Lost in transition?: how to find your way through: an overview of recent transitions research for parents and practitioners

Author:
EVERITT Gabriella
Publisher:
Dimensions
Publication year:
2007
Pagination:
100p.
Place of publication:
Theale

The lack of effective support for young adults with a learning difficulty at transition has been highlighted as a key issue in the learning difficulty sector. Yet, although everybody seems to be talking about it, nothing seems to be changing. It seems we’re still wary of taking the plunge and developing the right kind of services to meet the needs of young people with a learning difficulty today.

Extended abstract:
Author

EVERITT Gabriella

Title

Lost in transition?: how to find your way through: an overview of recent transitions research for parents and practitioners.

Publisher

Dimensions ( UK ), 2007

Summary

This research project describes recent research on transition for young adults with a learning difficulty.

Context

The lack of effective support for young adults with a learning difficulty at transition has been highlighted as a key issue in the learning difficulty sector. Yet, although everybody seems to be talking about it, nothing seems to be changing. It seems we're still wary of taking the plunge and developing the right kind of services to meet the needs of young people with a learning difficulty today.

Contents

The author begins with an executive summary in which she says she started this research project with limited knowledge about transition, largely unaware of the complexities involved in transferring young people with a disability from paediatric to adult service provision. Navigating through such an extremely complicated system is, she says, a mammoth task, but it need not be such a bewildering experience.

Transition can be very simply defined as a process which brings together the people who will ensure that families and young people with a disability can plan ahead for the future as they enter adulthood. These people include representatives from the LEA, Schools, Children and Adult Health and Social Services, Careers Services, Connexions Services, Housing, Leisure, Learning and Skills Council, and Youth Services.

Unfortunately, it is at this point where the system breaks down, for the key to seamless transition is active management, co-ordination, support, monitoring and education, things that by and large have not been jointly achieved by these agencies. Consequently, this results in segregated service provision for young people, and a great deal of frustration and heartache for families as they struggle to determine the direction for the future within an unyielding system.

Therefore, it is of paramount importance that councils set up a range of multi-agency and cross-council structures to improve transition planning for young people with a disability and their families. Protocols and agreements are extremely important documents in this process, for they outline the roles and responsibilities of each agency representative within the transition process, and they are produced in co-operation with each other.

There is a lot of lip service paid to the importance of consulting young people to find out about their needs in order to develop individually tailored, person centred transition plans. Firstly, Person-Centred Planning (PCP) is still not widespread practice across the country, and secondly, it is clear what disabled young people want: the same things as any other young person growing into adulthood: money, friends, sex, a place to call their own, and the freedom to do the things they enjoy doing. The only difference is that sometimes their state of health or an impairment requires additional services and support in order to achieve these things. Friendship and leisure are two of the most desired elements in disabled young people's lives, however, these are very rarely addressed in their transition plans.

This report aims to highlight the associated changes within the transition process by examining recent research and information available about transition, laying out the problems identified by parents and young people with a disability, pointing to useful resources, and offering recommendations for the improvement of young people's transition experiences. It is hoped that this report can also serve as a helpful guidance for parents and young people who are not yet familiar with the transition process, and some of the terminologies and practices surrounding transition.

A closer look at evidence reveals stark differences between policy and practice today. Chapter 1 is an i ntroduction, Chapter 2 gives the background, Chapter 3 a definition of disability and a social model of disability, and Chapter 4 facts and figures. Chapter 5 comes to transition itself, describing the transition plan, subdivided into sections on young people's priorities, parents' priorities, important questions to ask, and components of successful transition planning. Chapter 6 covers the transition process, with sub-sections on guides for young people and parents, protocols and agreements, and pathways (age 13 (year 8), age 14 (year 9), age 16 (year 11), changes at 17 and 18 (Year 13), and changes at 18 or 19), and giving a transition planning pathway example. Chapter 7 gives findings on health and social services, direct payments, person-centred planning, short breaks, education, training and employment (barriers within education, barriers within employment, and young people's suggestions), multi-agency partnership working, housing, advocacy, mobility and transport. transition setbacks, and transition priorities, ending with six prerequisites for successful transition and the five Cs of good transition. Chapter 8 describes Dimensions, with a brief introduction followed by a description of their humble beginnings, their transition experience (with sub-sections on early participation and relationship building, developing presence, and training and management), and organisational outcomes. In Chapter 9 detailed recommendations are made under the headings improving the life chances of disabled people, getting it right for young people, young people's suggestions, parents' suggestions, service providers' suggestions, suggestions for government action, and further observations. Chapter 10 gives conclusions stemming from the findings detailed in the preceding chapters.

84 references

Subject terms:
learning disabilities, needs, service transitions, young people;
Content type:
research review
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