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As set out in the Foreword of the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy, the seven Principles of Good Transitions, developed by the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland, and endorsed by the Scottish Government, COSLA and many other partners, serve as a strong foundation for the strategy. These principles emphasise the importance of early, person-led planning and decision making, and access to information and co-ordinated support. They guide professionals across paediatric and adult health, children’s and adult social work, education, and other sectors to collaborate effectively to both plan and deliver support for young disabled people during this period of their lives.

The priorities within the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy build on the ARC Scotland’s Principles of Good Transitions. Stakeholders agreed with this approach during engagement on the Statement of Intent for the strategy. Whilst the strategy itself is non-statutory, it sets out the standards expected in delivery of transitions support for young disabled people across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has outlined a number of actions that will be undertaken to improve data collection – both qualitative and quantitative - in the recently published National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy. The intention is to utilise this data to:

• build a more accurate picture across Scotland of the number of young disabled people;
• have a better understanding of the experiences and outcomes of young disabled people who are making the transition to adulthood;
• focus on making the right improvements at a national and local level; and
• report and monitor progress.

The Scottish Government is already providing funding to Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland who have developed Compass in response to the identified need to improve how we collect and use information from people with lived experience to better inform decisions about practice, commissioning and policy.

The development of a Children’s Services Plan requires planning partnerships to use available data and intelligence to undertake a multi-agency joint strategic needs assessment to identify the needs of children, young people and families living in that area, and inform service planning. This joint strategic needs assessment should be used to inform service planning and local strategic commissioning processes for the Children’s Services Plan, with specific consideration of the needs of young people as they move between receipt of children’s and adult services.

As set out in the strategy, there is also an action to deliver an enhanced offer of practical support to Children’s Services Planning Partnership Strategic Leads as they begin to develop their 2026-2029 Strategic Plans. This will include a joint workshop with Children’s Service Planning Partnership Strategic Leads and the Integration Joint Board Strategic Planning and Performance Officers Group focused on best practice for transitions between children’s and adult services as well as the role of planning and commissioning in transitions.

The Scottish Government is also progressing work to improve the equality evidence base more broadly which will support these intentions. This includes:

• developing the Equality Evidence Finder data platform, which will present available intersectional data on young disabled people;
• continuing to improve the availability of disability data through specific actions outlined in the Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025; and
• undertaking a Disability Evidence Review to support the delivery of the Disability Equality Plan. This Evidence Review will be finalised in partnership with Disabled People’s Organisations and will include intersectional evidence on disabled young people where possible.

Scotland’s Census also enables intersectional analysis of data on disabled young people, supporting a deeper understanding of experiences and outcomes across a range of policy areas at national and local levels.

The Scottish Government plan to publish the first progress report on the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy by the end of 2026.

The Scottish Government and its partners already collect and publish evidence on the outcomes of disabled people. However, we recognise that there are some areas where additional data publication would be valuable. The Data Collection and Measurement section of the recently published National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy outlines the Scottish Government’s actions to address these gaps.

As part of this commitment, we will conduct an audit of existing data collected and published on disabled children and young people. This audit will identify gaps in the data currently published on disabled young people, including instances where data is collected but not published. The findings will inform discussions on priorities for future evidence gathering to support better planning for transitions.

Officials will also engage with UK-wide developments on guidance on disability data collection and harmonisation. This will include considering where and how Scottish Government may adopt revised approaches, where appropriate.

In addition, the Scottish Government is continuing to provide funding to Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland through financial year 2025-26. Part of this funding will support ARC Scotland to maintain and continually improve the Compass tools; to promote the wider implementation of Compass and to publish anonymised evaluation reports with the data generated.

Clear and accessible information is included as a key priority within the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy. One of the actions linked to this priority is a commitment to take forward a wider review of the information in Scottish Government’s Supporting disabled children, young people and their families: guidance resource, which was published in 2019. This review will explore in partnership with young disabled people, parents and carers and other relevant stakeholders what national information would be helpful in respect of transitions, and to explore how best any information should be made available to ensure that it is accessible to all.

