The Transitions Team sit under Adult Social Care in Leeds City Council and support the transition for young people from Children’s Services into Adult Social Care.
The Transitions Team are a team of social workers, learning disabilities nurses and wellbeing workers.
14 to 18 year olds
The young person must be open to a Children’s Social Worker and have a funded service in place before their 18th birthday.
In order to meet the criteria for our team, the young person must also have a diagnosed disability, including:
- Learning Disability (IQ below 70)
- Physical Disability
- Complex Health Needs
- Autism / Asperger’s
We do not work with those who have a primary mental health need alone. However, they may have a mental health diagnosis as well as one of the above.
Transitions Team involvement ideally will start by attending the Year 9 Review. This is to provide information and advice about the Transitions Team involvement only.
The young person will be allocated a Transitions Social Worker when they are around 16 / 16 ½ years old. In exceptional circumstances, a Transitions Worker may attend relevant meetings before allocation, if there are significant concerns that would impact on their transition into Adult Social Care. The team will act as a secondary worker to the children’s social worker, until the young person is 18.
Once the young person is allocated a Transitions Worker, a Care Act 2014 assessment will be undertaken in order to assess whether the young person is eligible for Adult Social Care. This will involve having conversations with the young person, their families, carers and relevant professionals in order to explore the young person’s care and support needs, future aspirations and prepare them for adulthood. Information for the assessment will be gathered from attending relevant meetings and visits.
The young person’s wishes and feelings will be taken into consideration to inform any decisions about their care and support when they turn 18 years old. The principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 will be applied, and the aim will always be to maximise the young person’s capacity with appropriate support to meet their needs.
Those young people who are not eligible under The Care Act 2014 will be signposted to alternative services.
Early Help Plans
We also support young people with a diagnosed disability who do not have an allocated Children’s Social Worker, but are under an Early Help Plan and have a funded service in place i.e. Direct Payment, which requires transitioning to adult social care when they turn 18 years old. We will become involved with young people under an Early Help Plan around 17 ½ years old.
Complex Health (continuing health care only)
We also work with young people who do not have a service from Children’s Social Care but receive funded services from Children’s Continuing Health Care, where continued support/services are required as they transition to Adult Services at 18 years old.
Note:
We are unable to become involved with young people under or over 18 years old who have not had any services from Children’s Social Care. In these circumstances, a referral to the Adult Contact Centre will need to be made and the referral will be sent to the relevant team/area.
18 to 25 year olds
When the young person turns 18, we will become the primary allocated worker. We will remain involved until the young person’s support is in place, working well and a review is undertaken. This may involve a further transition when the young person leaves school and commences post 19 education provision. If the young person’s support is working well and no further involvement is required, the young person will be transferred to the relevant Adult Social Care, Care Management Team.
In some exceptional circumstances whereby ongoing involvement is required, we will work alongside Care Management to handover the case to another allocated worker within their team.
Contacts:
For those who are open to Children’s Services, referrals should be made through Mosaic (case recording system) by the allocated Social Worker.
For young people who are under an Early Help Plan, referrals can be made through the Adult Contact Centre on 0113 222 44 01. Referrals can be made from the young person’s 17th birthday.
If the young person is not eligible for input from the Transitions Team, the referral will be passed to the relevant adult social care team.
If the young person is under 18 years old and has care and support needs, but no package of care in place, a referral can be made to the Children's Contact Centre on 0113 222 4403.
For any information and advice, you can contact the transitions team at transitions.duty@leeds.gov.uk / transitions.team@leeds.gov.uk
Click here to download the transitions team leaflet.
