Post-16 Transitions: a Longitudinal Study of Young People with Special Educational Needs (Wave Two)

This second wave of longitudinal research with young people with special educational needs (SEN) records and tracks their progress as they moved from compulsory schooling to early adulthood. This study reports the experiences of young people two years after they completed statutory schooling.

Given that these young people were likely to take time to work their way through the transition process and that many of them were experiencing what might be called a 'deferred transition', it was too early to reach conclusive judgements about the quality and effectiveness of the processes they were experiencing, or the outcomes they achieved.

It was hoped it would become more clear in successive waves of research whether what was happening was a slow and steady progression towards a meaningful and productive adulthood, a largely non-productive process of 'churning' and stagnation, or a complex mixture of the two.

However, the research paints a valuable picture of the experiences of young people with SEN of the transition from year 11 and the support that was received during the transition.