Preparing for adulthood

Preparing for adulthood describes a series of stages that all young people go through when they move on from being a teenager to becoming an adult. It can be an exciting time of new opportunities, choices and increased independence. But it can also be an uncertain time for some young people especially if you have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and may need more help to plan through each stage.

We want all young people with SEND to reach their potential by achieving the best possible outcomes in life. This is why it is especially important that you and your families are fully involved when making plans and decisions for this next stage in life.

Whether you have an Education Health and Care plan (EHC plan, often referred to as EHCP) or you are receiving additional SEN support in school or college, all reviews and plans from Year 9 onwards should be centred around your needs, hopes and aspirations for the future. We call this ‘transition planning’.

If you have an EHC plan your Year 9 annual review will be the first of several transition/planning meetings that will focus on the four ‘pathways’ that will prepare you for your adult life.

Education, employment and training

This pathway looks at the different education and training options available that lead to employment. These include opportunities to continue through education, to gain work experience through volunteering, supported internships or an apprenticeship and gives good careers advice and guidance to help you to make the right decision about your future career.

Find out more by visiting our Young SEND Matters website - Studying, training and working pages.

You can also visit our post 16 education, training and employment pages.

Independent living

This pathway explores the options available to you when thinking about becoming more independent as an adult. We want you to have choice and control over your lives and the support you receive. This pathway will help you to think about your future living arrangements, where you live and the support that you might want or need.

Find out more by visiting our Young SEND Matters website – Living and feeling independent pages.

Friends, relationships and my community

Making and having friends, developing supportive relationships, taking part in your local community and having interesting things to do are all essential to having a well-balanced and good quality life. During transition planning, thought should be given to what needs to be done to support you to have opportunities to spend time with your friends outside of school and college, how to support you to develop and keep friendships and relationships, and how to ensure that you can access your local community feeling safe and confident.

Find out more about this pathway by visiting our Young SEND Matters website – Friends, relationships and community pages.

Staying healthy

This pathway looks at the things you might need to consider when you move from children’s to adult health services and the ways that you can take care of your own health and wellbeing, including your mental health, as you become an adult.

There might be lots of changes to think about including how your health and care is managed when you move from children's to adult services. This includes looking at services that might no longer be available once you reach 18, and identifying and putting different healthcare in place.

We have created some information pages about your move to adult health services and you can find out more by visiting the new Young SEND Matters website – Staying healthy, well and active pages.