What are Special Transition Teams?

Transition Teams are self managing teams of young people who design and carry out projects which investigate their future options for education, training, and employment. Students organise projects which investigate possible options and explore issues of relevance to their vocation and future career. Young people can and do also choose to work alone and you can read more about this in the Case Studies section.

The information and insights young people gain through their investigations are brought back to their peers, generally through the formats of oral and written reports, although video and tape recordings have also proved very successful. This team participation and the ensuing activities enable students to begin to make sense of their unknown futures whilst still enjoying the support and security of their school.

The key person in each school is the Transition Teams co-ordinator who has wide ranging responsibilities covering the overall management of the project. The tasks and skills are documented in detail in Section Two and these need to be underpinned by enthusiasm for pupil centred learning and an understanding of careers education in its broadest form.

The project brings added value where additional facilitators are used to work directly with individual Special Transition Teams. They can have a range of backgrounds from inside the school and from the wider community, and we appreciate how difficult it can be to find external facilitators in the field of special education. The role of the facilitator is described in detail on pages 74-74 and the case studies of the pilot schools identify examples of people who have undertaken the facilitator role are excellent examples of practical staff development.

The legacy of each team's work is information for the Careers library - information collected and prepared from a student perspective. Additionally, the active involvement in presenting and passing on information to others inevitably increases the depth of the young people's understanding - an experience familiar to many teachers.

What is the origin of Special Transition Teams?

The concept of Transition Teams emerged from the internal research and development programme of CCDU (Counselling and Career Development Unit) and builds on their previous work in this field. Careers and Personal and Social Education for secondary school pupils have long provided the focus for both training and project work at CCDU.

Nine mainstream schools across the North of England trialled the original concept, supported by funding from the DFEE, local TECs and Career Service providers. The outcomes from this project were very positive and during 1996/97, those key funders supported the piloting of the major elements of the Transition teams approach into special education.

The Transition Teams programme in the context of special educational provision

The Transition Teams programme aims to help students make more successful post-school transitions, whether these are to employment, Further Education or vocational training. Central to the approach is the identification and development of personal skills and the promotion of self management and peer collaboration in learning. Thus the term 'Transition Teams' refers to self managing teams of young people who work together in order to decide on, plan, carry out, reflect and report on, a project in which they explore different post school options. Through this experience, the intention is that students may gain the sorts of knowledge, skills and confidence which enable them to become more active participants in their learning and in decisions about their futures.

The programme approach chimes with a number of current issues in special education. Of these, three warrant particular mention. The concern: the promotion of self-management and active participation in the learning process; vocational education and the transition from school to adulthood; and inclusive educational practice.

It is notable that among the special school staff who participated in the piloting of the Transition Teams programme a primary motivation was the development of their students' independence. They hoped and anticipated that this would be facilitated by the emphasis the approach places on choice, initiative and decision-making.

The promotion of independence, through an explicit focus on personal and social education, has always had a key part in the curriculum for pupils with special educational needs. The introduction of the Code of Practice (DFE, 1994) has introduced a new dimension to this work. One of the principles which underpins the Code is that pupils have a right to be involved in the development of provision to meet their needs and that such involvement contributes to more successful learning. Accordingly, schools need to give particular attention to the ways in which they support and encourage pupils to play as active a role as possible in assessment, decision-making and review procedures. Specifically, the Code states:

Schools should consider how they:

 ·  involve pupils in decision-making processes

 ·  determine the pupil's level of participation, taking into account approaches to assessment and intervention which are suitable for his or her age, ability and past experiences

 ·  record pupils' views in identifying their difficulties, setting goals, agreeing a development strategy, monitoring and reviewing progress

 ·  involve pupils in implementing individual educational plans.

(DfE, 1994, para 2:37)

As a result, the implementation of strategies to enhance pupils' self management in the assessment and learning process has begun to have a higher profile in many specil schools, and it frequently figures in their School Development Plans. There is no doubt that this presents certain challenges to staff. A recent survey of good practice in the involvement of pupils with special educational needs in assessment, decision-making and review (Rose, McNamara and O'Neil, 1996) found that staff identified a range of hurdles to greater pupil participation. These were particularly associated with the personal limitations pupils demonstrated, for example in relation to making choices, predicting outcomes, communicating and negotiation. Pupils are, however, unlikely to develop such skills unless they are provided with relevant, structured and supportive contexts in which to do so. Furthermore, as a number of special school staff who participated in the piloting of the Transition Teams programme observed, there is fine balance to be drawn in making a judgement about the optimal level of support required to facilitate self management among pupils with significant special educational needs: too little carries the risk of failure, frustration, but too much is likely to foster continuing pupil dependency.

