Use this printable transition to adulthood poster in leaving-care sessions, youth work discussions or staff training to open a conversation about the abrupt loss of support at age 18. Its central question helps young people, carers and professionals reflect on what changes when childhood services end but practical needs continue.
Designed to support honest conversations about the transition from children’s services to adult services, this single-page awareness poster highlights the gap many care-experienced young people face at their 18th birthday. It is particularly relevant for teenagers approaching adulthood, care leavers, foster carers, personal advisers and social workers supporting independence planning.
The illustration shows a young person crossing a bridge at age 17 while mental health services, support workers, school, social care and foster carers hold it up. At age 18, the bridge breaks apart beside signs reading “not eligible”, “waiting list”, “no services”, “no funding” and “you’re an adult now”.
“What exactly changed at midnight?” provides a strong prompt for a one-to-one meeting, pathway-plan review, team discussion or young people’s group. Adults can use the image to ask which support may end, where eligibility changes, what waiting periods may arise and how contingency plans can be made before a young person turns 18.
Young people may also use the poster to describe worries about adult mental health care, housing, education, finances or ongoing relationships with trusted professionals. It can help practitioners centre the lived experience of the children-to-adult-services transition and identify practical advocacy, referrals and support needed during this vulnerable period.
