What you need to know about transitioning from children's to adult social care

We understand that your child/young person is getting older and transitioning from a child to an adult can be a really worrying time. The information here, and more detailed information in the adult social care pages is designed to help you understand what changes may happen, and where you can access support.

When your child/young person reaches year 9 (age 13-14 years), they enter a phase known as preparing for adulthood. This is language used across services, and if your child has an education, health and care plan (EHCP), the term preparing for adulthood will also be used there. Preparing for adulthood focuses on four key areas - employment, independent living, community inclusion and health.

To support preparing for adulthood, young people can be referred for adult social care support from the age of 16. Support your child/young person receives at this time will be from our Preparing for Adulthood Team.

If your child/young person is already receiving support from children’s social care, the support will be transferred to adult social care, and the Preparing for Adulthood Team will work with you to understand support needs, and how these may change as time goes on.

For those children/young people not receiving support from children’s social care, a referral will need to be made to adult social care. This referral can be made by anyone who knows your young person well. This could be the young person themselves, you (a parent), teacher or family friend etc. Whoever makes the referral will be asked for the young person’s details, including what type of support they may require so it can be helpful to make sure you have this information to hand. If you would like to make a referral, please contact Shropshire First Point of Contact on 0345 678 9044.

During the phase from 16 to 18 years old, the Preparing for Adulthood Team get to know young people, their strengths and aspirations for the future. They will then complete a Care Act assessment to understand if your child/young person is eligible for support from adult social care. They may signpost you to information and services available in your community, and if support is required from adult social care, this can be put in place from your young person’s 18^th birthday.

The team will work with each young person, their family and others that are important their lives to create a person-centred plan for the future. This means they will work together with you to ensure the support your child/young person receives is focused on what they want to achieve, to build their independence and to support their long-term goals for the future.

Once your child/young person becomes an adult, they may be required to contribute to any funded support they receive. This depends on each young person’s financial circumstances, it does not take into account the financial circumstances of their parents/carers. A financial assessment will be completed to see if they need to contribute to their care costs.