Home > Hub article > School’s Out for Summer – Post 16 Education

School’s Out for Summer – Post 16 Education

Created: 20/11/2023, Bright Futures @Ruils

Who by? Bright Futures @Ruils

Why might it be of interest?

The next step in education for our young people is not always obvious and the options are not always obvious either.  In these notes we talk about university, qualifications, apprenticeships and supported internships, mainstream and specialist colleges, local or residential college, when an EHCP might cease, additional considerations, benefits, Disabled Students Allowance.

 This is really an overview and this document references other documents that you can find on the Bright Futures hub.  Taken together we hope that you will be able to find information to help you and your young person make the right choice for their further education.

  • In years 9 or 10 students should be offered an interview to discuss future planning
  • We’re not sure whether this happens reliably
  • It may have happened and parents not informed – so may be worth checking with the school

University

Further information about DSA in a few points’ time

  • DSA – disabled students allowance
  • Needs Assessment
  • Specialist Mentoring
  • Disability Rights ‘Into Higher Ed’
  • Additional things to consider when looking for a course

See documents Disabled Student Allowance for more information about DSA; What is Specialist Mentoring; Into Higher Education; Booking a Needs Assessment

Level 3 qualifications:

  • BTEC
  • A-Level
  • T-Level

 See document Skills Levels Comparisons for information about how the levels of various qualifications compare

Examples:

Entry level, 1, 2, 3 – these are providing functional skills below GCSE grades

Level 1 – starting out or new to a subject – lower GCSE grades, Functional skills level 1, NVQ Level 1 – BTEC First Certificate = 1 GCSE

Level 2 – higher GCSE grades, BTEC first cert and BTEC First Diploma = 4 GCSEs

Level 3 – AS and A-Level, NVQ Level 3, BTEC National cert/dip, T-Levels

BTEC

  • BTECs may be more modular with a more practical aspect than typical GCSEs or A-Levels
  • Usually delivered with a combination of theory and more practical hands-on teaching
  • A student completes a number of units for which you can receive a Pass, Merit or Distinction
  • The grades from higher BTecs – level 3 – translate into UCAS points
  • Considered vocational but work related
  • Possibly suited to a young person who has a general interest in an industry but without a specific role in mind

If a student isn’t ready for a Level 3 qualification – A-Level or T-Level – they could study a Level 1 or Level 2 Btec

Btecs are being phased out where they overlap with T-Levels

  • So you need to check at the time you are looking for a course whether the course will still be running
  • Just because it’s running now is no guarantee that it will still be available when you are ready to start

Info from the government website about Btecs being scrapped:  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/qualifications-that-overlap-with-t-levels

T-Levels

  • T Levels are 2-year courses which are taken after GCSEs
  • Broadly equivalent in size to 3 A Levels
  • Launched in September 2020
  • A technical vocational qualification
  • Developed in collaboration with employers and education providers
    • Content meets the needs of industry
    • Prepares students for entry into skilled employment, an apprenticeship or related technical study through further or higher education
  • 16 available – aim for 24
  • Approx 80% classroom time and 20% on placement (45 days)
  • With an overall Pass grade students can receive UCAS points
  • Schools and colleges will set their own entry requirements – so you need to check individually
  • You will need to continue maths and english if you don’t already have grade 4 or above

Topic areas:

  • agriculture, environment and animal care
  • business and administration
  • construction, engineering and manufacturing
  • digital, creative and design
  • education and early years
  • health and science
  • legal, finance and accounting

Leads to:

  • Higer ed, eg university
  • Apprenticeship
  • A job

A-Levels

  • Subject based qualifications
  • Classroom based
  • Usually studied over 2 years
  • Exam based assessment
  • Schools and colleges have their own thresholds
    • To take an A level, you normally need at least:
      • 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4
      • Grade 6 in the subjects you want to study
  • You should check with the school or college where you’d like to study to find out exactly what you’ll need.
  • A-Levels are a big step up from GCSEs
  • You can study a Btec alongside

Leads to:

  • Higher education, eg university
  • Work
  • Apprenticeship

Apprenticeships

  • 16+ and no upper age limit
    • So available to young people after college or uni as well as straight out of school
    • No EHCP required
  • Working while studying
    • Usually full time
    • This means 5 days a week
    • Also means you get paid!
    • 20% of your time should be studying
  • Range of levels from:
    • Intermediate level 2 – GCSE education level
    • Advanced level 3 – A-levels
    • Higher or degree levels 4-7
  • Should be inclusive for young people with SEN
    • Be ready to ask questions about support provided
    • What support would your young person need
    • You need to be transparent
  • Several local providers
    • Colleges
    • Companies, such as Unilever
    • Council
    • TfL
    • NPL
  • Links on the AfC website to apprenticeship providers
  • An apprenticeship is about leading to work
    • A young person needs to have an interest in the area of work
    • And be able to manage a full-time timetable

