You can't always be at school, you need to move on: A multi-perspective study exploring the experiences of young people with learning difficulties and their parents during post-school transition

The experience of post-school transition for young people with learning difficulties can be a challenging time as it marks a significant change in their lives. Although government policy has recommended that schools involve both young people and their parents in all aspects of post-school transition processes, research has frequently found low levels of involvement by parties during post-school transition planning (e.g. collaboration and decision-making). The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of young people with moderate learning difficulties and their parents as they transition from a special school sixth-form unit to a post-school provision (mainstream Further Education college). An idiographical investigation of the experiences of young people and their parents of post-school transition was conducted. Through applying a multi-perspective approach and an exploratory qualitative research design, data in the form of twelve transcripts, derived from sound recording was obtained using semi structured interviews with six participants (three young people with moderate learning difficulties and one of each of their parents) before the young people moved to college and after their move. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed to analyse the young people’s and parents’ accounts of their transition and the following three key themes were found to be applicable across all cases: (i) Adjusting to Change; (ii) Involvement and Support; and (iii) Moving Towards Adulthood. These themes are similar to previous research, which has explored experiences of post-school transition for youngsters and parents. These research findings raised some important implications for Educational Psychologists with regards to support for both young people with learning difficulties and their parents and carers during transition, including support and training for key adults in order to enable them to think about the emotional impact of transition and individual therapeutic support for young people during this significant period in their lives.