7 evidence-based principles based on the law and what research tells us works best to support young people.
A continued focus on transitions across Scotland
The Principle
Why this Principle matters
Legislation and policy surrounding transitions offers a positive framework to improve the experience of young people. However, the Scottish Government recognises the policy and legislation relating to transitions for those with additional support needs is complicated. New initiatives sit on top of older legislation without clarity as to how these interlink. As a result, there has been widespread confusion among professionals, young people and their carers as to what young people are entitled to and who is responsible for providing it.
The National Transitions Strategy for Young Disabled People 2025-2030 seeks to solve this problem and has supported the development of this Knowledge Hub, Compass and the Introduction to Transitions e-learning course hosted on this platform.
What this Principle can look like
- Local transitions improvement plans are embedded in other relevant local policies and plans, including those related to:
- Education
- Health and Social Care
- Housing
- Learning Disability
- Autism
- Transport
- Employability and Career Management
- Youth Justice.
- Young people, parents and carers are involved in leading the continual improvement and evaluation of transitions planning and support.
- Local and national strategies to evaluate and continually improve transitions support are sustainable and resilient.
A continued focus on transitions in our area means:
Principles into Practice is a practical framework to improve the experiences of young people with additional needs aged 14-25, and their parents and carers, as they make the transition to young adult life in Scotland. It aims to embed the seven Principles of Good Transitions into planning and practice in local authority areas across Scotland. It is intended to be used by strategic leads, policy makers and practitioners who are responsible for transitions in their local authority area.
ARC Scotland provides support to local partners to use Principles into Practice to develop and implement plans that support continual improvement. You will find more information about this on this Knowledge Hub and we welcome your enquiries.
All readers are invited to join the Scottish Transitions Forum, a national network run by ARC Scotland working to improve transitions for young people with additional support needs in Scotland. This includes people who work in education, social care and health services as well as young people and the adults in their lives.
Professionals from different areas that have adopted Principles into Practice are invited to attend Learning Exchange events each month facilitated by ARC Scotland. These have begun to achieve joined-up working among local authority areas to support sharing learning, promote consistency of approach and encourage movement towards standardisation of improvements nationally.
Members of the Scottish Transitions Forum have opportunities to contribute to our work andreceive a regular e-bulletin, along with invitations to our training, workshops and conferences.
We are committed to sharing the learning that arises from our work with our partners on this platform through case study examples and hosting of resources that can be adopted by others.
Building this Principle into your strategies
Long term and sustainable improvements are most likely to be achieved with a joint commitment to improvement among agencies at local authority and national level. Learning from local transitions work should directly contribute to national policy and the continual improvement of transitions support for young people across Scotland. Robust, current data is essential. The findings from the Compass National Data Report help all partners – Scottish Government, local authorities, health boards and service providers – understand where best to focus efforts and resources to improve support for young disabled people and their families.
Principles into Practice is a programme to help those with strategic responsibility for transitions to design and oversee approaches to improve the experiences of transition for young people with additional support needs. It has been widely adopted by local authorities in Scotland and can help with the evaluation of current practice to make improvement. It can help through:
- Learning from local policies and processes to be shared nationally
- Supporting the workforce to improve service quality
- Promoting partnerships between services and third sector organisations
Contact us to discuss the support available to help you build this Principle into your strategies.
