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There is now a vast amount of available information, research and policy on the transition of young people with learning disabilities to adulthood. These sources are informed by different professional philosophies and practices, resulting in a heterogeneous mass of data that can be confusing, contradictory and repetitive. In this review we provide an overview of recent publications about services for young people with learning disabilities at the time of transition, with particular focus on those with mental disorders including neurodevelopment disorders and/or challenging behaviour. We discuss their relevance to good practice and the implications for the future development of services for people with learning disabilities in the UK. We argue that, despite the qualitative differences between the experience of transition to adulthood for young people with learning disabilities and that of other young people, the principles of service provision remain the same. Developments in research and clinical practice in this field ought to reflect good practice, as well as embracing new methodologies, and benefit from advances in adolescents without learning disabilities.

Drawing on a wider study about the effectiveness and costs of different models of multi‐agency transition services, this paper aims to present new evidence on the ways in which such services meet the priorities and concerns of young people identified in previous research.

The evidence is based on qualitative interviews with 130 managers and staff in five transition services across England, and a quantitative survey of parents and young people receiving these services (pre‐transition), or having received the services in the last‐two years (post‐transition). In total, 110 pre‐transition and 33 post‐transition parents, and 73 pre‐transition and 24 post‐transition young people, completed questionnaires. Statistical analysis included calculating frequencies and mean values for the responses that measured met and unmet need, and qualitative results were analysed thematically. The consequence of, and reasons for, the low response rate to the family survey are also discussed.

The research found examples of good practice and innovative services to meet young people's needs. However, provision of such services was patchy, and unmet need for transition support remained high in all the priority areas studied both during and after transition: ranging from 52 to 84 per cent in parent reports and 59 to 82 per cent in young people's reports.

With the onset of public service cutbacks, the paper concludes that improved multi‐agency commissioning of services, based on the priorities and concerns of disabled young people, and greater engagement of transition services with a broader range of agencies, will help to address these deficiencies.

Transitions for young people with intellectual disabilities have received much attention from researchers. Little is known, however, about how mental health services link with existing transition partnerships and what the potential service gaps are for young people with intellectual disabilities. Eight mental health professionals in three local authorities in Wales were interviewed to sketch potential research themes in this area. Our findings revealed a remarkable lack of engagement of mental health professionals with transition partnerships for young people with intellectual disabilities, and significant service gaps. The insufficient integration of mental health services in transition planning may contribute to disruptive transitions for young people with intellectual disabilities and their carers. Further research should examine how best to involve mental health services in transition partnerships for young people.

There is a dearth of research on what constitutes effective transfer of care from children’s and young people services to adult services for patients with eating disorders (EDs) in the UK. Transition has implications for continuity of care and particularly for early intervention which has the best prognosis. The purpose of this paper is to understand the experience of transition and identify facilitators and barriers to this.

Qualitative methodology was used. Focus groups (n = 4) were held with clinicians (n = 22) working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services or adult ED services. Individual interviews were conducted with patients (n = 5) who had commenced/completed transition to adult services and with parents/carers (n = 6) of patients invited for interview.

A number of factors may facilitate or impede transition and can be grouped into the broad themes of communication, managing the differences between services and timing of transition. Improvements in communication, clear explanation of service differences and flexibility around the timing of transitions may enhance the experience for patients and parents/carers.

The service evaluation was limited to transition between two specialist ED services in one geographical location. The findings provide the basis for a wider research study to examine which factors are most important when planning transition from the perspectives of patients, parents/carers and clinicians.

This is the first study examining ED transitions in the UK. It provides valuable insight of the experience of service users and carers and highlights potential improvements when planning transitions for this patient group.

Transition is an important and ongoing aspect of life that everyone experiences. For students who are deaf/hard of hearing (d/DHH) and their families, transitions related to education can be daunting and, at times, confusing. This chapter will focus on three important educational transitions: early intervention, school age, and adulthood. For each transitional period, recommendations for best practices are made. Additionally, this chapter will discuss the importance of transition planning and supports over time. Overall, communication between service providers, families, and the student is a key element to making these transitions smooth and successful.

This study arises from the need to understand the servitization or service transition process in non-manufacturing firms and sets out from a taxonomy proposed in the literature (Lütjen et al., 2017). This study aims to identify the barriers to service transition in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) participating in an innovation ecosystem and how these small firms can benefit from this strategy to develop in this scale.

A qualitative study was carried out based on multiple case studies, data being collected through semi-structured interviews with service business-people belonging to a science and technology park situated in an inland region of Portugal.

