In a large indoor gym, students are playing games with bats and balls – not the usual basketball and table tennis, but a sport called boccia (pronounced "botcha") which is similar to bowls and another called polybat which is a version of table tennis.

Several of the students are in wheelchairs – one uses her electric controls to dribble a large ball around the floor – and the low background hum of chat and the smiles on people's faces provide an atmosphere of relaxed fun.

Welcome to National Star College, Cheltenham, one of the UK's few specialist further education establish- ments for students with severe disabilities. This remarkable place, which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, is three-quarters of the way through a massive fundraising appeal to find £15.4million for an extensive development programme.

The work is badly needed, says principal Helen Sexton. "We want a campus that matches up to the work that's done here.

!The work is brilliant but the facilities haven't always matched up." The plans include providing better accommodation with wider doorways to accommodate wheelchairs and en suite bathrooms so that students can develop a sense of independence with dignity.

There will also be a multi-sensory hydrotherapy and physiotherapy centre, improved arts, sport and recreation facilities and a community cafe where students can gain valuable work experience.

So far, the college has raised £12.4 million, which includes a pledge by the Learning And Skills Council to grant half of the funds needed, not least because of the massive fundraising efforts of staff and families who've held balls, cycled, swum, raced, teed off and run marathons with gusto.

Some of the building work has already begun alongside the college's venerable manor house at Ullenwood, near Cheltenham, and it's impossible not to be impressed by the new facilities.

The new rooms have taps which turn on at a touch, hoists which swing from the bed to the bathroom so that students can take themselves to the toilet and switches enabling them to open the curtains or turn on the TV themselves. It's all about helping these severely disabled young people – many of whom will have spent their entire lives needing care or support from adults – to develop a sense of independence and control, says Helen. She was recently awarded a prestigious Learning And Skills Improvement Service national Star Award for Lifetime Achievement (beating 2,500 nominations across the UK).

"At the end of the day, it's about young people getting the chance to become an adult," she says.

"That's so powerful. No matter what your disability, you should have the chance to direct your own life, to see yourself as a person with rights, freedoms, responsibilities, to get things right – and to get things wrong.

"That's why we have a very strong student-focussed college life. We want our students to take charge as much as they can of everything, rather than have it done for them.

"Some of our students create lifelong friendships with their peers for the first time in their lives because they may have been supported in mainstream school by an adult, and that can create barriers."

College life includes a bar where adult students make their own decisions about how much to drink (and deal with any hangovers ). "We have to take calculated risks," says Helen. It's no surprise to hear there's a long waiting list for Star College, which has 145 residential and 22 day places per year for young people aged 16 to 25. Students tend to stay for two or three years and some go on to university.

There is a major shortage of places for people with complex disabilities, says Helen. "The national Learning And Skills Council has 3,000 places for learners with complex disabilities and 60 specialist colleges, and we're one of the largest and also one of the most diverse in terms of our students.

"It's the complexity that's the point. Young people come to us from all over the UK with many different conditions, including cerebral palsy, spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, brain injuries and learning and communi- cation difficulties. Seventy-five per cent of our students use wheelchairs and most require high levels of personal support. Nearly half need language and speech therapy, one in five use a communication aid and one in eight have a life-threatening condition."

It's an indication of how challenging some of the students' needs are that Star College has 600 staff – a ratio of around three-and-a-half staff members for each young person.

There's a very positive reason why there are so many students with such severe disabilities – medical advances mean many more people are saved now, such as very premature babies and those who have survived brain injuries sustained during an accident. But, as the 2006 parliamentary hearings on services for disabled children found, 89 per cent of parents feel that funding is grossly inadequate and there are major gaps in services.

That's particularly the case as disabled young people make the transition from childhood to adulthood, when there are even fewer options open to them and they are more likely to become isolated.Disabled young people are twice as likely to be NEET ("not in employment, education or training") as other youngsters, for example.

These criticisms were echoed in the January 2007 report by the Commission For Social Care Inspection, which said young people with complex disabilities and their families experienced considerable difficulties when the young person reaches adulthood and moves from children's services to adult's services. It said: "Urgent action is needed to ensure young people with complex needs have every opportunity to lead as independent a life as possible." One of the problems is there's no consensus over what constitutes "multiple and complex" needs. Each person's needs and levels of disability are different, particularly when they involve multiple impairments.

Some idea of the scale of the issue was given in The State Of Social Care In England 2007-08, a report published by the Commission For Social Care Inspection in January.

It estimates there are more than 12,000 people with learning disabilities in England with challenging behaviour; 12,600 children (under 18) in England with profound multiple learning disabilities and 51,000 with severe learning disabilities.

Children with severe disabilities grow into adults with severe disabilities. Star College is one of the few specialist establishments which not only provides further education but helps them prepare for as independent a life as possible.

That's vital because the ambitions of both families and disabled young people themselves has changed, says Helen.

"Ten to 15 years ago," she says, "most families probably wanted the college to provide a safe place and a good time for a couple of years. Now, most families want to see a better life at the end of it.

"That's our aim – for our students to have a better life as a result of having been here, one with more choice, more control and better experiences.

"It's definitely about the future."

To help National Star College raise the £3 million it still needs, visit www.starappeal.org or call 01242 524478. The college website is at www.natstar.ac.uk