Identifying Barriers and Understanding Needs: Resources

Page Contents

Resources
Autism Toolkit

Resources

It is important to support young people during times of transition. The young person can take photos or produce a scrapbook of their new post-16 setting. This can often aid discussion at school, home, open days and events.
Transition from primary to secondary; secondary to post-16 is often the most spoken about area for parents and families, discussing their concerns. YoungMinds is a helpful website for professionals with practical ideas and helpful resources: supporting school transitions and the transitioning to further education.
It is important to seek the pupil’s voice in preparing for adulthood, learning, decision-making and peer-led approaches. Helen Sanderson Associates has a useful person-centred tool for young people to feel in control of their next steps.

PEACE - Pathway for Eating disorders and Autism support and provide information for people with eating disorders and autism.
The National Autistic Society [Size: 1,542 KB, File: PDF] has some handy tips to support people with autism.
Cambridgeshire Community Services - Have a helpful page on assessment if you think your child might have Autism.
What if you think you are autistic and you are 18 years and older? If you think that you may be autistic, you can meet with your GP to discuss your concerns. Your GP will refer you to the Primary Care Mental Health Service and they will complete an initial triage with you. This information will be used to make a referral to the CLASS clinic. Here is a helpful booklet to discuss the support they can provide, including mental health.
Autism Hampshire developed Free E-Learning Autism Training. An excellent resource taking around 40 minutes to complete.
Have you gathered the young person’s views. The Key Leaders have useful behaviour audits.
Body Mapping [Size: 305 KB, File: PDF] exercises to explore physical sensations linked to different emotions.
It has shown that 'one good adult' can make a huge difference to the ability of a child or young person to overcome challenges; further information about this is available at the PCI College website.
National Autism Society has launched Free modules on "A guide to the mental health needs and experiences of autistic teenagers". More info on the online training can be found here: Autism Online Training - National Autistic Society.

Autism Toolkit

The Autism Toolkit has been created as part of the All Age Autism Strategy Development.

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It is a self-assessment tool which encourages and supports organisations to become more accessible to children, young people and adults with autism; or other neurodiverse conditions. In doing so, we hope to increase the accessibility of organisations and businesses across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Please feel free to complete the Autism Toolkit or share with organisations and business across Peterborough. View The complete Autism Toolkit [Size: 804 KB, File: PDF].

NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough provides help to people aged 17 and over who are experiencing common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety disorders, including: generalised anxiety disorder; social anxiety; post-traumatic stress disorder; health anxiety; panic; phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, you do not need a diagnosis to access the service.
Charlie Waller Trust - Have practical advice, information and resources.
Centre 33 - Support any young person up to the age of 25 with their mental health, caring responsibilities, housing, sexual health and more.
Promoting resilience amongst young people can help towards improved optimism. The Samaritans have resources about Developing Emotional Awareness and Listening.
Young people should be supported with having healthy sleeping habits support with mental health. YoungMinds have help about sleep problems.
Creating a Self-Care Plan [Size: 1,542 KB, File: PDF]. The Anna Freud website have produced a self-care plan for young people.
Helpful Self-Care Top Tips [Size: 10.9 MB, File: PDF] for mental health and wellbeing for parents and carers.
Kooth is an online mental wellbeing community which offers online counselling, advice and wellbeing support. Kooth also offers a free online app offering advice, counselling, and wellbeing support to 10–18-year-olds. It also includes magazine articles written by young people, journal and goals pages, discussion boards, chat and messenger services.
Most young people have phones, which they can take to a private or safe space of their choosing. Mobile apps are a useful way to support teenagers' wellbeing, including anxiety, self-harm and stress. Green Hub have a list of mobile apps for teenage anxiety.
Elsa Support have other helpful emotion resources and self-esteem resources.
Keep Your Head is a one-stop-shop of help for mental health and wellbeing for young people, professionals, and parents.
Schools that involve the whole school community in developing a culture of wellbeing see the greatest benefits for children, young people, and staff. Anna Freud has produced a 5 Steps to Mental Health and Wellbeing evidence-based framework to help you develop a whole-school or college approach to mental health.
In June and July 2024 Students at CRC designed a lesson plan for mental health and wellbeing. This was completed with a class of CRC students, to provide information for Voices of the East. The lesson plan is embedded at the bottom of this page.

Voices of the East (VOTE): Mental health lessons – In the summer of 2024, the young people who participated in the Voices of The East groups, wanted to focus mental health which resulted in lots of ideas on how we could support young people with SEND. This led to the creation of 3 sessions that have been designed using the ideas from across the East of England. The slides which also come with session notes can be adapted to meet different needs. Please have a look at the each of the lessons and the session notes to complement these.