Policy Failure in the Lives of Young Disabled People: In Search of Good Transitions

ABSTRACT For many young disabled people, social policies have failed in their role to support transitions from childhood into the next stage of life. Across OECD countries, policy development has been fragmented, haphazard and limited in its scope. It is only relatively recently that governments have begun to engage with the specific needs and develop initiatives which reflect them. Yet there is little known about the experiences of transition to adulthood for this group, and there is an absence of longitudinal data. In seeking to address these issues, this article reports on the first stage of data collection from a major study, based in Glasgow and the North East of England, which follows a group of young disabled people (aged 16–29) as they leave school and move towards adulthood. Drawing on the accounts told by the young people we spoke to, we examine how the failure of transitions support and social policies has impacted profoundly on life experiences and socio‐economic well‐being, reinforcing barriers to inclusion and inequalities for young disabled people.