What a transition plan is
A transition plan is the preparing-for-adulthood planning built into your child's EHC plan from the Year 9 annual review onwards, covering employment, independent living, health and community life. From the review in the school year your child turns 14 (Year 9), and at every review after that, the council has to make preparing for adulthood the focus, and the agreed outcomes have to be written into the plan itself (SEND Code of Practice, paragraph 8.9). The Code is statutory guidance the council must follow under section 77 of the Children and Families Act 2014.
The review has to look ahead across four areas:
- Employment or higher education — support to move towards paid work, an apprenticeship, supported internship or further study.
- Independent living — having choice and control over where and how your young person lives.
- Good health in adult life — including the move from children's (paediatric) health services to adult ones.
- Participation in society — friendships, relationships and being part of the community.
The part most pages leave out
A “transition plan” is not a separate document you should be handed. The old statutory Transition Plan — a stand-alone paper attached to a SEN Statement from Year 9 — was abolished when the Children and Families Act 2014 replaced Statements with EHC plans. Transition planning now lives inside the plan: in the aspirations recorded in Section A and the outcomes set in Section E. So if school mentions a transition plan, you are not waiting on a second document — you are looking for adulthood-focused outcomes in the plan you already have.
It also helps to separate two things parents are often told are the same. The Year 9 transition planning above is about preparing for adulthood. A phase transfer is different: it is the council's duty to review and amend the plan whenever your child moves to a new stage of education — primary to secondary, or school to post-16 — each with its own legal deadline. A move from school to college can involve both at once, but they are separate duties with separate purposes.
Why this matters, and what's on the horizon
Because the planning sits in the plan, the test of whether it has happened is simple: are there clear, ambitious adulthood outcomes in Section E, and do they reflect your young person's own aspirations in Section A? If the review skips this, the plan is not doing what the Code requires. This is current law. The Schools White Paper (February 2026) proposes reshaping the EHCP system over the longer term, but with no changes before September 2030 and current plan-holders protected — today's transition rules stand.
Where the law comes from
Related
This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.