Expert Panel: Evaluation of the transition from child to adult health and social care services (Health and Social Care Committee, 6 November 2026)

Summary

The Health and Social Care Committee commissioned an independent expert panel (IEP) to carry out an evaluation of the transition from child to adult health and social care services. The report highlights how young people, especially those with complex physical and mental health needs, are failed by services that abruptly change or cancel the support they need when they turn 16 or 18. It points towards redesigning systems to remove abrupt switches from children’s to adults’ services based on age. Evidence the IEP received suggested instead basing transitions, pace of change and assumptions about independence, on careful assessment of the individual child’s needs and wishes.