Agenda item

 

Shona McFarlane, Director, Health and Wellbeing, Neighbourhood and Adult Services, and Sharon Davies, Person Centred Planning Coordinator, Learning Disability Services, Neighbourhood and Adult Services, to present:

 

-           Presentation around Person Centred Reviews;

-           Case study video showing a young man’s Person Centred Review.  

Sharon Davies, Person Centred Planning Co-ordinator, and John Williams, Learning Disability Services Service Manager, gave the following powerpoint presentation:-

 

Valuing People Priorities ‘The Vision’

-        Making the transition to adulthood a positive experience

-        Every young person with a learning disability and with a Statement will have a Person Centred Review from the age of 14-19 by 2011

-        The Year 9 Review will produce a Person Centred Transition Plan that will inform the commissioning and provision of future service and support, be reviewed each year and be the core of a smooth transition to Adult Services

-        By 2011 far more young people will leave school and college with paid jobs and will have individual budgets

 

Applying Person Centred approaches to Transition

To discover

-        What is important to the young person

-        What support they want and need

-        What are the young person’s dreams and aspirations

To explore what could be possible

-        What might be best practice in people getting the lives they want (where they live, work, education and social life etc.)

To explore what is practical and possible locally to achieve the things that are important to and for the young person

 

The Essence of Person Centred Planning

-        It is focused – a much clearer focus on the young person throughout the meeting

-        It is positive – starting the meeting on a positive note sets the tone for the rest of the review

-        It is energising – person centred approaches help to keep everyone active and engaged in the process

-        It is flexible – the reviews differed, reflecting the different personalities of the young person

-        It is different – the positive, open and relaxed atmosphere of using person centred approaches affected the way everyone contributed to the meeting

-        It is about partnership and action for change

 

How it is Done/Practicalities

-        Securing commitment

-        Preparing for the review

-        Having the right setting

-        Gathering and recording information

-        Using a variety of media

-        Facilitating the review process

-        Making time/taking time

 

Review Headings

-        Who is here?

-        What we like and admire

-        What is working well

-        What is not working well

-        What is important to … now

-        What is important to … in the future

-        What support does the person need to stay healthy and safe

-        Action plan

 

The Year 10 Review

-        Structured around 3 questions

What is possible for the future?

What do we want for the future?

What are we going to do to move this forward?

 

The Keys to Citizenship

-        Community Life

-        Circle of Support

-        Home

-        In Control

-        Direction

-        Money

 

Discussion ensued on the presentation with the following issues raised/highlighted:-

 

o       Reviews undertaken in partnerships with the schools in Y9.  A team consisting of Children Services, Adult Services and Connexions worked together to facilitate them

 

o       Each Review would be reviewed annually as a minimum but there would also be informal reviews along the way

 

o       A Social Worker would be allocated as appropriate i.e. either Adult or Children, working with the family and individual to make appropriate plans if it was a more complex situation.  For a young person with more complex needs, Adult Services provision would be gradually introduced before the age of 18

 

o       Close work with Connexions who had specialist workers within their service to work with those with special educational needs

 

o       Extremely creative in looking for resource opportunities for young people in schools.  The LSP’s Employment Sub-Group was a key player in finding opportunities for employment.  A Strategy for addressing this issue was in development

 

o       Strong empowerment process for the young people.

 

o       Duty to be transparent and honest as to how realistic and achievable young people’s aspirations were.  There would be a collection of professionals working with the young person on the planning process and their aspirations

 

o       If they could be supported in rented accommodation, it would be less costly than a residential placement to the Authority and a better quality of life for the person concerned

 

o       Close working relationship between Adult and Children Services to enable early awareness of young people coming through to enable preparation

 

o       Good work took place with the voluntary sector offering opportunities for supporting people encouraging the Service to be more flexible in their approach

 

o       Joint Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Safeguarding Children and Adults meetings which had lead to an improvement in the transition process

 

o       Need to raise awareness within Elected Members

 

o       The Social Worker who assessed the individual and the Direct Payments Team would keep a monitoring view of their budget and would be set up in context of someone being responsible for managing it.  The budget was mapped out and planned with that person to meet the payments the individual required

 

Sharon and John were thanked for their interesting presentation.

 

Resolved;-  (1)  That the presentation be noted.

 

(2)  That the Select Commission be informed of the numbers of young people involved.

 

(3)  That Person Centred Reviews be included in the Select Commission’s 2012/13 work programme.