Moving from Children's to Adult health services

If a child or young person is seen by a paediatric health professional (someone who works for the health service and provides services for children and young people), they will transition to adult health services when they are around 16.  However this can depend on the level of care that a young person is receiving.

Paediatric services will generally see children until they get to school leaving age (at the end of year 11). 

However for some short term periods of care, the young person may still be seen by paediatrics.  If a young person is 16 and requires a longer term period of care then they may be seen by adult services.

If there is ongoing care, then a common sense approach would be taken to each individual case and care would be taken over the consideration of the transition to adult services.

This process is determined by the individual clinician (such as an Occupational Therapist or Physio) that is providing a service or support to you.

It is a good idea to start having conversations with those clinicians when the young person is 14 so that they can start to plan how this might happen.  It is also a good idea to speak with your GP about this, so that they can be involved.

The transition to adult services should start when the young person is 16.

For more information about this, please look at this NHS page about moving from children's to adults services (opens link in new window) This covers the process for both health and social care.