The Scottish Government are also continuing to provide funding in 2025-26 to support the Health and Social Care Alliance (The Alliance) to maintain ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland) – a national digital programme enabling people and professionals to find and share information on health and wellbeing resources, services, groups, and support in their local communities and online. The Scottish Government are also providing funding in 2025-26 to the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland to design and develop and promote the Principles into Practice website as the national transitions Knowledge Hub; hosting e-learning resources, Principles into Practice, the Principles of Good Transitions, Compass data, research and innovative practice relating to transitions.

In addition to this, Scottish Government officials are working with organisations such as Education Scotland, Young Scot and Coalition of Carers in Scotland (COCiS) to ensure that information provided is consistent so that parents and carers have the right information when they need it.

The Scottish Government has outlined commitments to supporting local planning partners within the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy. This includes considering how to make the current children’s strategic planning environment as effective as it can be, including opportunities to strengthen the visibility and messaging around the importance of multi-agency partnership planning for transitions from children’s to adult services as part of this process.

As set out in the strategy, there is also an action to deliver an enhanced offer of practical support to Children’s Services Planning Partnership Strategic Leads as they begin to develop their 2026-2029 Strategic Plans. This will include a joint workshop with Children’s Service Planning Partnership Strategic Leads and the Integration Joint Board Strategic Planning and Performance Officers Group focused on best practice for transitions between children’s and adult services as well as the role of planning and commissioning in transitions.

A provision in The Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill further seeks to ensure that the statutory duties for Children’s Services Planning placed upon a local authority and the relevant health board, are also placed upon integration authorities. The policy intention for this is to improve transitions for children and their families by enhancing collaborative working and joining up of strategic planning activities across adult and children’s services.

Actions outlined in the recently published The National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy that the Scottish Government will take forward to help young people to access networks of peer support include:

• exploring models of peer support which can help young disabled people who are making the transition to adulthood to build confidence and knowledge; and
• sharing aspirational success stories, where permission is granted, of young disabled people with lived and living experience of the transition to adulthood to inspire other young disabled people to achieve their fullest potential.

The support provided to young disabled people during their transition to adulthood should be person-centred and tailored to the young person and their specific needs and goals.

Young disabled people are entitled to support in planning for transitions through The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and associated Regulations and through the non-statutory Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) Child’s Plan. They may also be entitled to wider support – for example, financial support through the child disability payment and adult disability payment.

The National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy was published on 30 June 2025. Through this Strategy, the Scottish Government has committed to:

• continuing to invest in the Independent Living Fund Scotland’s Transition Fund to support young disabled people to make a smoother transition from childhood into adulthood by promoting independence, community participation, social inclusion and confidence, including referring applicants for grant funded person-led planning support where it is needed;
• funding the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) in 2025-26 to build on their Time to Talk Next Steps Scotland Pilot to:
  • promote and support person-led and relationship-based approaches to planning amongst practitioners; and
  • support the wider use of Promoting a More Inclusive Society (PAMIS)’ digital passport in person-led communication and transitions planning to empower young people with complex needs to have their voices heard; and
• working with the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland to promote the use of Compass for young people as a tool to support person-led planning within existing planning mechanisms.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39324 on 31 July 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-39324 on 31 July 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

ARC Scotland’s third Principle of Good Transitions states that Planning should start early and continue up to age 25. ARC Scotland also provide the descriptors to this principle which are:

• Planning should be available from age 14 and be proportionate to need.
• Children’s plans and assessments should be adopted by adult services.
• Transitions planning and support should continue to age 25.

The priorities within the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy build on the Association for Real Change (ARC) Scotland’s Principles of Good Transitions, and as such, it sets out the standards expected in delivery of transitions support for young disabled people across Scotland.

In Priority 1- Choice, Control and Empowerment of the strategy it sets out what is already happening and what else the Scottish Government will do to support and strengthen existing planning mechanisms, including continuing to promote early transitions planning and person-led planning resources and practices.