Background The numbers of young adults with life-limiting conditions, with the right to transition well and access adult hospice services, is ever increasing (McLaughlin, Marosi, Robb. Children in Scotland requiring Palliative Care (ChiSP) 3. CHAS; Shouls. Being curious and confident: learning from the Hospice UK transition programme for young people with life-limiting conditions: evaluation report. Hospice UK; 2023). An adult hospice (The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice - PPWH) and paediatric hospice (Children’s Hospices Across Scotland - CHAS) collaborated to develop and pilot a ‘coordinated approach’ to transition to improve the physical, emotional health and wellbeing of young adults, reducing risks and enhancing outcomes.

Aim The pilot aimed to transition young adults from CHAS to PPWH, resulting in improved wellbeing outcomes for those who transitioned, whilst gaining knowledge on what aids/hinders successful transition between settings.

Methods

• Identified young adults/families for the pilot.

• Tested whether an adapted Categorisation Tool (Widdas, McNamara, Edwards. A core care pathway for children with life–limiting and life–threatening conditions. 3^rd ed., Together for Short Lives; 2013) with four distinct categories defined by the conditions/clinical criteria that young adults with life–limiting conditions may present with can determine the need for adult palliative care services.

• Evaluated a Transition Pathway with operational steps to aid the multidisciplinary decision–making process and inform the young adult’s transition journey.

• Collated young adult case studies from each category to compare transition journeys.

Results

• Young adults across all four categories transitioned to PPWH.

• Utilising the transition pathway aided successful transitions.

• Timescales for transition were fluid and variable for each young adult.

• Transitions were lengthy/resource intensive.

• Relationships and trust were key to successful transitions.

Conclusion Transition journeys in young adult case studies offered insight to the multifactorial nature of transition, demonstrating variation and commonality of what supported/hampered successful transition. Whilst the pathway and categorisation tool supported positive transition outcomes, they become irrelevant if there are no appropriate adult palliative care services to transition onto. Full transition between paediatric/adult palliative care services can take considerable time without an existing pathway between organisations. The time required is rightly influenced by the pace that the young adults/families wish to pursue as it is person dependent/person-centred. However, time and resource implications will be a challenge for organisations.