Preparing for Adulthood: An exploration of the experiences of students with learning disabilities on their Person-Centred Annual Review

Abstract

The Person-Centred Annual Review (PCAR) is advocated as an approach to reviewing the needs of students with an Education, Health and Care plan. This approach has its origins in the social model of disability and is a relatively new approach to statutory practices. There is some evidence that there are a number of complex social processes involved in the use of this approach and this research set out to explore how students with Learning Disabilities (LD) experienced the PCAR. Due to the lack of research involving the Preparing for Adulthood programme, the research focused on students with LD who were in Key Stage 4. Five participants shared their experiences and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used as a technique to generate a more informed understanding of this experience. The analysis revealed five Superordinate themes which were interpreted through the lens of Social Constructivist ontology. An interrogative account discusses the role of Positioning theory as an adjunct to the conceptual model derived from the literature. A narrative follows, providing what was reported, what meaning was made and what sense students made of the experience of the PCAR. This is situated within our current understanding of this phenomenon before consideration of the role and subject position of the Educational Psychologist is raised as an issue for reflection on practice.