Future Aspirations of Students with Severe Learning Disabilities and of their Parents on Leaving Special Schooling is a study by Marisa Smyth and Roy McConkey of the University of Ulster. The study had two main aims. First to determine the aspirations which Northern Irish parents and the young people with severe learning difficulties had in terms of post-school provision. This information should assist service planners in developing community-based residential services and the reshaping of post-school provision that is still largely dominated by day centres. A second aim was to contrast the views expressed by parents with those of the young people. This would help to ascertain the extent to which the young people can take part in such consultation exercises as well as identifying areas of potential disagreements between parents and young people which service personnel may be required to manage in future planning.

Source: 2003 BILD Publications, British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 31, 54–59