How should service providers respond to people needing support as they enter adulthood? Tracy Carlson and colleagues report on the findings of a small-scale study that attempted to explore the views of people with learning disabilities and their parents

There are about 210,000 people with severe learning disabilities in England, while about 1.2 million have mild or moderate disabilities (DoH 2001). There is some evidence that the number of people with learning disabilities is rising (Emerson et al 2001), partly due to the increasing number of children and young adults with complex and multiple disabilities surviving into later life. Thus, more disabled young people and their families have to go through the transition to adulthood.