“Onward journey” of local young people with learning disabilities under spotlight in new report

The “onward journey” of young people with learning disabilities in North Wales has come under the spotlight in a research new report.

North Wales Together has recently unveiled their ‘Life After School’ report and has also published a good practice guide.

North Wales Together is a Welsh Government funded partnership involving all six North Wales local authorities and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

It supports people and organisations to ensure people with learning disabilities are able to live a great life

The emphasis of the research was on the importance of getting transition from secondary school to post-16 options and opportunities right for young people with learning disabilities.

Flintshire County Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Social Services and Wellbeing, Councillor Christine Jones, said: “We wanted to understand how well North Wales is currently meeting the individual development needs of young people with learning disabilities and where improvement is needed.”

“The research concludes with a set of recommendations for partners across health, social services, education, employment and skills and the Welsh Government.”

Amongst the findings was the need to ensure that “transition planning is holistic and includes all the life areas that are important to young people with learning disabilities such as friendships and relationships, being independent, and having a job.”

It was noted that there is an importance of “transition being joined up across health, social services and education.”

Improvement to the supported employment offer for the region so that all young people have the right support to find paid employment

And the need to improve the post-16 offer for young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities.

A collection of short videos aimed at young people with learning disabilities are to be released soon.

Each video looks at a different life areas based on what young people have said is important to them when planning their next steps after school.

The resource is a collection of short videos aimed at young people with learning disabilities. Each clip looks at a different life area based on what young people have said is important to them when planning their next steps after school.

TAPE Community Music and Film’s Backstage Youth Club created these animations and recently won a Mirror award in the Ideas category for their work, at the All Wales People First Adfest event 2022 held in North Wales.

Here are some of the comments from the young people involved:

Mahfuz said: “I really enjoyed being involved – the best thing was the voice acting – the character I played was interesting and it was fun!  It felt like it was really worthwhile and we felt so important!”

Ellesey said: “The project was inspiring and fun and it was interesting to see it all come together and it will be really helpful for me in the future.  Our Youth Club were really proud of us all that we won the award.”

A number of the recommendations will be progressed through the new children and young people’s workstream for the LD Transformation Programme. If you would like more information or want to get involved please get in touch at [email protected].

The research was carried out by the North Wales Together Learning Disability Transformation Programme on behalf of the North Wales Learning Disability Partnership Group.