National Transitions to Adulthood - strategy for young disabled people: supplementary report

Introduction

In June 2025 the Scottish Government and COSLA published the first National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy for Young Disabled People. This strategy committed to ensure every young disabled person in Scotland feels confident in their transition to adulthood and is empowered and supported to control their own path to success.

Improving outcomes for young disabled people transitioning into adulthood requires collaboration across services to deliver the necessary changes. The Priorities within the Strategy are:

1. Choice, Control, and Empowerment: Ensuring young disabled people have a voice in their transition planning.

2. Clear and Accessible Information: Ensuring young disabled people and those who support them have understandable information at every stage of the transition.

3. Co-ordination of Support: Ensuring seamless communication and collaboration across sectors.

4. High-Quality Transitions Practices: Establishing consistent, national standards for transition practices.

5. Data Collection and Measurement: Using data to monitor progress and drive continuous improvement.

6. Connecting to a Wider Policy Landscape: Bringing together existing policies, legislation, plans and activities which contribute to improving transitions to adulthood for young disabled people in a more strategic and coherent way.

These Priorities aim to strengthen practice where we know improvements are most needed. We also know that transitions is a complex area: the policy and legislative landscape surrounding transitions has been described as cluttered and difficult to navigate.

Disabled Young Person

• Active Citizenship
• Health (mental and physical)
• Social Work and Social Care
• Education
• Employment
• Independent Living Skills (finances, housing, life skills)
• Safeguarding

The purpose of Priority 6 of the Strategy (Connecting to a Wider Policy Landscape) is to bring together, in a more strategic and coherent way, some of the existing policies, legislation, plans and activities, which contribute to improving transitions to adulthood for young disabled people. The delivery of the proposed vision and six priorities of the Strategy is interdependent with the range of legislation and policies already in place that support the objective of improving transitions to adulthood for young disabled people. As a result, we committed to producing this Supplementary Report to set out what we are doing and what we will do across each of the policy areas in the diagram.

This report sets a starting point to build the wider actions in the Transitions Strategy onto, improving transitions into adulthood through clear and accessible information and identifying connections across other policy areas. We know that to ensure person-led transitions are the norm, young disabled people should feel empowered to explore their aspirations for adulthood. That is why this Supplementary Report sets out current actions and future commitments across key policy areas, demonstrating how work to improve transitions for young disabled people and ensure the Transitions Strategy is delivered in practice.