Hamilton, Lorna G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0526-8252, Lewis, Kathryn and Vincent, Jonathan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6278-4670 (2016) Improving School Transitions for Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities: STEPS Final Project Report. Project Report. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

Background

The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) system in UK schools faces long-established systemic pressures: inconsistent approaches to inclusion, significant underfunding, a breakdown of trust between families and institutions, and significant attainment gaps for children with SEND. At the same time, demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) has risen sharply without increases in local authority budgets, thus, diverting resources away from inclusive mainstream classroom support.

Autistic children are particularly affected by these systemic factors with less than half reporting being happy at school and around 31% persistently absent according to recent surveys. The transition from primary to secondary school is a particularly high-risk period during which the increased scale, complexity, and expectations of secondary environments can overwhelm neurodivergent pupils.

The STEPS project (School Transition Experiences for Pupils with SEND) was designed to investigate this school transition in depth, with particular focus on autistic and multiply-neurodivergent young people in mainstream education. The project adopted a bioecological framework, collecting longitudinal, multi-stakeholder data across three inter-related work packages.

Item Type:	Monograph (Project Report)
Status:	Published
DOI:	10.25421/yorksj.32316672
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/15334

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