My disabled son will be going to university this September after 2 years at life skills.
There was an MDT meeting with social care and the life skills college sent an enormous dossier of evidence to Social Services and the university.
The upshot is that he will have wraparound care at university. I think that life skills College gave a blow by
blow account of needs and I assembled all the reports eg OT, Tech SALT etc
My son has ASD with motor and language issues as well as major working memory and executive functioning issues so needs prompting etc.
Social Services felt that it would be too much for him to move into halls so he will commute via taxi. It was also decided that he would do 50% of credits each year and work in the community for the remainder with support so the degree will take 5 years.
My issue is that I want him to have a university experience where he socialises more and learns to be a bit more independent.
However I fear that it will turn into a school experiences where he is hived off with his PA.
I had hoped for him to go to Drama school where he seemed to manage the environment better and needed less support ( he was well
loved there ) but they closed off the BA course due to lack of funding. The environment at this Drama school was unique
( he does Summer courses) and worked for him and he was accepted as he was and it meant that he managed better. It was a unique thing to that Drama school where he had been going since aged about 12.
Oddly this was not the case at National Youth mini courses where he needed and they asked for PA support. I think it was because he did not know many people there and it was a different environment so he spent more time re regulating.
I guess that I’m trying to understand what experience he will have if he is attached to a PA. Whilst I am grateful and relieved that I did not have to fight for any care, I am also saddened that he has to have the care. Sadly the experience is that he would otherwise take himself off / not get into classes or get frustrated trying to organise notes / self harm and struggle to navigate the campus etc.