The Scottish Government

Case Study 1 A Common Transition Process (extract, 2006)7

The Psychological Service has recently moved to engage the college sector in a large urban authority; it has offered regular consultation with the local college and agreed to prioritise a strategic focus to address systemic issues in the first instance.

It has been instrumental in forming an effective Transition Forum involving key partners focused on the additional support needs of school leavers within a particular geographic patch. Core membership included Senior Management Team representation of secondary school and College, Careers Scotland 8 and PSPS.

The Psychological Services has reported on a wider audit of current transition arrangements across secondary schools and of the range of client needs; its aims included identifying current best practice as well as achieving a focus for improvement within the context of implementation of the ASL (Scotland) Act 2004.

The Forum has jointly produced a common transition form signed up to by all key stakeholders and taken to student groups for consultation. The transition form is to be produced and trialled with 180 young people, in transition to post school. The wider learning community is to consider using the same protocol for all transitions from pre to post school. The pilot undertaken is to be evaluated by the Psychological Service research assistant and best practice identified in a summary report.

A further development is anticipated, to promote wider use of the transition protocol across the college sector and expand its use by including it in the process of transition to other training providers.

Assessment of students experiencing severe and persistent literacy difficulties (dyslexia) has been identified as a priority group for attention. The local service has coordinated local activity with national PSPS training and development initiatives through BRITE and the Disabled Student Services Group. A local process to validate past assessments and build a contextual assessment picture around students with continuing support needs has been developed. This involves joint assessment and full account of past assessment and intervention for individual young people.

Case Study 2 Partnership with Training Providers9

The Psychological Service has identified the Training Providers who deliver Get Ready for Work programmes to 16 to 19 year olds in the authority. Following attendance at the local provider forum (this includes colleges) and ongoing consultation with individual providers, an audit of stakeholder needs in the post school sector, including training providers has been completed and disseminated by the Service.

A wider strategy group has met to discuss the training needs of the Providers across the Local Enterprise Company and the PSPS cluster, which represents 3 local authority services. Agreement to set up common and ongoing training for providers across the cluster has been reached. Support for local training providers includes regular consultation on individual cases, facilitation of contact with secondary provision (both on and off site), as well as linking to local training opportunities offered by other stakeholders, including colleges. Selective case work has included the continuation of PSPS involvement with vulnerable young people, previously known to the Service, along with some negotiated referral of specific clients, consequent to consultation.

An authority wide Transition Forum is in place, chaired by the manager of the ASL Act implementation; this represents all key stakeholders in school and post school; it includes representatives of local providers, as well as the local enterprise company manager. One outcome supported by the Psychological Service, has been to ensure that training providers are fully represented in all transition / post school development days; another has been explicit awareness raising events in secondary schools to improve mutual understanding and working arrangements. All providers have signed up to the use of an agreed Transition Protocol as part of explicit local policy. There is growing connection between all providers and the development of flexible curriculum across schools. Training Providers are increasingly involved in the assessment process /early intervention prior to placement on programmes.

Psychological Service audit data and consultation supports increasing partnership with Careers Scotland in tracking local young people at risk of NEET 10 (not in employment and training). A developing process of information exchange and review, involving Training Providers is currently being monitored and evaluated by the Psychological Service, including the EPIT on placement. This includes learning from targeted casework across secondary schools, gathering views of young people in transition and at point of leaving the training provider, and monitoring outcomes.