Using a person-centred approach, involving child and their families is key to planning and reviewing support. Important considerations include:
- Focusing on the child and their family as individuals.
- Enabling children to express their views, wishes and feelings in ways that are meaningful to them.
- Ensuring children and families are fully included in all discussions, with appropriate support to enable their participation.
- Ensuring that what is being discussed is easy for children to understand, relative to their developmental stage.
- Understanding how the child likes to communicate and their level of understanding (e.g. sharing views verbally, or through visual or multimedia resources).
- Identifying who the child likes to communicate with – is there a member of staff whom they feel most comfortable sharing their honest views with? Are parents/carers better placed to gather views at home?
- Highlighting the child's strengths and capabilities.
- Eliciting from children, families and staff the child's successes, interests and the outcomes they would like in the short term and long term.