NOTTINGHAMSHIRE FAMILY SENCO EVENT 08.12.2014

Personalisation- what does it look like in schools?

Pat Bullen

Family Centred Approach

Better communication and greater parental engagement are key to a number of developments that seek to put the child and the family at the centre of the planning process.

Personalising Education

Person centred thinking tools are essentially methodical ways to ensure that education is meeting the needs of each child and young person, recognising that each has a unique style of learning, communicating, building relationships and making decisions.

‘A guide to using person-centred practices in schools’

http://www.personalisingeducation.org/one-page-profiles/

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C of P Underpinning Principle 1• To focus on the outcomes that children and young people

and their families want to achieve, so that all decisions are informed by these aspirations.

• How do you and your school achieve this and by what means?

C o P Underpinning Principle 2• Supporting the participation of children and their

parent/carer and young people, with person-centred planning to be used to place children and young people at the heart of the system.

• How do you and your school achieve this and by what means?

C o P Underpinning Principle 3• Providing greater choice and control for young people and

parents over the support they/their children receive, including greater choice of schools and colleges and personal budgets to tailor services.

• How do you and your school achieve this and by what means?

Most parents want….• to do their best for their children • to be able to adapt to new information and changing

demands• additional support to raise their children in ways that

achieve the best outcomes • services that are responsive and effective • to be listened to and involved in the decision making

Most parents want….• to do their best for their children and worry about getting it right• to be able to adapt to new information and changing demands,

this can be overwhelming when your child has additional needs• additional support to raise their children in ways that achieve

the best outcomes but may not know what this looks like • services that are responsive and effective relies on us

appreciating family need and understanding the problems they face

• to be listened to and involved in the decision making is key.• doing so helps us to know what to provide, where to target and

how to co-ordinate and integrate support into family life.

‘I climbed a mountain when we found out about his illness and when we coped with the total change to our family. But I never thought I’d have to climb another mountain when he got to school and another one when he went to big school. Does it ever get any easier?’

Parent of disabled child, ref; Contact- a -family

Person centred assessment and planning

1. Focus on the child or young person as an individual 2. Enable C&YP and parents to express their views, wishes and feelings 3. Enable C&YP and parents to be part of the decision making process 4. Be easy for children, young people and their parents or carers to

understand, and use clear ordinary language and images rather than professional jargon

5. Highlight the child or young person’s strengths and capabilities 6. Enable the child or young person, and those that know them best to say

what they have done, what they are interested in and what outcomes they are seeking in the future

7. Tailor support to the needs of the individual 8. Organise assessments to minimise demands on families 9. Bring together relevant professionals to discuss and agree together the

overall approach, and deliver an outcomes-focused and co-ordinated plan for the child or young person and their parents

Better communication• Improvements in parent participation need to be based on

better communication with parents. The Lamb Inquiry highlighted the importance of good communication as the basis for the development of trust:

•  Good, honest and open communication is key to the development of positive working relationships and requires practitioners who listen to parents and are trusted by them. […] The quality of communication both affects and is a reflection of the working relationships between professionals and parents. The worst communication generates significant levels of hostility […] The best communication engenders impressive levels of confidence and a sense of partnership.

“IMPROVING OUTCOMES: HIGH ASPIRATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR CHILDREN WITH SEN”

Develop a personalised approach

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• Templates:• http://www.sheffkids.co.u

k/adultssite/pages/onepageprofilestemplates.html

• http://onepageprofiles.wordpress.com

• http://www.personalisingeducation.org/one-page-profiles/

• http://www.helensandersonassociates.co.uk

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Outcomes

Moving from professional determined aims or objectives

W needs to learn to focus his attention better when there are distractions around, so he can become more independent in his learning and attend fully to the main focus.

to person centred outcomes

To listen to my teacher without any prompts or reminders in a busy classroom

We have needed to offer training to colleagues across all agencies that is consistent in message- health and social care as well as settings, schools and colleges

Three questions to ask parents/carers:

1. What do you want your child to be able to do (in 12 months) that s/he cannot do now?

2. What support does s/he need to achieve these outcomes (i.e. to be able to do this)?

3. Which services/people are

best placed to provide that support?

Co-production in your setting• Presence - how evident is it that the needs of parents and

families are included in your setting? • Participation – how evident is it that parents and families

get and stay on board with your setting approaches? • Provision – how does the presence and participation of

parents and families shape the nature of the provision you offer?

• Consider these 3 features in terms of co-production opportunities with parents for your setting

Personalising our support• Leadership & Management• SENCO• Teacher

• Think about the 3 different perspectives surrounding co-production opportunities with parents for your setting

Leadership & Management• Ethos & vision• Look and feel• Quality of welcome• Leading by example• Parental level of influence – GB, PCF• Effective communication with all parents/families….extent

of our reach!