The Transition Teams programme offers an approach which can help staff to focus on these issues. It has been described by several special schools as providing a motivating and active real world context for the enhancement of pupils' self management skills, as well as a structured opportunity for staff to explore and develop their facilitation role.

A further significant motivation for a number of special school staff to participate in the piloting of the Transition Teams programme was to raise the profile of careers education in school, and to strengthen their links with the careers service, FE and community employer networks.

Transition from school to adulthood has long been of concern in special education.

College links and work experience are integral to the curriculum in the last years of school, and although many special school staff report that employment prospects for their school leavers are minimal, the importance of post-school provision for those with special educational needs has received a welcome endorsement recently from both the Tomlinson Report into FE (FEFC, 1996), and also from the Governments 1997 Green Paper on special education (DfEE, 1997), which identifies the need to explore ways of promoting more successful post-school transitions.

The Code of Practice requires transition planning to begin from the time of the annual review which takes place after students are fourteen years old. It is crucial therefore, that by this stage, their involvement in the decision-making and review process is already established, because the Code emphasises that effective transition planning must take into account their perspectives on: the information they need if they are to make informed choices; the sources of advocacy and advice that are available to them locally; and the ways in which their hopes and wishes for the future might best be addressed (DfE, 1994, para 6:46). The Code goes on to describe the development of independence and personal and social skills as necessary components for progress through the post 14 academic and vocational curriculum, where 'curriculum planning should focus on activities which encourage students to review and reflect upon their own experiences and wishes and to formulate and articulate their views' (DfE, 1994, para 6:60).

The aims of the transitional process to adult life have been described in relation to: personal autonomy; productive activity; social interaction and community participation; and changing roles within the family (Griffiths, 1994). The Transition Teams approach, with its central concern to support the development of personal autonomy within the context of a range of post-school options, corresponds most specifically to the first two aspects of the process. For young people with special educational needs, the quality of the transitional process relates not only to the development of knowledge, understanding and skills, but also to the well planned provision of experiences which enable them to apply and extend these. The Transition Teams programme offers a vehicle whereby staff can seek both to broaden students' informed experience concerning the world outside school, and also to strengthen the personal and social skills which underpin successful college links and work placements.

It is a characteristic of college links and work experience that they take young people outside their school context as active participants in the local community. The contribution that the Transition Teams programme can make to such work comes through its explicit focus on helping students to take a proactive approach to exploring and engaging with a range of options through community networks. For several of the special school staff who were involved in the pilot of the programme a strong motivation for their participation derived from the principle of inclusive educational practice: they wanted to demonstrate that their students could 'hold their own' with mainstream peers on this sort of careers project. These staff shared a perspective on inclusion that goes well beyond the school grounds to the wider and post-school community. This is a perspective that resonates with aspects of current Government thinking as illustrated in its 1997 Green Paper (DfEE, 1997). The Green Paper emphasises the role of special educational provision in the preparation of pupils for adult life. It makes explicit the link between the inclusive education and successful transition. As the Secretary of State for Education asserts his foreword:

'The great majority of children with SEN will, as adults, contribute economically; all will contribute as members of society. Schools have to prepare all children for these roles. That is a strong reason for educating children with SEN, as far as possible, with their peers.'

DfE (1994) The Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs. London; HMSO

DfEE (1997) Excellence for all Children: meeting special educational needs. Green Paper. London: HMSO.

FEFC (1996) Inclusive Learning: Report of the Learning Difficulties and /or Disabilities Committee. (The Tomlinson Report). Coventry: FEFC

Griffiths, M. (1994) Transition to Adulthood. London: David Fulton.

Rose, R., McNamara, S. and O'Neil, J. (1996) Promoting the greater involvement of pupils with special needs in the management of their own assessment and learning processes. British Journal of Special Education, 23, 4, 166-171.