make a case for funding more specialist assessment if the client needs it.
• Client-centred guidance and ownership is at the heart of the assessment process.
• Strategies are being developed for early identification of individuals who are recognised to have learning and support needs that may need to be assessed. These strategies are being developed by individual organisations in the context of multi-agency working.
• Organisations and their partners are seeking to provide continuity of contact for clients wherever possible. Where this is not possible, consistency of contact approaches and strategies is being encouraged, and a longer-term perspective on a client's learning and support needs is being taken.

This research has identified many interesting and valuable approaches to assessment, as described in this chapter. There will be other examples not known to the research team. A striking feature of the research was that few respondents knew much about assessment practice in other areas, and most recognised gaps in their knowledge of what was happening in their own area.

Key Issue 1: Recommendations

1. Local partnerships should consider reviewing assessment practice in their area using the seven characteristics of good practice listed above.
2. There is a need for the establishment of national and local good practice groups and for national events for the dissemination of good practice in the identification of learning and support needs.

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