College – Making the Right Choice

Why might it be of interest?
Choosing the next educational setting for your young person when they finish school is, potentially, a mammoth task! Do you go for a local college, residential college, specialist, mainstream, special needs dept of a mainstream college……

How do you go about finding out about colleges, especially ones a little further afield than your nearest specialist or mainstream college? How do you go about narrowing the list down? What should you be looking for or considering? What questions should you ask when you visit……

There’s a lot to think about. This workshop works through it all from identifying a college through to assessing the college at a visit.

 

Slide 2 – What might influence your choice?

Start early

• At least the year before the final year at school
• What is the purpose of going to college
  • What are you trying to achieve
• What are your thoughts behind your choice(s)
  • What influenced you
• Narrow it down
  • Local/day, residential/further away

• We know our young people
• But so do other people – in different settings – so listen to learn and get a fuller picture than you might have from family life
• What have we heard about colleges – consider who or where you are getting your information – would their priorities be yours?
• Previous experiences – what’s worked, what hasn’t
• What don’t we know!  There will be things we don’t know and things we don’t know that we don’t know!

This is what you told us would influence your thinking and decision process

• Funding
• Making decisions about the future
• Distance / travel
• Size
• What the young person wants to do
• Safe spaces
• College attitudes
  • esp around EHCP

Slide 3 – Research, Research, Research

How to find a college

Start with websites

• Extensive info available and contact details
• Natspec for specialist colleges across the country
• Doesn’t include mainstream with specialist offering
  • Can search
    • Geographically – eg nw, sw, london, midlands – or on a map
    • Alphabetically – if you know the name of the college
    • Area of expertise – 21 options
      • eg ASD, LD, mental health, physical, health, communication, challenging behaviour,
• College websites
  • Can usually link directly from their Natspec entry
  • But only for specialist colleges
    • Won’t include mainstream with a specialist offering
    • For example, Richmond college isn’t on Natspec
  • It can be difficult to find the specialist offerings of mainstream colleges from their websites
  • Probably best to find a contact name and email and phone
  • Look for/search on terms like
    • Inclusive learning
    • Additional learning support
    • Disability support
• Local offer and council websites don’t seem very helpful
  • Look for the Preparing for Adulthood section
  • Your LA’s local offer website should have info about post 16 education
    • What’s available varies widely
    • Richmond local offer lists colleges that yp in the borough have attended, for example
  • But typing ‘further education colleges borough or county’ yielded results
  • It can be frustrating so try different search words and combinations
• Word of mouth – other parents most likely
  • Consider how like or otherwise your young people are and what you want
  • Don’t go for a college on the basis of what another parent says or dismiss for the same reasons
  • Consider what YOU are looking for and what your young person wants out of the placement
  • Another parent may dismiss a college on the same grounds that you would love it!
• Current school
  • SENCO, careers advisor
  • May be a bit hit and miss

• Social worker
  • Especially if considering residential as Social Services will be funding the care part of the package
• University
  • Uni websites have a lot of info around student support
• Look widely
  • Even at options that you don’t think will do
  • You can learn a lot from what won’t work for your young person

Slide 4 – Choosing potential colleges

• Start with the website and peruse thoroughly
• Look widely
• Consider different options
  • There will be pros and cons to any choice
  • Looking widely and even at colleges you don’t think will do can help you work out what is essential and what’s not
  • Look at colleges suggested by your LA
  • Remember – you can review and choose another option if your choice isn’t working well
    • By doing our research we are aiming to reduce the chance of getting it wrong – but we still may get it wrong sometimes
• Make phone calls, send emails – have some direct contact
• Think about what you and your young person want out of this placement
• To make it successful break those needs/wants down:
  • Essential
    • These have to happen/be available
    • The placement won’t work if not
  • Desirable
    • These are things you would like but a single omission wouldn’t be a dealbreaker
  • Acceptable (usually with caveats!)
    • These are things that are OK, probably with some caveats
      • Eg ok to eat lunch in the main canteen but would need support
  • Unworkable
    • Whatever else is good about the placement this will be a dealbreaker unless it can be managed
• There is NO perfect college
• Create your short list
• Arrange to visit
  • on open days
  • You will want to see the college in action on a typical day
  • Once you have it down to 1, 2 or 3 colleges revisit them all
  • Likely to visit your chosen option a few times
• Who will visit initially?
  • With or without your young person
  • What will create the most positive experience?

This is so individual

You want a positive experience so think it through carefully

• For example, if your young person is likely to latch on to one aspect that they like or dislike it might be better to do initial visits on your own to establish if the setting would be appropriate
  • This could help you by not introducing placements that you don’t think will work in the first place
  • But also preparing your young person should there be something they don’t like – you have the opportunity to sell it and downplay what they don’t like
• Or you may have things you need to tell a potential placement that you don’t want to say in front of your young person
• Or it might be that your yp needs to be involved from the very beginning – being left out would be detrimental

It’s not about being underhand in any way but being prepared to manage expectations and deal with potential issues before they become issues.

