How to use

Future Self Discussion Cards

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

These Future Self cards have been designed by Dr Eleanor Tomlinson, a Chartered Educational and Child Psychologist, drawing on real life casework, discussion with young people and families, and close liaison with other professionals.

Preparation for Adulthood (PfA) is the planning process that supports young people with SEND to move successfully into adulthood. It is built around four national outcome areas, the same four areas used in EHCP annual reviews and wider transition planning under the SEND Code of Practice: Community Inclusion, Independent Living, Learning and Employment, and Health and Wellbeing. The Future Self cards use these four areas to help a young person reflect on their own progress towards adulthood.

The cards are suitable for use by a range of adults, including SENDCos, Personal Advisers, Educational Psychologists, key workers, outreach services and family members, as the goal is to promote self-reflection and open conversation rather than to test or assess. The information can be used to support the development of a plan or personalised curriculum in collaboration with the young person, family and professionals.

How to use these cards

I would recommend using these cards as part of a conversation with a young person when they feel comfortable to do so. It may be that the full set can be sorted within one session of up to an hour, or it may work best across several sessions, reducing the number of cards into smaller groups or focusing on one area at a time.

Each statement card should be sorted using one of the three feedback cards:

  • I can do this.
  • I am working on this.
  • I can’t do this yet.

This is not a test and there are no wrong answers. The value of the activity lies in the conversation it opens up, and in identifying where a young person already feels confident, where they are building a skill, and where more support or teaching is needed.

The four areas of preparation for adulthood

The cards are organised into four colour coded areas, matching the Areas of PfA key on the card box: Community Inclusion (blue), Independent Living (green), Learning and Employment (purple), and Health and Wellbeing (orange). A summary of each area, along with suggested actions to support next steps, is set out below.

Community Inclusion

This area looks at how confidently a young person can engage with their wider community, from safety and travel to friendships and online life. It brings together practical skills, such as using public transport, handling money, and knowing where to get help, with relational skills such as coping with unfamiliar people, staying in touch with friends, and understanding consent.

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Safety and emergencies

  • Practise looking up and calling 999 or 111 in a low-pressure setting, so the young person knows what to expect.
  • Use videos and media to explore what each service does and what they look like.
  • Talk through what to say to the police, ambulance or fire service if they are needed.
  • Rehearse who to contact locally for help, e.g. a trusted neighbour, GP or local support service.
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Getting around and travel

  • Practise a familiar route together before expecting independent travel.
  • Use visual maps, journey planning apps or timetables to build confidence with buses and trains.
  • Talk through what to do if a journey does not go to plan, e.g. a delayed or cancelled bus.
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Money and independence

  • Practise paying for small items with cash and card in real settings, e.g. a local shop.
  • Talk through contactless limits and what to do if a card is declined.
  • Set a budget for a small shop and look items up online before they go and create a list.
  • Use the handheld scanners in a shop, e.g. self-scan supermarkets, and talk about how to stay within budget.
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Social confidence and relationships

  • Support gradual exposure to unfamiliar people and settings, building tolerance over time.
  • Talk explicitly about what consent means and how to give or ask for it in different situations.
  • Use social scripts or rehearsal for starting and maintaining friendships.
  • Support use of messaging apps or shared calendars to help the young person stay in touch and make plans with friends.
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Staying safe, including online

  • Talk through what to do if plans change unexpectedly while out.
  • Discuss online safety basics, e.g. passwords, privacy settings and recognising unsafe contacts.
  • Identify and rehearse where to go for help nearby, e.g. a shop, library or other known safe space.

Independent Living

This area explores the everyday skills needed to live more independently, including self-care routines, cooking, household management and money. It also touches on self-advocacy, sensory regulation and coping with change, which are just as important as practical tasks in helping a young person feel capable managing their own day to day life.

