The difficulties of transition from childhood to adulthood for disabled young people have been well documented and the Government has responded to this by launching the Transition Support Programme. Adequate planning is essential for good transition.
However, only 53% of young people with autism who have statements of special educational needs (SEN) were issued with transition plans during the course of their education, falling to just 34% of students in mainstream schools. The input of adult social services is crucial to the viability of the transition plan and yet adult social services were only involved in planning in 17% of cases.
What we’re doing
The private member’s bill that we took forward with Cheryl Gillan MP became the Autism Act 2009. It requires statutory guidance on transition to adulthood to be published by December 2010. We will be working with the Department of Health on the development of the guidance.
We are part of the reference group for the Government-funded Transition Support Programme, which seeks to help local authorities improve their transition arrangements.
Lobbying on transition has resulted in Government funding (£200k) for research into experiences of young people with autism at transition.
We continue to work with the Department of Children, Schools and Families on these issues too and will be monitoring the progress of the research.