Together for Short Lives is today launching a ground-breaking new Transition Awards Programme to fund innovative projects to help address the cliff edge in care experienced by young adults moving from children’s to adult services.
Advances in medical technology mean that the number of young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions is increasing, but a shocking number of young people are not getting the support and care they need. There is an urgent need for new initiatives to transform the experience of young people with life-limiting conditions as they move from children’s to adult services.
The new Awards Programme will act as a catalyst for change, encouraging and supporting services to work together to improve the experience of transition between children’s and adult services for seriously ill young people with very complex conditions. Tailored services for young people barely exist, with support from children’s services often ending without appropriate adult services in place. A lack of joining-up between children’s and adult health services means that all too often, young people with a life-limiting condition find themselves falling through the gaps, caught between children’s and adult services.
Together for Short Lives is providing an opportunity for services across health, social care, education, employment and housing to work together to overcome the barriers seriously ill young people face, helping them to live life to the full. The charity is keen to see a wide range of applications and partnerships across these five sectors and are seeking projects which have the potential to be up-scaled regionally and adapted and adopted nationally in order to deliver a long-term change.
We should be celebrating the fact that more young people with life-limiting conditions are living into adulthood, yet the lack of age-appropriate services for these young people mean that they are missing out on opportunities to live their life to the full. Urgent change is required. “Our new Transition Awards Programme aims to fund ground-breaking local projects to transform the experience of these young people as they move on to adult services. We have a tremendous opportunity to do something amazing for young people who do not have the luxury of time on their side. Our ambition is to act as a catalyst for change, working together and funding programmes that listen to and respond to the unique needs of young people, and have the potential to truly change lives.
Barbara Gelb OBE, CEO of Together for Short Lives
Together for Short Lives is now taking applications for the Transition Awards Programme. The deadline for applications is noon on 2 May 2017.
