Learning & work
College, training, volunteering, work interests, practical experience and confidence to explore opportunities.
Transition & Preparing for Adulthood
A good adult life starts with your choices.
Planning for adulthood should begin with the young person's hopes, strengths, relationships and future, not just the services available.
For young people, families, schools, social workers, transition teams and commissioners across the North West.
Our starting point
From transition paperwork to a life worth looking forward to
What does a good week look like? Where would you like to live? Who matters to you? What would you love to learn or experience? These are the conversations that should lead transition planning.
Our principle: the young person leads wherever possible. Families, friends, professionals and services work together to make their choices meaningful, with accessible information and decision-making support where needed.
Preparing for Adulthood
Four areas of a good adult life
The established Preparing for Adulthood framework covers four connected outcomes. Nexsteps turns those outcomes into achievable, everyday experiences.
Independent living
Housing choices, money, cooking, travel, routines, decision-making and personalised support.
Friends & community
Relationships, belonging, getting out, enjoyable activities and building a supportive network.
Health & wellbeing
Understanding health needs, communication, wellbeing, appointments and preparing for adult services.
The Nexsteps approach
Six practical steps, shaped by the young person
Inspired by established person-centred and self-directed support principles, this is our own practical transition journey. It does not replace statutory planning.
- Listen and discover
Find out what the young person enjoys, values, wants to change and hopes for.
- Make a Life Map
Explore aspirations across home, money, people, wellbeing, experiences and the future.
- Plan together
Agree useful next steps, who might help, and how the young person prefers to communicate and decide.
- Explore support choices
Understand community opportunities, existing support, personal budgets and Direct Payments where applicable.
- Try real-life missions
Practise daily living, new experiences and community participation in ways that matter to the person.
- Review what matters
Celebrate achievements, listen to feedback and adjust the plan as ambitions or circumstances change.
Planning starts early. It does not stop on an eighteenth birthday.
For young people with SEND, preparing for adulthood should be considered from Year 9, around ages 13–14, and continue through later education and life changes. Other transitions happen at different times.
Nexsteps focuses particularly on practical preparation and participation through the 16–25 years, with approaches adaptable to the individual and their circumstances.
Education, Health and Care plans, Care Leaver Pathway Plans, statutory assessments and local authority eligibility decisions remain the responsibility of the relevant bodies. Our resources complement, rather than replace, them.
What Nexsteps brings to transition planning
My Life. My Future. My Way.
Free Life Map activities, personal goals, real-life missions and progress reviews. Standard and introductory Easy Read skills pages.
Independent living skills
Twenty-one relevant learning areas with practical challenges, short Nexsteps videos and interactive exercises to help young people practise new skills.
Nexsteps Personalised Support
Our agency introduces independent support workers, with ongoing client case management, and supports self-directed arrangements, subject to funding and service suitability.
For practitioners and commissioners
A practical partner for transition teams
We want to work alongside SEND schools, transition teams, children's and adults' social care, care-leaver teams, Personal Advisers, families and local communities.
How a conversation could start
- A short demonstration of My Life. My Future. My Way.
- Discuss the everyday outcomes a young person wants to achieve.
- Identify practical learning activities and community opportunities.
- Explore whether independent support worker support or case management may be relevant.
- Agree an appropriate next conversation and referral route if needed.
How we approach outcomes
- Goals written in the young person's own words.
- Strengths and support preferences, not deficits alone.
- Activities linked to real-life participation.
- Progress recognised with or without support.
- Reviews that ask what the person wants to keep, change or try next.
Practitioner assessment and outcomes tool
Use our structured conversation guide to explore strengths, wishes, support needs, resources and meaningful outcomes with the young person. Add agreed actions and review evidence, then create a printable report for professional discussion.
This free tool supports planning and review conversations. It does not replace statutory assessments or secure case-recording systems.
Working with councils: We can discuss suitable pathways with individual teams and commissioning or Direct Payments services. A conversation is not a promise of a referral, funded place or approved provider status. Funding and eligibility are determined through the relevant arrangements.
Assess and build a good life
One conversation. Two equally important outcomes.
A person-centred assessment should help us understand current needs, strengths, communication and support. A good-life plan should turn that understanding into meaningful choices, experiences and change.
Understand and assess
Explore what matters to the person, what help they need, how they prefer to decide and what is working or not working. This supports professional discussions without replacing statutory assessments.
Make life happen
Choose goals, connect with people and community opportunities, practise skills and review real changes in everyday life.
Includes an original personal profile, Good Life planner, decision-support activity, relationship map and printable transition conversation summary. Free, with no account.
For young people and families
You do not need to register to explore our public activities. Start with what matters to you, try one activity, and choose your next step.
Let's talk about better transitions
Are you part of a transition team, SEND school, social care team or community organisation in Wirral, Liverpool, Sefton or Cheshire West and Chester? We'd welcome a conversation about how Nexsteps' practical activities and support could complement the work you're already doing.
Our thinking and useful references
Nexsteps is independent of In Control and the Preparing for Adulthood programme. Our transition approach draws on widely used person-centred and self-directed support principles; the resources below are external references and are not endorsements of Nexsteps.