Help to move on - but to what? Young people with learning difficulties moving on from out-of-area residential schools or colleges

This article describes research undertaken between 2004 and 2006 about the issues faced by 15 young people with a wide range of learning difficulties in out-of-area residential schools and colleges at transition. The process of transition planning was hampered by the distance between the school/college and the 'home authority' of the young person; there was a wide variation in who took the lead on co-ordinating planning for transition; and involvement in decision-making by the young people was often a passive, rather than active process. Four of the fifteen young people left their school/college without knowing where they were going to move on to. None moved into any accommodation other than the family home or residential accommodation. Half moved on to attend a mainstream FE college, with little or no sense of future progression into work for most. The key messages of the article relate to the importance of continuity to young people, the need for more creativity in minimising the effects of distance, and how vital good forward planning is to help young people 'move on'.