We are committed to introducing the Transition Support programme over the next three years, with £19 million secured as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review settlement for the Department. In the “Aiming high for disabled children: better support for families” report published in May, we acknowledged that children and young people with more complex needs require more carefully prepared and intricate packages of support as they move to adulthood.
We have not undertaken any estimate of indicative spending on young people on the autistic spectrum. The focus of the programme is not to target by type of special educational need or disability but to enable and support all disabled young people to move towards and into a new stage of life.
To make initial progress, the Department will be publishing transition guidance jointly with Department of Health later this month, to support local agencies to better support disabled young people to make the transition to adulthood.