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News support feature: Post-16 support for those in need: a personal viewpoint

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A recent Ofsted report found that too few young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities leave school and go on to complete programmes that will help them live independently, study further or gain employment.

The opportunity to pursue education or training courses after school varied considerably between local areas noted the report, Progression post-16 for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. And there were insufficient services available for learners with the highest level of need.

The issues raised in Ofsted’s report are also raised elsewhere, not least in a new campaign, ‘Finished at School’ from Ambitious about Autism. Its aim is ‘to secure more and better educational options for all young people with autism aged 16 to 25 years old to help them to develop skills, gain employment and live more independently’.

One person who knows better than most the problems faced by those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is 25 year-old Robyn Steward who has Asperger’s syndrome and nine other disabilities. Robyn was in an inclusion unit until her second year of primary school, went into mainstream education part of the time and then on to college. She now works to raise awareness of the issues. She’s a specialist trainer for professionals, a non-clinical consultant and a mentor to others on the Autism spectrum, as well as their families.

Robyn is an advocate of Ofsted’s report. She spoke about it on the BBC alongside Matthew Coffey, Ofsted’s Director of Learning and Skills. Here she talks to Ofsted News about her experiences and the report.

‘I have Asperger’s syndrome, but there are many people on the autistic spectrum who have lower functioning forms of autism. My situation’s very different and I’m lucky I’m in a position to make a difference for other people. I’m very aware of that privilege. There are many people with other situations to my own and I have to make sure that I do my best by everybody.

‘I really liked the report. The main things for me were that you need to look at all providers and not just presume that the local college must be the right place for this person. I’m very pro further education, but it’s not going to be right for everybody and that should be accepted.

‘There’s a mini case study in the report that stood out for me. A student was promised support which didn’t turn up in the first two days and they stopped attending college. Fortunately they went to a smaller provider who provided them with support right away and that was generally successful. What made the difference was the support being there from day one.

‘I’d also like to echo what the report says about qualifications and whether you should be crediting somebody for smiling. You really need to look at people’s whole lives. When I’m doing training I tell people that they need to see the bigger picture. You’ve got to look at what’s happening at home, what happens on the way to school and after school, what happens at the weekend. Are there cultural or religious constraints on what someone can and can’t do? Everybody has different reasons why they’re struggling to do something.

‘Also, the report talks quite a lot about people doing things at the right time. The main crux of the report is about the post-16 transition review and how you can’t really wait until a person is 16. You have to be thinking about it when they are 13 and 14 years-old. A lot of colleges are already doing that. I think the report has a lot of value, but I think we really haven’t looked close enough at the transition process. Things often fall down and go awry in primary and secondary school. With post-16 it’s more quantifiable because there’s a more stringent framework and you have to hit particular goals, not just SATS.

‘I think the weight of this report places pressures on local authorities to find solutions for young people. Learning providers also need to be working in partnership with schools; it can’t be disjointed.

‘There are people working hard to support learners. Oldham College is a really good example of good practice. But there are many that don’t really get it at all; they don’t engage. You have to find different ways of providing things for different people because people’s learning styles and learning needs aren’t the same. I think the key word there is meaningful. Meaningful means different things to different people. For example, for somebody who has Asperger’s, a meaningful programme might be to fulfill the deficits in social skills. For others with different needs, something meaningful might be engaging with a book for example.

‘The biggest thing in school that made a difference to me was my IT teacher. He listened to me rattling on asking questions every day for at least six months. He gave me the reason to go to school. I hated everything else. He found me jobs to do and used my interests to keep me engaged in school. I was webmaster at one point and I took pictures for the website.

‘He also gave me a model of friendship and taught me how to share things for example. I see the influence he had on me every day. He was a key person who made a difference along with my parents and support teacher.

‘I think the report is useful – it’s a catalyst. It’s a really good starting place for recognising that things within the system need to change. But it needs to be an overall systemic change. I still get very frustrated that some people don’t want to change and don’t want people with disabilities in the world. I think that’s so sad. It’s very limiting because thinking differently can actually be very beneficial.

‘People seem to think that disability doesn’t affect someone who is born without a disability. They forget about acquired brain injury, they forget one in four people will have a mental illness at some point in their life. That’s a lot of people. We really need to look at society in a totally different way, because currently we’re trying to quantify everything with numbers and life really isn’t like that.’

The report, Progression post-16 for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, is available on the Ofsted website and listed below. 

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• Progression post-16 for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities

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