Preparing for adulthood

When you reach 18 years old, any services and support you are eligible to receive from us will be from Adult Social Care Services.

The Preparing for Adulthood team can help you think about what kind of support you might need from Adult Social Care Services. Social care workers will support you to live a healthy and independent life, make friends, continue your education and find work. We will talk to you and your parents, carers and any others working with you.

The team can help you with, or point you in the right direction for:

• living arrangements
• health services
• further education, training, and employment
• careers advice
• paying for care
• legal frameworks
• Direct Payments
• access to independent support for young people
• other support services

We can also help your parents, guardians, or other carers:

• write an assessment of their needs as a carer
• identify support and services that will help them care for you
• develop a plan in case of an emergency

The journey

In Year 9 or Year 10, a school review will look at your care and support needs. If the Preparing for Adulthood team is able to support you, one of the team will be at this review to give you more information.

In Year 11, at age 17, a Preparing for Adulthood team worker will meet with you and your Children’s Social Care worker if you have one, to talk about your future.

The team worker will help you and your support network to write an assessment that focuses on your strengths. This assessment will be used to decide whether you are eligible for Adult Social Care services. We use The Care Act 2014 as a guide to this assessment. A version of The Care Act 2014 that is easy to read is available from GOV.UK.

A financial assessment officer will also work with you to complete a financial assessment. This will be used to decide how much you will pay towards the cost of your care and support.

You can contact the Adult Social Care team using the details below, or visit our Adult social care and health hub for lots of information on the service and the organisations we work with.

For those who are deaf, have hearing loss or who are speech impaired, text phone 07747 757570.

You can also contact the Preparing for Adulthood team for a chat about our service, using the details below.

If you want to know more about education and work experience options between 16 and 18, please see our learning and training information.

You can also contact Dorset SENDIASS, a support service working across Dorset for young people aged 0 to 25 with special educational needs and disability (SEND), as well as their parents and carers.

Carers can find additional support at CRISP, our local carer's information service.