• It’s helpful to have some paperwork about your young person
  • Current EHCP
  • Recent reports
  • Your own written information
  • A college will want to start to get a feel for whether they can support your young person

Slide 5 – At the Visit – what to look for in the

physical environment

Layout

• How much indoor or outdoor space
• If part of a mainstream college how is the

Supported Learning Dept accessed

• • Does it have a separate entrance
  • Is it open to or easily accessible from the main college
    • Is this secure enough for you

Accessibility

• Look at the entrance – anything there that your young person wouldn’t like
• Which floor are the classrooms on
• Stairs and lifts
  • If on an upper floor how would a disabled person get out in an emergency, for example
  • Not necessarily physical ability to leave but would your young person freeze
  • What happens if the lift is out of action one day
• Are classrooms near to each other or spread around
  • How much ground might your young person need to cover in a day

How busy is the college

• Are there a lot of people around in the entrance hall, corridors
• Is it noisy
• Is this an issue for your young person
• Are there quiet spaces they can access
  • Independently
  • Or does someone have to facilitate

Other amenities

• Eg gym facilities
• Option for additional activities, clubs, outside of the school day

Slide 6 – What else do you want to know?

Lots of information about the programme or course

• Range of courses
• Are any of the course of interest to your young person
• Is the course practical and hands-on
  • eg are maths and english separate modules or integrated into the school day
• Does the course lead to qualifications
  • Does this matter to you and your young person
• What’s covered on each programme – what are the modules
  • Do students get a choice about how their course is made up
• Flexibility of the course
  • Is it gentle and adaptable or more full on/busy
  • What happens if a yp doesn’t want to do something timetabled
  • What happens if a yp won’t go into the classroom
    • Can work be brought to them
  • Can a yp access modules from another stream, for example
    • If your yp is on an SLD programme but cooking, which they like, isn’t on that programme but it is available in other streams, can they have it included
  • What happens if they don’t do well in the mornings
• How are young people supported to make choices
  • Experience of alternative communication – Is this embedded in the school day

How are courses structured?

• In one room – or moving around the college to different rooms and facilities
• What does a typical day or week look like
• How many days a week – post 16 a full time course is 3 days a week
• Length of day/sessions
• How much focussed work can your young person manage before needing a break
  • How will this be accommodated

Who is at the college?

• Staff, tutors, LSAs per class
• Group sizes
• Mix of the cohort
• Does the group stay together throughout the day
  • Or mix and match
  • Is it one class
  • Small groups
• What support will your yp have
  • How is this organised
  • Eg 1-1; class/subject based
  • Around building friendships
• How does the college manage behaviours

There are no right or wrong answers – just answers that would make a setting more or less suitable for your young person.

Slide 7 – What if you are looking for residential

options

Consider carefully what you want to achieve with a

residential setting

• Likely to be long term aims as well as the immediate benefits of being at a residential college
• It’s not right for a lot of young people
  • If your young person is active and engaged locally consider how being away from home for long stretches would affect friendships and being part of the community

Understand the difference between residential college and a college that offers supported living

It’s all about integration and consistency across settings

• Residential is where the school and home part of the day are closely integrated – there may be a head of care and a head of school but there will also be an overall head
• A college that offers supported living may be working closely with a care provider but they are not the same organisation and their agendas will be different
• At a residential college you would expect a lot of communication between care and school staff and a consistency of approach across all parts of the day
• Some of this may happen with supported living but less guaranteed

Be familiar with the 24 hour curriculum / waking day curriculum as this is likely to be part of your reasoning for a residential setting

• The basis for residential in many instances is that you can’t achieve the same outcomes if a young person stays at home while attending a local college
• What are the barriers to learning and developing for your young person if they stay at home
• A 24 hour curriculum appreciates that learning is both an educational need and a social need. It allows continuous learning that is consistent, from staff who are fully conversant with the young person in both a structured classroom/workshop setting and the less structured evening/leisure setting.
• Ask questions around how the academic part of the day is integrated with the home part of the day
  • How do the educational teams and care teams work together
    • Formal process / routine or more casual
    • eg at Lufton the tutor came to the flat for 20 mins or so before the school day started so saw the student at home and the care staff

• What does the school day look like

• What happens in the home hours
• Activities around the college or in the community
• Domestic activities
• Who would your yp live with

How will it all be funded

• All the same questions as for a day placement
• A residential placement will be a combination of education funding and social care funding – unless your young person is on continuing healthcare