EOTAS

Education Other Than At School

  • Not going into detail on this topic
    • As reasons for EOTAS are so very individual
  • Entirely possible for a young person post 16 or post 18 to have an EOTAS programme
    • But not easy to achieve – LAs are very reluctant
  • The key is that it is not appropriate for a young person to attend school/college
    • This is not about whether they can access the curriculum
    • Purely about whether they can attend the educational setting
  • They may be able to attend for some time or subjects and not for others
  • You need evidence
    • That’s going to be professional reports
    • Examples of where it’s failed
  • You are going to need to lay out the proposed EOTAS programme in detail
    • Who is providing what
    • How will it be delivered
    • How many hours, when
  • The provision in Section F needs to be watertight

Alternative provision

  • Eg Maldon Oaks and 6Oaks – Post 16 provision
  • Small group provision and sometimes 121
    • At a school centre
    • Online
  • May be limited to core subjects like english and maths
  • Further pathways to support young people back into more formal learning
    • Eg home or community based activities designed to build trust and confidence

Academically Able but unable to access mainstream provision

  • This is a tricky scenario
  • Special schools and colleges probably won’t offer a suitable academic programme
  • Mainstream schools and colleges do offer a wide range of academic programmes – but they tend to be big colleges

What can you do?

  • Visit potential placements
    • You probably need to look widely
  • Can reasonable adjustments be made?
  • School 6th forms might be smaller than local colleges
  • Be flexible and creative – both you and your young person
    • Maybe doing 2 A-levels is manageable but 3 isn’t
    • Can any part of the course be delivered online – or do some colleges offer online courses entirely
    • Maybe you need to explore studying over a longer period of time to accommodate your needs – 3 years instead of 2
    • If your young person is not an independent traveller be realistic about how far they can go for college
    • Would it be better to do a lower level qualification to help build confidence

Supported Internships

  • Age 16 to 24
  • Usually for one year (in practice about 10 months)
  • Usually full time
    • 5 days a week
    • Probably not as long a day as an apprenticeship
  • For young people with a moderate learning disability
  • Usually require a young person to be able to travel independently
    • But travel training might be provided if needed
  • A young person needs an EHCP for a supported internship
  • A partnership between employers, schools/colleges, supported employment providers and local authorities
    • who all have a role to play in setting up and managing programmes
  • Project Search say that they get about 65% of their interns into work
  • Like apprenticeships these are about preparing for work
    • So, a young person needs to have an interest in the area of work the internship covers
    • A placement might have 3 mini-placements, eg
      • health and safety – checking water purity
      • Managing recycling
      • Office admin
    • Will include general skills, such as IT through sending emails
  • You need to do your own research to see what is currently on offer – and what you are interested in
  • Speak to your Case Worker – they won’t organise anything for you but should be kept in the loop
  • AfC has information about local supported internship providers

https://kr.afcinfo.org.uk/pages/local-offer/information-and-advice/training-and-employment/supported-iternships

  • The West London Alliance has an extensive booklet about local Supported Internships:

https://wla.london/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/The-2024-Supported-Internship-Guide.pdf

typical offerings:

  • hospitals
  • hospitality
  • councils
  • Thorpe Park / Chessington
  • Animal Care, Horticulture, Environment
  • Leisure

Roles:

  • Admin – data entry, telephone
  • Porter
  • Domestic
  • Food handling
  • Reception duties
  • Events support

Leads to:

  • College
  • Work
  • Apprenticeship

Mainstream local colleges

  • Local colleges, such as Richmond and Kingston, have a wide range of courses at differing levels
  • Many courses can be studied at an entry level and then onto higher levels
  • Some young people may be ready to leave school at 16 and study for A-Levels or equivalents at a local college rather than continuing onto their school 6th form
  • 6th form colleges tend to be very big
  • Maybe a school 6th form would be an option
  • Look at the school / college website to see what additional support is on offer
  • Visit, ask your specific questions

More specialist local colleges

  • Some are offering more general and life skills based courses, eg
    • Foundation skills for life
    • Skills for Work and Living
    • Workstart programmes
  • Others have a specialism, eg
    • Horticulture
    • Asd
    • Catering and hospitality
    • Animal care
    • Performing arts
    • Animals, plants, environment
  • Not usually full time – 3 or 4 days a week
  • A young person may be able to stay at a specialist college and progress through the different programmes
  • What they probably will NOT be able to do is to repeat a programme
  • This is only anecdotal but we believe that when a programme has been completed to stay in college the young person must do a course that is considered a progression
  • However they may be able to extend the length of their course if it can be demonstrated that they are not able to complete it in the time anticipated

See document Local College Overview – LB Richmond

Local or residential colleges

  • A residential placement will probably not be easy to come by
  • There needs to be very specific reasons why a young person’s needs can only be met at a residential college rather than at a local college while the young person continues to live at home or in supported living
  • You are likely to need professional reports to back up your preference for a residential college – it will not be easy to prove your case to the local authority
  • Residential is NOT the right choice for most students
  • There are many reasons to attend a local college and live at home or in supported living

If you are considering a residential placement do speak to Sue Robson, Bright Futures @Ruils for information and advice.

