Preparing for Adulthood - improving our online content

Preparing for the future and transitioning into adulthood is a scary thought for many. There is a HUGE amount of information to wrap your head around at this time and even though this can feel overwhelming, remember there is also a HUGE amount of new and exciting opportunities and experiences opening up to you too.

With this in mind, we (the Local Offer web team) have recently made it our mission to review and refresh our Preparing for Adulthood webpages in the hopes of providing clearer more honest and helpful support to families and young people during this tricky transition.

The only true way of successfully improving this area of the website was to work alongside young people and families who are themselves preparing for adulthood, or have been through this transition. So, this is exactly what we did. We enlisted the help of Chloe and Georgia (our wonderful Experts by Experience), parent representatives from HPCI and service leads from Services for Young People.

You asked for our webpages to be visual, so together we created elements like graphic buttons and illustrations.

Content Changes

we created 3 new self-help and service pages for young people's mental health, physical health and sexual health.

we produced new content around legal decisions and legal processes that might take place around this time.

we divided our money content on our Independent Living page into two categories: money that is available to you, and money resources.

we incorporated helpful descriptions about service accessibility and cost onto our Friends and Community page.

Design and Navigation Changes

we created graphic, eye-catching buttons to help others navigate around busy areas such as our Independent Living pages.

we decided that topics such as Travel and Transport should not only be expanded but given their own space on a new webpage.

If you haven't already visited or revisited our Preparing for Adulthood area of the website, we would love for you to have a browse and let us know what you think.

Preparing for Adulthood

Cookies

Like many other websites, we place small information files called 'cookies' on your computer.

Why do we use cookies?

To remember your settings, for example your language and location. This means you don’t have to keep entering these details when you visit a new page.

To find out how you use the site to help us update and improve it.

How do I change my cookie settings?

You can change the settings of your web browser so that it won’t accept cookies. For more information visit AboutCookies.org.

But, doing this may stop you from using some of the online features and services on this website.

Cookies we use

Cookies do a lot of different jobs, and we use 2 types of cookies:

Required functionality cookies – these cookies are essential for the website to work.

Performance and feature cookies – these cookies help to improve the performance and feel of this website, for example providing you with personalised services.

Take a look at a list of cookies we use on our website:

Name	Type	How we use it	How long we use the information for
ASP.Net_Sessions	Required functionality	An automatic cookie set by our software.	Just for the time you are on our website.
ServerID	Required functionality	An automatic cookie set by our software.	Just for the time you are on our website.
_ga	Required functionality	To track the effectiveness of our website using Google Analytics.	2 years
saved-pages	Performance and feature	To save the pages that you visit by clicking the heart at the top of the page.	1 month
geoPostcode	Performance and feature	This stores your postcode (or partial postcode) when we ask you for your location.	Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).
geoCoordinates	Performance and feature	This stores your location as a pair of latitude / longitude coordinates.	Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).
reckonerName-history	Performance and feature	This keeps a history of all answers submitted to the ready reckoner.	This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.
reckonerName-content	Performance and feature	This keeps a history of what content cards are clicked on when using the ready reckoner.	This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.
SQ_SYSTEM_SESSION	Required functionality	This used to track user sessions on forms hosted on eservices.hertfordshire.gov.uk	Just for the time you are on our website.

Third party cookies

There are links and content from other sites and services on our website. These sites and services set their own cookies.

Below are a list of cookies that the other sites and services use:

Service name	Purpose	More information
Google analytics (_utma/b/c/z)	These are used to compile reports for us on how people use this site. Cookies of the same names are also used for the same purpose by other websites such as Building Futures, Countryside Management Service and Hertfordshire LIS.	Visit the Google Analytics website for more information about the cookies they use. You can prevent data from being collected and used by Google Analytics by installing Google's Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Google Translation - googtrans	This cookie is used to remember which language to translate each page into if you have chosen to do so.	It expires at the end of your browser session.
Bing	We use a Bing cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.	Visit Bing to find out more about their cookies.
Google	We use a Google cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.	Visit Google to find out more about their cookies.
Facebook	We have a number of presences on Facebook, which we may link to. Facebook may set some of its own cookies if you follow these links.	Visit Facebook to find out more about their cookies.
Twitter	We have a number of presences and feeds on Twitter, which you may wish to follow or read from this website. Twitter may set some of its own cookies.	Visit Twitter to find out more about their cookies.
YouTube	We have a YouTube channel, which we may link to. YouTube may set some of its own cookies if you follow those links.	Visit YouTube to find out more about their cookies.
Netloan	This ASP.NET_Sessionid cookie is essential for the Netloan secure online payments website to work, and is set when you arrive to the site. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser.
HotJar	This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels.	Visit HotJar to find out more about their cookies.
Siteimprove	These cookies are set to help us report on how people are using the site so we can improve it.	Visit Siteimprove to learn more about their cookies.

Early years (ages 0 - 5 years)

Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP)

Courses and activities in Hertfordshire

Get support with education

Money

Preparing for adulthood

Services for children and young people (ages 0 - 25)

Services for parents, carers and families

Feedback and what to do if you're not happy