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Daily routines and self-care

  • Use visual checklists or alarms to support an independent morning routine.
  • Gradually reduce verbal prompting for hygiene tasks, replacing it with a visual or written reminder.
  • Build in an evening ‘get ready for tomorrow’ routine, e.g. laying out clothes, packing a bag.
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Home and practical skills

  • Practise cooking a simple, repeatable meal together before expecting independence.
  • Use a checklist or rota to support keeping a living space clean and tidy.
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Managing money and bills

  • Practise budgeting with a set amount of money over a week.
  • Use real or simulated bills to talk through what they are and how they get paid.
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Thinking about the future

  • Explore what kind of home the young person would like to live in when they are older, using pictures or visits where possible.
  • Support them to identify what support they might be entitled to as an adult, and where to find out more.
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Self-advocacy and regulation

  • Rehearse polite, assertive scripts for standing up for themselves calmly when something isn’t right.
  • Explore sensory needs together and build a personalised list of what helps.
  • Use visual timetables and ‘what if’ planning to help the young person cope with changes to routine.
  • Practise asking for help from the right person, rather than defaulting to one trusted adult.

Learning and Employment

This area focuses on preparing for the world of work, training or further study. It considers self-awareness of strengths and needs, career exploration, workplace behaviours such as teamwork and time management, and understanding of rights and entitlements such as reasonable adjustments and benefits.

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Self-awareness

  • Use strengths and needs mapping to help the young person articulate what they find easy and what they find difficult.
  • Link this directly to what reasonable adjustments might help, and rehearse asking for them.
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Exploring the future

  • Support exploration of work, training or further study options through taster days, work experience or conversations with people in relevant roles.
  • Encourage a hobby or interest to be explored purely for enjoyment, separate from any pressure to achieve.
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Workplace and study skills

  • Use real or simulated tasks to build experience of teamwork, time management and meeting deadlines.
  • Support CV writing or a simple ‘about me’ skills summary that can be shared with someone new.
  • Rehearse clear communication with unfamiliar adults, e.g. asking a question or explaining a problem.
  • When visiting different workplaces, such as supermarkets, opticians and dentists, talk about the different jobs they see and what they might like or dislike about them.
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Rights, entitlements and resilience

  • Talk through what benefits the young person might be entitled to, in simple, accessible language.
  • Support them to take on a small responsibility and see it through, building a track record of reliability.
  • Talk through what to do when things go wrong at school or college, e.g. who to speak to and how.
  • Support the young person to set one or two achievable goals, with clear steps towards them.

Health and Wellbeing

This area addresses emotional and physical wellbeing, including self-regulation, understanding and communicating feelings, looking after physical health, and recognising when extra support is needed, either for themselves or someone they care about.

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Emotional regulation

  • Build a personalised ‘calming toolkit’ of strategies that genuinely work for the young person.
  • Use an emotions diary or app to help them name feelings and notice triggers.
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Understanding mental health

  • Talk openly about what good mental health looks and feels like, normalising ups and downs.
  • Make sure the young person knows where to get help if they are struggling, e.g. GP, school counsellor, helplines.
  • Help them recognise the signs that they, or someone they care about, might be struggling.
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Physical health and self-care

  • Support the young person to book and attend their own health appointments, starting with rehearsal or role play.
  • Build in regular activities that support wellbeing, e.g. sleep, food, exercise and things they enjoy.
  • Help them find a physical activity they genuinely enjoy, rather than one imposed on them.
  • Where relevant, support a clear, simple system for managing medication safely.
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Talking and relationships

  • Identify a trusted adult or peer the young person can talk to about how they are feeling.
  • Talk explicitly about what consent means within a relationship.
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Self-esteem and self-talk

  • Use strategies such as thought challenging to help the young person notice and reframe negative self-talk.
  • Celebrate effort and progress, not just achievement, to build a stable sense of self-worth.

Next steps

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Co-create a one page 'Future Self' profile

Summarising where the young person feels confident and where they would like support.
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Agree one or two strategies to trial

from each priority area, rather than trying to address everything at once.
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Share a short summary

with key adults involved in the young person’s life, e.g. teachers, key workers, family.
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Revisit the cards after a few weeks

or months to reflect on progress and identify new priorities.
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Use the information to plan

a wider curriculum for the young person and / or their cohort.
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Share a short summary

with key adults involved in the young person’s life, e.g. teachers, key workers, family.

Dr Eleanor Tomlinson

Chartered Educational and Child Psychologist

The EP Space | www.theepspace.co.uk

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