Natspec

  • This is a website that lists all the specialist education colleges across the country
  • Day placements and residential
  • Search geographically or by need
  • Link to the college website for more information
  • Does not list mainstream colleges with a specialist department

https://natspec.org.uk/

Not continuing in education

  • This is an option most parents don’t consider!
  • But for some young people leaving education and getting a job could the best way forward
  • But until a young person turns 18 they must be in education or training
  • Choice Support
    • Organisation commissioned by LBR to support young people with disabilities into work
    • Other LAs have similar commissioned services
  • NEET – not in education, employment or training
    • AfC have a team to support NEET
    • Pathways programme – pre-employment support
  • But they will not talk to you until you are actually NEET even if it is obvious that that’s what will happen

https://kr.afcinfo.org.uk/pages/local-offer/information-and-advice/training-and-employment/pathways-programme-pre-employment-support

  • If a yp has an EHCP they should contact their case worker
  • If a yp doesn’t have an EHCP they can refer directly to the Pathways programme
  • If a yp stops being in education their EHCP will cease
  • Any therapies in the EHCP will also cease
  • Therapies can be accessed via Your Healthcare (Richmond and Kingston GPs)
    • But therapies are assessed and delivered differently in adult healthcare so don’t expect the same as in the EHCP

EHCP and exclusions

  • When might an EHCP cease
    • When a young person is no longer in education
      • This can be before they turn 25
    • When they start university
    • When they are 25
  • College trying to exclude a student
    • This needs to be worked through on an individual basis
  • How well can the support in the EHCP be delivered at the college
    • Don’t assume it will continue in the same way
    • Eg therapies – a school might have a block contract – does the college?
  • Reasonable adjustments
    • No definitive list of what is a reasonable adjustment
    • Setting based so what is reasonable in one setting may not be in another
  • Outcomes – for Post 16 young people outcomes should be looking forward with some indication of where all the provision in the EHCP is taking them
    • eg by the age of 25 Jack will have the specialist skills to hold a part-time working role, with a meaningful job description and clear duties, which meets his abilities and interests

See document EHCP Outcomes.  This is a list of outcomes written for a young person’s EHCP when they were approaching 19.  The young person in question is severely learning disabled so the specifics of the outcomes might not be relevant to your young person but they give you a flavour of where all the support and provision in their EHCP was intended to lead

Making the right choice

  • Workshop about choosing a college and how to make the right choice
  • Aimed at parents of young people with moderate to severe learning disabilities
  • Look for College – Making the Right Choice on the information hub
  • Many of the general tips will be relevant to more able young people

We talk about:

  • What might influence your decision
  • Researching colleges, including specialist colleges
  • Essential, desirable, acceptable, unworkable – breaking it down
  • Visiting – what to look for, what questions to ask
  • Basically, there’s a lot more to think about when choosing a college for a disabled young person
  • Whether that’s a local day college or a university

Examples of things to think about:

  • Size of the college and how far you need to travel within the college each day
    • Are you on campus or moving about a town/city
  • How accessible are the parts of the college you need to access
  • Travelling to the college
  • Course content and how the course is delivered, eg
    • Is there a lot of essay writing
    • Working individually
    • Field trips – are these essential to the course, can you manage them
  • What can the learning support team offer
    • Social groups
    • Reasonable adjustments
    • Contacting the learning support team at your college or uni is essential
  • How helpful does the learning support team seem to be
  • Managing medication and health needs

See document Colleges – Making the Right Choice

 Additional things to consider

  • Adult social care
    • Most young people with an EHCP will not be eligible for adult social care as they will have the EHCP primarily for education purposes
    • See document Social Care Assessment Information
  • A yp can have a care act assessment as they approach 18
  • If eligible they can have social care support while living at home
  • Do they need social care support if they are living away from home
    • Adult social care assessment is the first step and should be established before they leave home
    • The support package they might have while living at home will likely be different to the support package they will receive when away from home
    • Consider how you might go about organising the necessary support with your yp living in a different area
  • What if they’re not eligible for adult social care?
    • How will they manage outside of college
    • What support will they have in college to manage their studies
      • eg a mentor

