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

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.