The transition from children’s services to adult social care is one of the most significant and least well supported changes a young person and their family will face.
For years, the family has been working within a system built around the child. School, children’s social care, CAMHS, paediatric health services. Everyone involved has known the young person, sometimes for years. Then, around the age of eighteen, that entire network changes. New teams. New assessments. New thresholds. New language. Often less support, not more.
This article explains what the transition process involves, what families are entitled to expect, and how to prepare for it as well as possible.
Why transition is so difficult
The honest answer is that children’s services and adult services are two separate systems with different funding, different eligibility criteria, different professional cultures, and often poor communication between them.
Children’s services are needs led. If a child has a need, the system is generally obliged to meet it. Adult services are more tightly gatekept. Eligibility is assessed against the Care Act 2014 threshold of substantial needs. Some young people who received significant support in childhood find that support reduced or removed when they move into adult services because the eligibility criteria are different.
That gap between expectation and reality is where families most often feel let down.
When should transition planning start
Earlier than most families expect. The legal framework requires local authorities to begin transition planning well before a young person’s eighteenth birthday. In practice this means a transition assessment should begin at around age sixteen or seventeen for young people who are likely to have care and support needs as adults.
If your young person is approaching this age and no one has mentioned transition planning, raise it yourself. Do not wait to be contacted.
What a transition assessment involves
A transition assessment is carried out by the local authority and looks at the young person’s likely care and support needs as an adult. It should also consider the needs of any family members who are currently providing care.
The assessment should involve the young person themselves, as fully as their capacity and communication allows. It should consider not just their care needs but their aspirations. What do they want their adult life to look like? Where do they want to live? What do they want to do?
Families often need to advocate firmly to keep the young person’s own wishes at the centre of the process.
Education, Health and Care Plans
Many young people going through transition will have an Education, Health and Care Plan, usually called an EHCP. An EHCP can continue until the age of twenty five if the young person is in education or training.
The transition to adult social care does not automatically end an EHCP. But the two systems do not always coordinate well. Families sometimes find themselves managing two separate processes simultaneously with limited support in navigating either.
Mental health and transition
For young people with mental health needs, transition brings a specific challenge. CAMHS typically discharges young people at eighteen. Adult mental health services have different referral criteria and different thresholds. There is frequently a gap between CAMHS discharge and adult mental health service engagement during which the young person has no mental health support at all.
That gap is dangerous. It is one of the most consistently criticised aspects of the mental health system. Knowing it exists does not make it less harmful, but being prepared for it means families can try to bridge it rather than be blindsided by it.
If your young person is under CAMHS and approaching eighteen, ask their CAMHS team directly: what happens at transition, when will the referral to adult services be made, and what support will be in place during the handover period? Get the answers in writing.
Housing and transition
Where a young person will live as an adult is often the biggest practical question in transition planning. Options range from continuing to live at home with family to supported living arrangements or independent living with a care package.
If the young person wants to live independently or semi independently, that ambition should be taken seriously in the transition planning process. It is not unrealistic for many young people with care needs to live in their own home with the right support. But planning for it takes time and needs to start early.
What families can do to prepare
- Start the conversation early. Do not wait for the local authority to initiate transition planning.
- Keep records. Document every assessment, every meeting, every decision, and every promise made.
- Keep the young person at the centre. Push back if planning becomes a conversation about them rather than with them.
- Know your rights. The Care Act 2014 gives young people and families specific rights in the transition process.
- Get support. Local SEND support services, charities such as Contact and the Transition Information Network, and independent advocates can all help.
A note on what comes after transition
Transition is not a single event. It is a process that unfolds over several years. The adult social care system is not always good at keeping pace with those changes proactively. Families often need to request reviews rather than wait for them. If something is not working, say so.
If you are in North Yorkshire
If your young person is approaching transition age and you are trying to work out what support might look like for them as an adult, we are happy to talk. We do not currently provide transition specific services but we work with adults from the age of eighteen and we understand the transition process well. If we cannot help directly, we will point you toward someone who can.