Independent Expert Panel Report on Transitions

The Health and Social Care Committee's Independent Expert Panel has published its evaluation of the transition from children's to adult health and social care services. VODG's evidence, shaped by our members, is referenced throughout, and young people supported by VODG members helped shape its findings.

The report, published on 6 November 2026, finds that young people with the most complex needs are routinely let down as they move into adult services. Planning starts too late, no one is clearly accountable, and support too often ends abruptly at 16 or 18. It has been described as "like falling off a cliff edge".

How VODG and our members contributed

VODG submitted written evidence to the Panel, drawing on the expertise of our Children and Young People Special Interest Group and an evidence session we held with members. Our submission set out what members see every day: guidance on transitions is well established, but it is not consistently followed because there are no consequences when it is not.

The Panel referenced VODG's evidence more than 20 times across all six areas it examined. It quoted our submission directly on:

• The missing data: "there is almost no aggregated data on young people transitioning to adult services – numbers, profiles, destinations or expenditure… it makes meaningful monitoring impossible."
• Guidance without teeth: guidance that is "aspirational rather than operational", with a "lack of consequences when they are not met".
• Co-production: our call for commissioning frameworks "to require active involvement of organisations representing underserved groups in transition policy co-production, with appropriate resourcing and accountability".
• Communication support: for young people with communication difficulties, "continuity of communication support is as important as the tools themselves – and it is frequently lost at the point of transfer."

We also helped convene young people's participation in the Panel's lived experience roundtables. VODG members Dimensions UK, Hft, Kids and National Star supported young people to share their experiences directly with the Panel. 

Young people's experiences run throughout the report

 The Panel held two lived experience roundtables, in March (in person, with members of the Committee) and June 2026. It says the roundtables played an important role in its work, and their testimony is woven through every chapter. Young people told the Panel about:

• Support ending without warning. "I left the child service and then there was nothing, because the adult service didn't accept me… I ended up being hospitalised."
• Not knowing where they stood. One young person was unsure whether they had even been discharged from children's services.
• Decisions made without them. "I felt like stuff was being done to me," said one; another described their transfer as "taken out of my control".
• Coordination failures. At the March roundtable, every participant described poor communication between hospitals, GPs, schools and social care, leaving young people and families to navigate the system alone.
• What helps. Seeing a trusted children's practitioner alongside a new adult practitioner was described as "really key".

These experiences echo what young people told the Panel in the sessions VODG members supported: communication, relationships, and choice and control matter most.

Key findings

The Panel found that existing policy and guidance support good transitions in principle, but delivery is inconsistent. Across its six focus areas, it concluded that:

1. Planning starts too late. Transition planning does not consistently begin by Year 9 (age 13 to 14) as recommended, and there is no national data on how many young people start on time.
2. No one is clearly accountable. Responsibility is poorly defined across integrated care boards, local authorities, schools, primary care and providers. Where transitions fail, the risk of harm is significant.
3. Young people are not meaningfully involved. Services often lack the capacity and training to involve young people and families, and young people with additional needs are underrepresented in co-production.
4. The workforce is not equipped. Named workers make a difference but are not consistently in place; staff lack protected time; transition training is often voluntary.
5. Age, not need, drives the move. Transfer is still largely determined by age, with eligibility starting at 16, 18 or 25 depending on the service. Housing, education and employment support is not routinely joined up.
6. Inequality is amplified. Data on young people with additional needs or protected characteristics is limited, and these young people experience worse outcomes.

The Panel calls for transition to be treated as a gradual, person-centred process based on each young person's needs and wishes, rather than an age-based switch. It also notes the Law Commission's recommendation of a statutory age at which transition planning should start in social care.

What happens next

The Health and Social Care Committee will hold a follow-up evidence session with the Government Minister early next month. It will then publish its own short report with recommendations, and the Government will have two months to respond to both reports together.

VODG will continue to press for the changes our members and the young people they support have called for: transition planning from age 14 set in law, a named transition coordinator for every young person, clear shared accountability across children's, adult and health services, and national data on transition outcomes. We will share the Government's response when it is published.

Read the report

• Full report (HTML)
• Full report (PDF)
• Easy Read version
• The Committee's short video on the key findings, including footage from the March roundtable

If you have any questions about VODG's work on transitions or would like to get involved in our Children and Young People Special Interest Group, please contact [email protected]