Elevate your Transition Pathways from Paediatric to Adult Services, Manchester 2024

Jacqui qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1990, as a Registered Midwife in 1992, and as a Health Visitor in 2001. She has always worked in and around caring for women and children, and implementation of the Public Health agenda.

Jacqui has performed a number of roles in the last 25 years as a Team midwife, a Childrens Centre Midwife, a health visitor, and a Matron in Maternity services.

After completing a Master’s Degree in Business Management in the Public Sector she changed her career pathway to experience some time in general management as a Service Manager, trying to influence change. However she missed the patient contact and after 5 years she returned to a Nursing role as Transition Service Lead Nurse at Alder Hey NHS Children’s Foundation Trust, and has been leading with Dr Lynda Brook the development and implementation of the 10 steps Transition Pathway and toolkit on behalf of the Trust.

Jacqui has presented Alder Hey’s 10 Steps Transition Pathway and toolkit at National Transition Conferences, a number of areas across the country have adopted the 10 Steps Transition Pathway; Jacqui also shares this model with student nurses at Chester, Edge Hill and John Moores University’s. Jacqui delivers multi-agency Transition training regularly, and in 2016 founded and chairs the North West Region Multi Agency Transition Network.

In February 2017 Jacqui and Lynda had their first Publication of the ‘10 Steps Transition pathway’ in a National Medical Journal this link to review this article is https://www.entandaudiologynews.com/features/ent-features/post/10-steps-to-improving-transition-to-adult-services

A second piece of work was published in December 2018 in the International Journal of Nursing; the link to review this article is http://ijnnet.com/current-ijn.

The transition team at Alder Hey were successful in an application to share the ’10 Steps Transition Pathway’ and transition developments at Alder Hey at the 1st European Transition Symposium. Jacqui and Lynda travelled to Switzerland and Jacqui presented this work to International colleagues there in September 2018.

Jacqui has great passion and insight into this role both professionally and on a personal level, as two of her four children have long term conditions and will require Transition to adult services and lifelong care.

Alison is a GP by background and a clinical coordinator with NCEPOD and one of the co-authors of the ‘Inbetweeners’ study. As a GP she worked in student health for many years so enabling children and young people to move easily between healthcare providers was a clinical priority.

Alison also co-leads the South West Learning Disability Collaborative. The SWLDC is a network of clinicians, carers, families and experts by experience who are working together with academics and policy makers to improve outcomes for people with a learning disability. 

As part of her portfolio career, she is also a NHSE South West Regional Clinical Lead. This was originally as part of the COVID response but the role now supports the development and delivery of NHS@home and virtual wards to enable patients to be looked after at home during an episode of acute illness. 

Underpinning these roles is her work as a Primary Care clinical lead at the West of England Academic Health Science Network. She has a special interest in the prompt identification and management of the deteriorating patient and particularly the use of NEWS2 as a common language across the NHS and its use in out of hospital settings.

I’m Paula Marten, Assistant Headteacher at Chailey Heritage Foundation, a school for children and young people with complex neurodisabilities. Having worked in post-16 Special Education for 28 years, I have learnt a huge amount about the needs of young people and their families – and I am still learning! 

At Chailey Heritage Foundation, I lead on Transition to Adult Services, and this is an aspect of the school’s provision that I feel incredibly strongly about. The support and health care needs of these young people don’t necessarily change when they reach the age of 18 – but the funding and the services available to them do. As part of my work on Transition, I have led the development of services to support young people and their families through the NHS Continuing Care/Continuing Healthcare assessment process. Support, information, and guidance for the individual and for the people who care for them throughout this incredibly challenging period is essential. I have worked to raise the profile of Transition to Adult services through speaking at All Party Parliamentary Groups, contributing written evidence to the latest Government report on Transition to Adulthood, and working with parent/carer forums in the Southeast. 

My work with the RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) team at Chailey is another passion. We deliver RSE training for teachers, carers and parents across the UK via the Sex Factor course, a programme written and developed at Chailey. At the core of this training is the belief in the right of children and young people to be enabled to make choices, enjoy meaningful connections with others and keep themselves safe – to the best of their ability, no matter how severe their disabilities. I am privileged to work in a progressive school with amazing people, and I want to share my insight and experience with others to raise awareness and to keep on learning.

Darren is a nationally qualified youth worker, with 27 years’ experience of providing youth work support for young people in a variety of settings. He has previously worked on the Teenage Cancer Unit at St James’ Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust, and his current youth work role is with the Paediatric & Young Adult Diabetes Team at LTHT. Last year he produced a research paper, for an MA in Youth Work & Community Development, which explored how the role of Youth Work can help to reduce DNA rates and improve the transition experience for patients who are living with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. He aims to publish the findings of this research later this year and is also planning to base his future PhD research on this topic. He lives in Leeds and spends much of his spare time pondering if he’ll ever feel like he’s winning the never-ending war with his garden.