Summary of Research

To explore social service practitioners’ perspectives on what constitutes good practice in supporting the transition of young people with intellectual disabilities from school to post school pathways - Your understanding of “good practice” in transition support - the strategies and approaches you use to support transitions - challenges you may face in delivering the service, - collaboration with whānau, schools and other agencies during transition - key factors that you consider crucial to the success of transitions - how good practice could be strengthened or supported - whether effective transition looks different for Māori, Pacific Islanders or any other cultures apart from Pākehā.

Tēnā koe, 

Who am I?

 My name is Diana McKelvie-Newport I am a currently undertaking a small research project as part of my Master of Applied Social Work at Massey University’s School of Social Work. 

What is this research about? 

“To explore social service practitioners’ perspectives on what constitutes good practice in supporting the transition of young people with intellectual disabilities from school to post school pathways” 

Why am I writing to you? 

I am writing to inform you of my research and to invite you to distribute the attached Information sheet to people in your organisation who may be interested in participating in my research and who meet the following criteria for participating: 

• Be a social services professional who works with young people with intellectual disabilities in transition from school to post-school pathways.
• Have supported the transition process from school to post-school pathways for at least 1 service user. 

No names or other identifying details of individuals or organisations will be used in the final research report. My work will be examined by my research supervisor (a staff member in the School of Social Work) and an external examiner. Findings may also be used in publications arising from the research. 

What benefits will the research bring? 

The benefits of this research are that it will contribute to the knowledge bank on what demonstrates quality transitions from school to post-school opportunities for young people with disabilities, the challenges involved for professionals, young people and whānau, and which gaps could benefit from being improved. This research may also assist young people and their whānau with information and a picture of what transition may look like for them. 

Thank you for considering my request to pass on the Information Sheet. Please do not hesitate to contact either me or my supervisor at any time if you have any questions about the project. 

Contact details are as follows: 

Student Researcher 
Diana McKelvie 
Diana.Mckelvie.1@uni.massey.ac.nz 
Supervisor
Dr Kathryn Hay
Email:  Email: K.S.Hay@massey.ac.nz

This project has been reviewed and approved by the Massey University Human Ethics Ohu Matatika 3, Application OM3 25/75. If you have any concerns about the conduct of this research, please contact the Chairperson, Massey University Human Ethics Ohu Matatika 3, email humanethics3@massey.ac.nz   

Yours sincerely, 
Diana McKelvie 
Student ID: 95101674