Responding in a Comment to my post Taking the long view, for the moment, Andrew Sutton wrote:
I too wish every success to everybody trying 'to work out how, sustainably, to create "a place for conductive pedagogy that can accommodate children up to age 18" .... and beyond, no doubt, to independent citizenship apart from their parents.'
In brutal reality, I wonder how many people/institutions this might add up to world wide. Tsad Kadima have shown the way, the Perrin family is trying very hard (but is Paces involved institutionally?)
A fair question, "but is Paces involved institutionally?' Well .... yes, sort of .... and maybe in a surprising and interesting way, although the answer is not quite straightforward.
The "Perrin family" (with the Hague family and the Abbey family) have certainly taken on this work, as distinct from, say, the City Council. We have, for instance, supported ourselves as parents through this transition, there being nothing else on offer. The experience has convinced me completely that this is a transition with which parents, just as much as the young people, need a guiding hand. We have, also, made the running in finding accommodation and, if our earlier aspirations fell to the wayside along this 11 year journey, to set up a social enterprise, owned by the young people themselves from which they would rent accommodation, we have in the end found accommodation that looks like it might work very well indeed. And, no, Paces has not really been involved in that.
However, as a settled solution appeared, so our adult group, "Leaping the Void", has actively - and conductively - helped two of the young women, including Sarah, in the approach to the transition. Last week, they were choosing colours for their bedroom walls. Yesterday, they all went to tea together. I have no doubt that this is why Sarah obviously feels positive about it. So, yes, Andrew, when the time came, institutionally, Paces stepped up to the mark.
What complicates the answer, what makes it perhaps more interesting, is this: Paces Campus was set up, as we used to put it, to create a resource for children and young people with cerebral palsy and their families at the heart of a local community centre. If anyone would like to see more, take a look at Paces Campus website, or visit us on Facebook. It's an unusual model for a conductive education centre but one with several advantages for mutual support.
The bungalow which the the three young women will shortly make their home has been bought and refurbished by AbbeyCare. AbbeyCare's office is based at Paces Campus and its entrepreneurial founders are parents of a daughter with cerebral palsy who, when she was younger, attended Paces School and is one of the three housemates. AbbeyCare will supply the care package; Paces will supply daily activities during the week, as well as some evenings and weekends. This, to me, is a fine example of the Campus mutual model in action. So, yes, Paces Campus is institutionally involved.
Obviously all this is not solidly established; no more than the City Council do we have a smooth, well-ordered process for managing the self-determination aspirations of other young men and women who might wish to follow. Sarah and her two friends remain our foremost pioneers, helping us get it right. (In a fairer world, they might be paid as consultants, might they not?)
What interests me, aside from being Sarah's Dad, as Paces' Chief Executive for a little while longer yet, is the Government's intent, set out in the SEND Green Paper, for a unitary health, care and education plan for each individual, to be maintained from 0-25 years. In other words, at a stroke, we will have 'lept the void' that faces so many at 18, on leaving school, and 'institutionalised' the planning for the transition to actual independent living, away from the parental home, for those who wish it. Now we as a society, as a bunch of schools and institutions, can do this well or badly - or even not at all. But crucially, there will be a structure, across health, care and education, for achieving this, which in our experience, is almost entirely non-existent, currently, despite the good will and efforts of the individual social workers involved.
How then should Paces respond? (1) How should we arrange "a place for conductive pedagogy that can accommodate children up to ...." not age 18 but age 25, and make the experience for them of perhaps coming to Paces almost daily from 18 to 25 years, from leaving school to leaving the parental home, conductively meaningful yet quite distinct from "school"? and (2) How should we arrange for their journeying "beyond, no doubt, to independent citizenship apart from their parents", to live conductive lives, in and from their homes, perhaps coming to Paces rarely?
Two quite separate questions. Needing two quite separate answers. If there are conductors out there who can help with creating these answers, I would really like to hear from you.
And my thanks for the challenging question, Andrew.