From content analysis, the results obtained indicated a lack of specialized personnel as the main barrier and as a strategy to overcome this situation these companies turned to business cooperation. This means that good management of this cooperation increases the quality of the services provided, as inter-organizational networks, through participation in ecosystems, can secure a wider set of resources and capacities.

This study shows that firms try out different service offers simultaneously and that innovation capacity increases constantly during service transition. Secondly, the study emphasizes the importance of innovation ecosystems, entrepreneurship, servitization and cooperation networks in promoting resilient and small ventures. Thus, this study can help owner-managers, SMEs and political decision-makers to make better informed decisions, which can be particularly relevant in scenarios of uncertainty and crisis.

This study draws conclusions in a little explored empirical area in the literature, challenging the widespread understanding that service transition is used only in manufacturing firms. This study provides clearer conceptual understanding of service transition from a network and relational perspective which, despite the perspective's relevance, still lacks research in the context of servitization.

The percentage of North Americans who have one or more physical disabilities continues to rise. Specifically, the percentage of people with ambulatory disabilities, cognitive disabilities, and other health impairments is increasing every year. This phenomenon calls for pragmatic measures to help provide better transition and related services to students with physical disabilities and other health impairments. It is anticipated that well-planned collaborative transition services provided to students with physical disabilities and other health impairments will result in improved quality of life and independent living in the community. In this chapter, we discuss transition and transition-related services, supporting legislation for persons with disabilities, transition from rehabilitation centers and hospitals to job settings and community-based programs.

Effective transitions from child and adolescent to adult services are important for continuity of care for patients with eating disorders. This study aims to examine the relative importance of a series of statements about the transition process, elicited from an earlier service evaluation, from the perspectives of patients, parents/carers and clinicians.

Twenty-eight participants completed a Q-sort task ranking 40 statements, developed from an earlier study, using a normal distribution pattern on a scale, which ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree, to identify their priorities for transition. Analysis resulted in the extraction of four factors explaining 52% of the variance.

Four distinct factors were elicited: “parents and carers need including too”, “facilitating effective transfer between services”, “supporting the patient through transition” and providing “timely, patient-centred care”. The study enabled similarities and differences in priorities to be observed for the three respondent groups.

These rankings, noting the differences between the respondent groups, can be used to inform the development of effective transition protocols. This study suggests these protocols should ensure a person-centred approach; timely planning; include parents/carers; provide continuous care and have good transfer of information and sensible timing of transitions. Differences in priorities/opinions can be addressed through open communication channels.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first UK-wide study examining priorities for transition from the perspectives of patients, parents/carers and clinicians.

There is substantial evidence that young people moving from child and adolescent mental health services to adult services are more likely to experience poor transitions. However, little is known about the care pathways of young people transitioning from forensic services. This retrospective case note review sought to examine the clinical characteristics, transition pathways and psychosocial indicators of transition outcomes amongst young people in forensic medium secure services discharged to adult services.

The electronic records of 32 young people, who transitioned from six adolescent medium secure units in England to adult services between May 2015 and June 2016, were examined.

Approximately 65% of young people were between 18 and 19 years at the time of transition and the average waiting time from referral to discharge was six months. A total of 63% young people transitioned to community placements and adult medium secure services. Four pathways describing the journey into and out of adolescent medium secure services were identified in a subsample of 12 young people. A total of 25% young people with neurodevelopmental problems moved to specialist services.

The results suggest that diagnosis, severity of offence and clinical background are associated with transition pathway. Promoting a person-centred approach and gradual independence of the young person may improve current practice.

These results inform existing policy and clinical practice in an effort to reform transition guidelines around young people’s needs during transition times. Further studies in adolescent forensic services are needed to understand complex neurodevelopmental problems and comorbidities.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the barriers and facilitators to an effective transition from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) to Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS). It also presents a new entry into considering how the transition can be improved.

Insights into the transition from CAMHS to AMHS were gathered through eight semi-structured interviews with mental health professionals. Two methods of data analysis were employed to explore the emerging themes in the data and the observed deficit approach to organisational development.

The findings identified a vast volume of barriers in comparison to facilitators to the transition. Adolescents who transition from CAMHS to AMHS initially experience difficulty adapting to the differences in the services due to the short duration of the transition period. However, despite the established barriers to the transition, adolescents tend to adapt to the differences between the services. Findings also showed a negative framing towards the transition amongst the mental health professionals which resembles a deficit approach to organisational development.

This paper explores mental health professionals’ perspectives regarding the transition in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The transition is increasingly recognised as an area in health care that requires improvement. This research provides a new way to consider the transition by exploring the perceived deficit approach to organisational development in the services.