The Aiming High for Disabled Children (AHDC): Better support for families review found that more needed to be done to coordinate services for disabled young people in transition to adult life, and to ensure young people and families can access high-quality information at key points. To address this, the AHDC programme announced £19 million over the CSR period (2008-11) to develop a transition support programme (TSP).

The core purpose of the TSP is to

  • support disabled young people to live the lives they want
  • provide better support for disabled young people and their families
  • change culture to improve local service delivery
  • support every local area to share learning and improve.

The national transition support team (NTST) coordinates the work with local authorities (LAs), primary care trusts (PCTs), regional advisers and existing experts.

TSP successes

The Department set a target that by 2011 all areas will have a transition process in place that meets minimum standards or beyond. In 2009, 143 LAs, up from 108 in 2008, were meeting minimum standards and some were going beyond the standards to produce innovative work that improves the lives of young people. This is a significant improvement from the previous year.

  • Over 90 per cent of areas have joint processes in place across agencies to support disabled young people in transition, compared with 74 per cent last year.
  • Just under 90 per cent of areas are using person-centred planning in the development of the transition plan.
  • Seventy-four per cent of local school and FE providers are working together to include clear progression routes into college in transition planning.
  • A multi-agency transition protocol is in place in more than 70 per cent of areas, up from under 50 per cent last year.
  • 90 per cent has a strategic transition planning group linked to the Children and Young People’s strategic planning board and the Children’s Trust.
  • 99 per cent of information, advice and guidance (IAG) advisers contribute to the transition review.
  • Over 80 per cent of IAG advisors take forward the transition plan
  • 99 per cent of local areas have demonstrated improved family and young people engagement in the transition process.

This information has been collated by NTST and based on the completion of successive self-assessment questionnaires. For more information visit the Transition Support Programme website.

Information, advice and guidance

The transition support set of documents includes: