ABSTRACT
Tucked away at the end of the 1994 Code of Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs (DfE, 1994a) are twenty paragraphs on the management of the transition of young people with special educational needs from school to their post-school destination. Yet, as several commentators have remarked, the Code’s guidance on transition has been largely neglected by policy-makers, researchers, the Schools’ Inspectorate and sometimes by schools themselves (Wilenius, 1996; Derrington et al., 1996). Behind this helpful, though neglected, advice and guidance are complex issues and dilemmas which challenge its interpretation as well as the nature of some of the guidance itself. The purpose of this chapter is to attempt to unravel some of these complexities to inform both policy and practice and to suggest how the management of transition, during the final years of schooling, might begin to reflect the true complexity of the process.
