The Road Ahead – Main report
1. Introduction
This report for the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) brings together the findings from three inter-linked investigations relating to the information needs of young people (1), their parents and supporters at transition. It was undertaken over a six month period between October 2003 and March 2004 and included:
- Focus group interviews with young people, their parents and supporters
- A systematic review of the literature on transition
- A review of the information already available for young people, parents and professionals, including an evaluation of materials by young people and parents.
The project was carried out by the Norah Fry Research Centre (NFRC) in partnership with North Somerset People First (NSPF) and the Home Farm Trust (HFT). Appendix B gives details of the methods used in the project and the tasks undertaken by the different members of the project team.
The report describes what information is needed by young people, parents and supporters and reviews how far these needs are reflected in the literature and in the information packs and materials available to support transition. It also highlights issues which would need to be addressed in the development of a potential website on transition.
The report is one of six publications relating to the information needs of young people with learning difficulties, their parents and supporters at transition, produced as part of the SCIE project.
The other five products are as follows:
- an easy to understand, illustrated summary of key themes and findings from the project (Tarleton, 2004a)
- a systematic review of the literature on transition for young people with learning difficulties (Townsley, 2004)
- a review of the resources available to support transition (Watson, 2004, reproduced as Appendix C)
- a report by the team of young people with learning difficulties who worked on the project arising from their involvement (North Somerset People First Transition Team, 2004). This document is not yet available on this website.
- an executive summary of the key overall project findings.
This report continues with the following sections:
- What is transition?
- What information do young people want at transition?
- What information do parents and supporters think young people need at transition?
- What information do parents want?
- What information do supporters want?
- What do the literature and available resources available reflect the information needs identified?
- How appropriate is the avaialbe information on transition for young people with learning difficulties and their families
- Summary and recommendations
The original material presented in these sections is drawn from our interactive discussions with young people with learning difficulties, their parents and supporters (2). A full write up of the methods used to facilitate these discussions can be found in Appendix B. In addition to their own views on the information they needed during transition, the discussions and activities with parents and supporters allowed parents to comment on the potential information needs of supporters and supporters to comment on parents'potential information needs. Both groups also commented on the information they believed that young people would need during transition.
Separate discussions were held with the project team of young people with learning difficulties and parents from North Somerset to discuss the appropriateness of the materials and resources available to support transition.
NOTE: Where resources are referred to in the text, followed by a letter and number in brackets (eg N11) this refers to the location of that resource in the review of resources set out in table form in Appendix C.
(1) Throughout this report 'young people'means 'young people with learning difficulties'.
(2) The quotes presented are taken verbatim from post-it notes used by participants during the discussions.