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