The transition to adulthood for autistic young people with additional learning needs: the views and experiences of education professionals in special schools

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Crane, L., Davies, J., Fritz, A., O’Brien, S., Worsley, A., Ashworth, M., & Remington, A. (2021). The transition to adulthood for autistic young people with additional learning needs: the views and experiences of education professionals in special schools. British Journal of Special Education, 48(3), 323-346. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8578.12372

Publication date: 5 Jul 2021 Added to AutiHub: 12 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
7
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 7 (14.3%)
  1. Laura Crane
  2. Jade Davies
  3. Anne Fritz
  4. Sarah O’Brien *
  1. Alison Worsley
  2. Maria Ashworth
  3. Anna Remington

Abstract

Education professionals (n = 41) in special schools were interviewed about supporting their autistic pupils transitioning to adulthood following the introduction of the Children and Families Act 2014. Our participants explained how they lacked the time to fully implement knowledge gained from training, leading to growing reliance on experiential expertise. While our participants reported employing a variety of methods to elicit the voices of pupils, they were uncertain how effective and ethical these were. Further, a lack of available opportunities meant that participants felt they could not always support young people in achieving their goals. Based on these findings, we recommend greater investment in the implementation of staff training, more flexibility for schools to be able to meaningfully elicit and act on pupils' voices, and better vocational opportunities for autistic young people with additional learning needs. This would enable the principles of the Act, which have been widely lauded, to become a closer reality.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 12 Sep 2026 18:20.

Cited references
46
With a DOI
37
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
9
2 / 46 (4.3%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 46 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
46 / 46 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
8
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
157
From DOI or external metadata
157
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
50 / 157 (31.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 107 / 157 (68.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
2 / 157 (1.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 2 / 50 (4.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 130 (0.8%).
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