
A Compass for transitions
New online tools for young people with additional support needs, their parents and carers and professionals are transforming how we understand and navigate the transition to young adulthood in Scotland. An invitation from James Fletcher, Director of ARC Scotland for you to join the over 1,500 people already using Compass.
Growing up is typically a time of great change, challenge and opportunity. Decisions about the future become more complicated when they include considerations about the extra help and guidance that young people with additional support needs might need. This might involve thinking about social care, health, guardianship, further education, housing, employment support…all while the clock is ticking to the end of support and services provided when they were a child. No wonder so many people find it a very confusing and stressful time.
Over the last 5 years ARC Scotland have been focussed on solving this problem. We have done lots of work to improve and join up policy, planning and practice with the Scottish Government, Local Authorities and others. But in this blog, I want to talk about Compass- and encourage you to give it a try.
Compass is a suite of three smart online tools that help you access all the important information you need in one place. There are separate versions of Compass for young people (aged 14 to 25), their parents and carers and the professionals that support them. They are all freely available for you to use right now.
I believe Compass is a game changer for two reasons:
Firstly, they bring all the information relevant to transitions together in one place. Using clever technology to understand you and your circumstances, Compass won’t bombard you with information that is not relevant to you. Instead, you will be introduced to transitions topics that are relevant to the age and stage of you or your young person. You decide if you want to find out more about them- and you can tick them off your virtual to do list when you feel you have the information you need.
One parent and carer described Compass as ‘a timeline of sanity.’ A professional said ‘The challenge is giving the right information at the right time in the right way. That’s what Compass offers and its really exciting.’
There are hundreds of transitions topics for you to explore. The information provided by Compass is up-to-date, reliable, provided by leading experts in ARC Scotland and endorsed by the Scottish Government, SCLD and many others.
Secondly, Compass helps you to inform the Scottish Government and local authorities about your experiences of transitions to help them make better decisions for everybody. It does this by asking you questions about your experiences of transitions as you go. For example (for parents and carers) ‘How happy are you with the support available to you as a parent or carer?’ and (for young people) ‘Do you get support to do the things most important to you?’ ARC Scotland compile what people using Compass tell us into anonymised reports for local authorities and Scottish Government to help them better understand what improvements are needed- and to check that changes are making the intended difference to people lives.
It has been a long and complicated journey to bring Compass to you, and we are still learning and improving as we go. But these tools are now fully tested, well evaluated and surely worth checking out if you are a young person in transition, a parent or carer, or a professional from any sector that provides support.
You can find out more and sign in to Compass here: https://compasslaunch.scot/
A reminder that Compass is totally free to use and brought to you by trusted experts at ARC Scotland.