The Care Act: Transition from childhood to adulthood

The Care Act says that if a child, young carer or an adult caring for a child is likely to have needs when they, or the child they care for, turns 18, the local authority must assess them if it considers there is ‘significant benefit’ to the individual in doing so. This is regardless of whether the child or individual currently receives any services.

SCIE has developed the following resources to help local authority staff, social workers, young people and carers to plan for the transition to adult care services:

Transition from children’s to adults’ services - early identification: Examples of what local authorities are doing to identify young people who are not currently receiving support from children’s services, but are likely to have care and support needs as an adult.
Adult carers of young people in transition: How to support adult carers of a young person in transition from children’s to adults’ services. Includes information on rights, choices, assessment processes.
Young carers in transition: How to support young carers as they become adults. Includes information on rights, choices, assessment processes.
Video diaries: Young carers share their personal experiences of caring for a sibling or parent.
Transition from children’s to adults’ services – key resources: This pulls together all the existing resources, policy documents and initiatives that relate to transition from children’s to adults’ services.