These are the notes I used to facilitate the Bright Futures @home session on Monday 10 November 2025 to help us consider college and other options for our young people as they approach the latter part of their education years.
This document explains the 28 day rule for entitlement to payment of PIP when a young person goes to residential college – or into hospital or residential care. Their underlying entitlement to PIP does not change but their eligibility for payment of PIP will change.
RHACC – Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College – is a local community college for adults wanting to continue to study – part time, evenings, short courses, etc – including courses for young people with learning disabilities and complex needs. There are centres in Parkshot (Richmond), Hillcroft (Kingston) and Merton. While some of our young people may be able to access mainstream courses many will not be able to. RHACC has a supported learning department to enable disabled people who cannot access mainstream courses to continue accessing college courses with or without support.
A bit of a brain dump from a parent about Post 19 education options - including local day colleges / residential colleges / 24 hour curriculum / supported living and local college.
Notes from a workshop about tertiary education options for young people post 16, including ‘work’ options such as supported internships and apprenticeships.
This document is an anonymised copy of an EHCP a parent had written privately, as the young person approached post 19 education. The young person involved is severely learning disabled but it might be helpful to see the language used, how the young person’s needs are described, the detail of the outcomes and how the provision is written regardless of your young person’s needs.
Links to the AfC Local Offer pages on employment and training options for young people post 16. All young people in year 11 with an EHCP should be offered a Next Steps interview.
Extracts from a guide about SEN Law written by a specialist legal firm relating to the terms waking day curriculum / 24 hour curriculum. It may be one of the reasons you are requesting a residential placement for your young person. Full document on the above link.
A list of specialist colleges attended by young people from LB Richmond. I have provided some basic info about each college in this document.
This document has information about local colleges that can be accessed on a day basis from LB Richmond. Information has come from the college website
This is a privately written report by a clinical psychologist from the Down’s Syndrome Association to support Sue’s application for a residential college placement for her daughter (19 at the time of the report).
Teresa Jones, Mencap, and Sue Robson delivered a workshop in January 2022, repeating in January 2024, about how to go about researching colleges. This document is drawn from the slides and speaker notes of that workshop.