National Initiatives

How do national initiatives aim to improve transition planning?

The National Service Framework (NSF) 2004 expects that Transition Plans should be written in a person centred way, focusing on the needs and views of the young person:

“Transition to adult services for young people is planned and co-ordinated around the needs of each young person to maximise health outcomes, their life chance opportunities and their ability to live independently – this is particularly important for disabled young people or those with long-term or complex conditions.”

The Transition Support Programme, launched by the government following the recommendations of the Aiming High for Disabled Children (ADHC 2007) aims to raise the standards of transition in all local areas. The Transition Support Programme provides funding and local adviser support to every local authority area to improve the transition experience for young people from age 14 as they plan for life after school. Every local area should be meeting minimum standards in transition or better by 2011.

The Adult Autism Strategy, published by the Department of Health in 2010 includes several references to transition. It introduces as study, funded by the DH and the DCSF, to explore through research the specific experiences of young people with autism and their families of multi-agency transition services, which will report in January 2012.

The Autism Act 2009 mandates the development of statutory guidance for health and social care to support the implementation of the strategy. This will be published no later than 31 December 2010 and will include guidance about planning in relation to the provision of relevant services to persons with autistic spectrum conditions as they move from being children to adults.