Comment

During my interview with Roger Berry he referred to 'the observation that is so patently obvious that there is this cliff edge' and when asked whether or not there is a cliff edge a number of people asked said 'definitely' while Jonathan Ralphs described the sudden intervention of adult services as 'panic planning'. Claire Jackson thinks it's clearly visible in her work:

"More funding has to be made available so there isn't this big stepdown, it should be a plateau, there shouldn't be any change."

But one dissenting voice highlights a problem with the term and how it affects the perception of disabilities in general. Linda Jordan was in charge of the person centred transition reviews that are being carried out across the country. She works for the Department of Health ensuring the Valuing People Now white paper is implemented across the country. She is also the parent of a child with a learning disability:

"I don’t really get the cliff edge analogy because it gives the impression that everything is fine, the damage is done when they're children and what happens as adults is just a continuation of that.

For her, the cliff edge analogy that ignores the real barriers within society that prevent disabled people from reaching their full potential. It's an interesting argument and one summed up by my question to the answer to my question to Simone Ancis at the UK Council for Disabled Peopleof how she was disabled. "By society," she answered.

For disabled teenagers going through transition it is hoped that less have experiences like Tiffany, and more are involved in the process, such as those at Hillcrest School. Maybe a path down from the cliff edge can be found.