Post-16 Transitions: a Longitudinal Study of Young People with ...

introduction of a Children’s Bill. The Every Child Matters
agenda proposes a series of measures designed to bring
services together: the designation of Directors of Children’s
Services offering leadership across the Education-Social
Services divide in local authorities, the establishment of more
Children’s Trusts bringing a range of agencies together with
pooled budgets, the formulation of common targets for
children’s services, the development of better informationsharing
systems and so on. These developments are being
taken forward further in respect of children with SEN through
the government’s new strategy, Removing Barriers to
Achievement (DfES, 2004b). In addition to proposals for
promoting the integration of service delivery in line with Every
Child Matters, the strategy makes specific commitments to
improve the quality of transition planning, set national
standards for the transition from children’s to adult services,
expand educational and training opportunities and develop
new opportunities for transition to work.
The implications for transition are clear. Children and young
people who are identified as having special educational needs
have increasingly in recent years, been able to expect support
to access mainstream pathways and activities rather than
segregation in ‘special’ provision. Beginning at school, they
are more likely to remain in mainstream settings and to have
better-integrated children’s services built around their needs
and wishes. As they approach transition, they have begun to
be supported through a planned transition process, leading to
‘progressive’ education and training and eventually into the
labour market. There, a range of programmes and structures
has begun to emerge aimed at enabling them to access
employment opportunities. Two of the developments
discussed above should have particular benefits for these
young people ie the creation of a more coherent and flexible
further education and training sector; and the establishment of
a supportive Connexions Service more focused on those at risk
of ‘fractured’ transitions. In principle, at least, they should be
less likely to find themselves channelled into ‘dead-end’
segregated provision and supported much more effectively in
making a transition that is recognisably like that of their
‘mainstream’ peers.
There are, however, two caveats to note in terms of the cohort
who form the subject of this study. First, their final years of
schooling and first years in the post-school world coincide
with a period of transition in government policy itself. The
government’s inclusion policy, for instance, announced in
1997 (DfEE, 1997b) scarcely had time to take effect before these
young people’s secondary school placements were decided.
Likewise, the Connexions Service, with its staggered start, had
no opportunity to make an impact on school-based transition
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