Slide 8 – After the visit

Consider ALL the pros and cons

• Any dealbreakers or dealmakers
  • Shouldn’t be too many of either
  • Focussed but not inflexible
  • Essential, Desirable, Acceptable, Unworkable
• Consider the big issues and the small issues
  • There may not be a single issue that makes or breaks
  • It might be a series of small things
• Be careful not to shoot yourself in the foot – go carefully
  • You can’t say something is a dealbreaker for one college and then ignore it at another college
  • But you may be able to qualify it
    • eg on it’s own this wouldn’t be a dealbreaker but added to x, y, z
• Something can’t be a dealmaker if there are also a lot of disadvantages
  • You open yourself up to the LA pushing you towards their choice
  • How will you defend your choice

Build your case for your choice

• Demonstrate how this placement meets needs**
• Demonstrate how other placements don’t**
• You must look at what the LA offers – to be prepared

Although the law says that a local authority must offer your choice of college unless it is deemed unsuitable for your young person’s needs or incompatible with the efficient education of other young people or use of resources it is not enough to name a setting that you believe can meet their needs.  Other settings will also say they can meet need so you must to be able to say why they actually can’t.

Transport – a placement is no good if a yp can’t get there

• Make no assumptions about transport – the LA will try not to provide it so have discussions early and make sure transport is seen as part of the placement
• Transport can be provided by social care – but only if your yp has a social care package
• Travel training may be offered

**Evidence – it’s not enough to say a placement can or can’t meet need – you will need to provide evidence of the need and how a college can meet that need better than another college.  Evidence can come from a variety of sources:

• • Current school reports
  • Ed psych report –this will only report on the school day but don’t dismiss it, especially if your yp is very different at home or in other settings as the comparison can be helpful
  • Private reports can be helpful
    • Especially if they are holistic, ie see your yp in school, at home, other settings
    • Push for the private assessor to make recommendations
  • Check reports provided that are not commissioned by you for any errors or assumptions
    • eg that a statement applying to a specific instance hasn’t been extrapolated to a wider set of circumstances where it might not be true; does this sound like your yp?
  • Your own input
  • In general reports should be dated within the last year
    • If older there should be a reason given for why
    • eg nothing has changed – but the professional would need to confirm this

Make sure the annual review is scheduled in the autumn term – as early as possible

Slide 9 – Make the process work for you

Always be polite

• Obvious really
• But don’t give anyone any reason not to work with you

You have to be on top of it all – all of the time

Do not assume that your case worker knows a great deal

about your young person

• Or that they will submit documents to the relevant people at the right time
• Your case worker has a huge case load
  • Not an excuse but a reality for getting things done

Do not be afraid to prompt or ask outright for your caseworker to do something

Do not assume anyone will do what they say they will or at the time they say they will

• Don’t be afraid to follow up

Timelines and Process

• Understand the timeline and process
  • Decisions
  • Tribunals
  • Know the dates of panels, which panel, when they sit
  • Your case worker cannot make decisions
    • If they recommend placements or agree that you are right – they have no influence so this is their opinion and holds no weight

Be transparent – there is no benefit in not sharing what you are going for and why

• Nicely make it clear that you will go all the way if necessary

• ie tribunal

• Should you share your plan B?  If you have one
  • Your own judgement here
  • If either of two similar placements would be OK with you – then share
  • If it’s all or nothing then indicating that you would accept an alternative could potentially undermine your case for your preference
  • (you still have to do all your research)

Have a paper trail

We really can’t stress this enough

It won’t be enough to ensure that what someone says actually happens but it is harder to wriggle out when it’s agreed in writing.

After every phone call or meeting send an email:

• This is what we discussed
• You said you would do this
• I said I would do that
• When it’s to be done by

Don’t copy the world in – that gives everyone an out as they will assume someone else will deal with it

• It makes it no-one’s responsibility
• But fine to copy relevant people
  • Eg your social worker
  • school

Slide 10 – A few key points

Research, research, research

• Look widely
• Explore the full range of possibilities
• Approach with a very open mind
• You must explore LA suggestions

You’ve narrowed it down

• Visit, visit again
• If you visited on an open day, revisit when the college is in action
  • Seeing the students and the teachers together will tell you a lot about the college
• Ask a lot of questions – no question is a stupid question or inappropriate
• List pros and cons – and why – essential, desirable, acceptable, unworkable
• Be methodical
• Try to compare similar things about each college

Who is the expert here?

• Rely on yourself
• Listen to other people
  • Especially school and other settings your yp attends
  • Your yp may enjoy things or demonstrate skills elsewhere that you don’t observe
• Fine to gather views about colleges from other people but your opinion is the only one that actually matters
  • Other people have their own agendas – which may not be the same as yours

Build the case for your choice

• Based on benefit and need
  • When it comes down to it this is all that matters
• Provide evidence
  • Your own voice should be heard and taken seriously
  • But back up with professional input where possible

Paper trail and written records

• Recollections may vary!
• Prove yours is right

Slide 11 – Useful contacts