Moving from children's to adult social care

You may be eligible for support from Adult and Community Services (ACS) if you're: 

• under 18 and have received care and support from our Children and Young People's Services (CYP)
• a young person with additional needs approaching adulthood

Transition Assessment

You have the right to ask for a Transition Assessment.

This helps to identify:

• what needs you may have for support for as an adult
• how those needs may affect your ability to achieve your goals

If you'd like to know more about this assessment, you can contact adult social care (Customer First). 

Or you can complete a supported self-assessment to find out what you may be eligible for. 

Care and support from ACS

If you meet the national eligibility criteria, ACS is responsible for:

• working with you to create a support plan
• putting in place a personal budget for you to purchase care and support

If you do not meet the national eligibility criteria but still have needs, we have a responsibility to guide you to relevant services, activities and information to help prevent your needs from becoming worse.

If you've received support in the past from CYP, you may find some differences in the support that is available from ACS. Find out more about our approach. 

Education, Health and Care Plans

We're responsible for transferring all young people with a Statement of Special Educational Need (SEN), and some with a Learning Difficulties Assessment, to Education, Health and Care Plans.

These plans join up areas of support for young people with learning difficulties. They can follow a person from birth until they're 25 years old.

This is being done with the active involvement of young people and their families in all circumstances.

This process of transferring from one system to another will take many years due to the amount of work that has to be completed.

From Year 9 (age 13 - 14) Education, Health and Care Plans focus on your preparation for adulthood.

Annual reviews of this plan can be used to:

• talk about the things you would like to achieve in adulthood
• the ways in which you could be supported to achieve

As you can take your plan with you from children's to adult services, it can highlight important things for ACS to know about.

More support

The Source is a website for all young people in Suffolk and can help you to find:

• information on preparing for adulthood
• opportunities for employment including traineeships, internships and apprenticeships

Suffolk InfoLink is a directory of community information, including services and activities that you can access.

Within Suffolk InfoLink, the Local Offer is a directory of community information aimed at providing support for children and young people (0-25) with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). 

Preparing for Adulthood is an organisation that supports young people into adulthood with information about:

• paid employment
• good health
• independent living and friends
• relationships and community inclusion

The Transition Information Network (TIN) is a group of organisations and individuals who work together to improve the experience of disabled young people's transition to adulthood. TIN is a source of information and good practice standards for disabled young people, families and professionals.

Webchat

Find out how to contact Customer First quickly and securely using live chat.

You can also find options to help yourself online, and phone us if needed.