Planning your future

Pathway plan 

A pathway plan is your own individual record, all about you, and is written with you from the start. When you turn 16 you will be asked by your social worker about your future plans. Your social worker will have a good idea about your situation and what you will need for the future. This is your needs' assessment.

Your Pathway Plan is based on this needs' assessment. It makes sense for you to be fully involved in writing your Pathway Plan, as it’s about your future. The Pathway Plan will include:

• Your goals in life – your ambitions and dreams!
• Where you want to live
• What job you want to do, and where you want to work
• What education, training or experience you need
• What financial help you need to achieve your ambitions
• Your health needs
• Who is around to support you
• Other things that are important to you

Your Personal Adviser will review your Pathway Plan with you and it can be changed and added to as things change for you.

There are other things that need to be sorted out before you are 18. To make this a bit simpler here's a checklist of tasks to be completed with you between 16 and 18:

Pathway Planning for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC)

Claiming asylum can be a difficult process. Your social worker and personal adviser will work with you and your solicitor to make sure that things are explained to you so that you understand the process of claiming asylum and the possible outcomes.

Your pathway planning, particularly if you have recently entered the UK from overseas may need to cover additional support to assist in your understanding of the cultures and systems whilst living in the UK.

While you are waiting for a decision on your asylum application, and your immigration status is unresolved your pathway plan will look at the possible outcomes and develop alternative plans until your immigration status is resolved. These plans will not influence the outcome of your immigration decision and will take into account the following likely outcomes:

• You are granted Refugee Status (i.e. granted asylum), leave to remain for five years, and access to public funds.
• You are refused asylum but granted Humanitarian Protection (HP) with leave to remain for five years, usually with access to public funds. HP is most commonly granted if you are at risk of ‘ill-treatment’ in the country you have left but do not meet the criteria of the Refugee Convention.
• Your application for asylum is refused with no grant of leave. In this case you would be returned to your country of origin.

To make sure your pathway plan includes all of your hopes and goals your social worker will talk to you, and to other important people in your life. You can say who you would like to be part of your pathway plan and who you would prefer not to be. Your pathway plan will help you to think about and write down your plans for the future. This will include:

• Health and general wellbeing
• Accommodation
• Education, training and employment
• Emotional issues and behaviour
• Family and social relationships, and support networks
• Practical skills and other skills needed for independent living
• Identity, such as ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation
• Financial arrangements

Your personal adviser will assist you to contribute to the pathway plan and support you to make sure that your wishes and feelings are being taken into consideration. You will be asked what you think of the final draft and will be asked to sign it. You will have a copy of it and there will be a copy on your file. It will be updated at least every six months or if there is a major change in your circumstances or plans.

Your important documents

• MKC will ensure you have these and will pay for your first passport
• If you lose your passport or birth certificate you will be expected to pay for a replacement
• We will usually hold a copy of your birth certificate on file which your PA will be able to access
• If we don’t have your birth certificate we will support you to apply for a copy
• We will pay for your provisional driving licence.

We can also support you to get your National Insurance number if you do not receive this automatically. Please talk to you PA if you'd like help with this. You can do this yourself if you want to through the .gov website. 

Health history

The health record is a summary of your health assessments and any interventions during your time in care.

Everyone's record is different. Things that might be included are;

• Birth details
• GP details 
• If there is a family history of health problems
• Summaries of any health referrals 
• Details of your last dental and eye appointments 
• Education- If you have needed support or attended a specialist school environment. Recognising if you have an EHCP and how this can support you in the future
• Information on local services

Support from Adult Social Care

• It is not automatic to receive support from adult services when you turn 18
• If you feel that you will need support from adult services, you can request a Care Act assessment
• Decisions made by adult services are made on a different basis than those of children’s services, so they may decide you should not receive their help.
• If you are refused services from Adult Services, this may be challengeable, you may want an advocate to help you with this.

Advocacy

An advocate is someone independent. Their job is to help make sure your views are heard. They can represent you at meetings or raise any concerns you have.

If you would like to speak to someone from the advocacy service, you can call 01908 241020

Accessing records

• From 18, you are eligible to see most of your personal records held by Milton Keynes Council
• You will need to complete an application form. 
• Your PA can support you with this.

For more information on accessing your records click here.

What happens when I’m 21?

• the support you receive from leaving care will stop unless you are still in education or training
• We are still here for you though, so if you need any support just give us a call, we know you will know a lot about living independently, but we understand that everyone needs support sometimes
• Don’t forget, if you need advice after you've turned 25 you can contact us via the duty line

If you decide you would like to return to education or training between the ages of 21-25 years old, you can ask the leaving care team for an assessment of your needs.

Farewell meetings

Just before your 21st birthday you will be invited to a farewell meeting with your personal adviser. This is an informal meeting to give you the opportunity to give feedback about your time in care, to make sure you’re aware of the support for young people aged 21-25 returning to education or training, and to say goodbye.