University Students – Disabled Students Allowance

  • Students at university do not have support provided via an EHCP
  • To be clear – the EHCP ceases the day they start university
  • Disabled Students’ Allowance is the grant available to pay for the additional support a student needs
  • These are costs a non-disabled student would not incur
  • What it covers
    • Specialist equipment, non-medical human support, general expenditure that is higher because of your disability – maybe you need to take taxis
    • Not means tested, not paid back
    • Does NOT fund personal care
  • How to apply
    • Through Student Finance
  • Evidence needed
    • What is your disability
    • How does it affect you
      • EP reports, letters/reports from healthcare
      • Diagnostic assessment for specific learning difficulties
      • Must be relatively recent
  • Needs assessment
    • Go prepared
      • What has helped before
      • What do you think might be difficult at uni
      • Take notes with you!
      • If you have a specific LD you MUST have a clinical diagnostic assessment letter/report carried out by a practitioner psychologist or a qualified specialist teacher assessor with an Assessment Practicing Certificate
      • It doesn’t have to be post 16

Student loans

  • Part of the maintenance loan may be designated as a special support loan or grant
  • This doesn’t lead to more money but the amount of the special support loan/grant is not repayable

 Benefits

  • If your young person finishes in education at 18 – or any time after that – they can make a claim for Universal Credit (UC)
  • But they must be available for work
  • Unless they have a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) that deems they have a limited capabilty for work
    • With an LCW status they can apply for UC while continuing in education
    • Not on their current course, but from the next course of study

UC is an earnings replacement income so can only be claimed by young people still in education in very specific circumstances

If your young person is aged 16-19 (ie not yet turned 20)

They can only claim UC while at school/college if:

  • They already have a limited capability for work (LCW) established, and
  • They are claiming PIP (potentially might still be DLA for some young people)

This means that most yp cannot claim UC while still at their current school even if they have an LCW as they won’t have received it BEFORE they were at school.

This might be possible if a young person moves to a new educational setting post 16

Contact recommend applying for new style ESA, credits only

  • While young person is still at school, once turned 16
  • No money will be payable but it will trigger a Work Capability Assessment
  • If the WCA establishes a LCW the young person can apply for UC before starting their college course
  • There’s no guarantee that they will be able to establish a LCW
  • Students at uni cannot generally claim Universal Credit unless they have already established a LCW
    • Degree, diploma of higher ed, higher national diploma
    • Even if they can claim UC it is likely that most, if not all, will be wiped out by their maintenance loan (which is counted as income)
  • Students age 20+ and on a non-advanced course may be able to claim UC
    • If they have established a limited capability for work BEFORE starting their course
    • If they can demonstrate that their course is not incompatible with their work related conditions
      • This is only likely if the course is very part-time, or
      • They have a limited capability for work
      • They would have to convince their work coach that their course is not incompatible with their work related requirements

 If you are applying for UC for your young person – or with them – and are on benefits yourself – take advice

 Receiving education

In UC, receiving education means that you are:

  • A ‘qualifying young person’ – someone aged 16 to 19 who is on a course of non-advanced education for at least 12 hours a week, which you started, were accepted on or enrolled on before you were 19
    • You can be a qualifying young person until 31 August after your 19th birthday
  • On a course of advanced education which is full-time (education above A-
  • level)
  • On another course of full-time study or training for which you get a loan or a grant for your maintenance
  • Not on any of the above types of course, but you are on a course which is not compatible with your work-related requirements

Young people who can claim UC when a student

There are a number of situations where you can claim UC despite receiving

education. This includes:

  • Any student whose course falls outside the definition of ‘receiving education’ (this will usually be part-time students, or some students in non-advanced education with no student income for maintenance, whose course doesn’t conflict with their work-related requirements)
  • A student under 21 (or who turned 21 on the course), on a non-advanced course & ‘without parental support’
  • Any student responsible for a child or qualifying young person (this includes lone parents and couples, and the age of the child doesn’t matter)
  • A member of a couple where you are both full-time students, and one of you is responsible for a child (this applies all the time, not just in the summer vacation)
  • A single foster parent, or a member of a student couple where one is a foster parent
  • Students with limited capability for work or work related activity who also get Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Child Disability Payment or Adult Disability Payment. (It must have been decided that you have limited capability for work before the date you start receiving education)
  • A student with a partner who is not a student (or who is a student who could get UC under one of the other exceptions)
  • A student waiting to return to your course after taking time out for illness or caring
  • Any UC claimant over the qualifying age for Pension Credit (this covers students in mixed age couples)

 

Categories: College Information, Workshop Presentation Notes

Tags: a levels, apprenticeship, btecm qualifications, disabled students’ allowance, Employment, Residential college, supported internship, t levels