SENCO• Leading by example• Setting the professional tone of practice• Workforce development and training• Consistent approach by all• Embedding practice and systems• Managing the KW functions• Monitoring the impact• Measuring quality

Class Teacher• A wide range of person-centred approaches are now

being adopted by schools, including MAPs and PATHS• a growing understanding of the benefit of these

approaches and of the core principle of the child and the family being at the heart of the assessment process

• structured conversation with parents

MAPs & PATHS• PATH is there when a situation is complex and will require concerted

action, engaging other people and resources, over a longish period in order to make an important vision real

• developed by Jack Pearpoint, Marsha Forest and John O'Brien from 1991 onwards. It can be used as a planning style with individuals and with organisations. When used in person centred planning, the person and the people she wants to invite meet together with two facilitators to work through the process.

• MAPs are tools designed to help individuals, organizations and families figure out how to move into the future effectively and creatively.

• MAPs is a planning style developed by Judith Snow, Jack Pearpoint and Marsha Forest with support from John O'Brien and others. It was used first as a tool for helping disabled children integrate into mainstream schools, but is now used more widely in person centred planning with children and adults.

Person centred Assessment Meeting

Structured conversations• requirements for this structured conversation were quite

precise• in practice what it was designed to do was to establish a

wider school culture of listening to the thoughts and aspirations of parents of young people with SEND

• Hearing the views of parents and carers and of children and young people themselves, then planning on the basis of those views, are key elements in securing parental confidence in and involvement in the approaches adopted.

• National Strategies and DCSF (2009) Achievement for All: the structured conversation. Handbook to support training. DCSF

Team Around the Child• The Team around the child (TAC) involves a collaborative

approach to assessment and planning, and one that is more responsive to the needs of the child and the family.

• The approach has been successful in the early years and widely welcomed by parents.

• Early Support has promoted and developed the approach. • It operates in partnership with parents, with a TAC and a

keyworker working with the child’s family and co-ordinating services.

• The SEN reforms have seen the approach extended up the age-range and to children in schools.

Preparing for Adulthood• For young people moving towards adulthood, the

promotion of person-centred approaches has been a key element in improvements in transition planning promoted through the Preparing for Adulthood programme (PfA)

Personal budgets• All parents in receipt of new Education, Health and Care Plans (or statements at the Transfer Review stage) is able to request a personal budget – Sept 2014

• CCGs mandate commitments to ensure that personal health budgets are available to people who would benefit:

- With continuing healthcare funding by April 2014; - With any long term condition by April 2015.

What is a Personal Budget?• An amount of money identified by LA to deliver parts of the provision set out in an EHC plan

• Families can request a PB as part of the planning process (in drawing up Plan or at Annual Review)

• LAs are under a duty to prepare a PB when requested

Where does the funding come from?

How will parents receive a PB?

A personal budget can be delivered in one of four ways:• Notional budget. In this circumstance the individual

does not receive the money directly but are allocated a budget and participate fully in the care planning and decision making around how the money is spent.

• Actual budget held by a third party. A different organization holds the money and helps the individual decide how best to meet their EHC outcomes.

• Direct payments. Money is transferred directly into the individual’s bank account, which has been opened for the purpose, to meet the identified outcomes.

• OR any combination of the above

Practical approaches for engaging children:

• One page profiles describe with the child, what they can do, what they like/preferences, how they communicate, what they may need support with

• Preparing children for contributing to their AR/Transfer review/parent teacher meeting, enables them to feel confident- they could use video film/still photos/powerpoint presentation/; attend with a friend; be supported by a family member or professional that they work well with

We need to work this way across the school year, not only in the weeks leading to review/assessment

Children and young people should be given information about the person centred meeting process prior to the meeting. This should be appropriate to their developmental understanding and emotional maturity and should be available in a range of media. This should be undertaken by a keyworker in conjunction with the w parent/carer in whatever way that it is thought is best for the child or young person.

Involving children and young people

A range of ways through which the child or young person can participate in reviews/plans should be considered. This could include:

The child or young person does not attend the meeting but provides a written or audio/audio-visual presentation of their views for the meeting

The child or young person attends part of the meeting to present their prepared views The child or young person attends part of the meeting with a person who will present

their prepared views on their behalf The child or young person attends all of the meeting with a commitment from the

facilitator that it will be run in such a way so as to support their understanding and participation.

Whether there are any other things that could be done to make the child or young person feel more confident about attending and taking part (for example, are there any issues about the venue or timing).

Involving children and young people

Problems with outcomes

Advice writers sometimes provide outcomes which can be problematic for a number of reasons:

• Refers to provision, ie, describes a service rather than what the C&YP should be able to achieve

• Aspirational, ie, a long term hope for which there is no accountability

• Impossible to measure, ie, not SMART

• Does not describe what the child wants to achieve, ie, not personalised

• Outcomes which do not relate to what is important for the child

• Outcomes which do not have corresponding provision

• Outcomes which are more like targets

Identifying the outcome related to a provision, eg, 5 hours of speech and language therapy

If you got your outcome, what would it:

• Give you?• Do for you?• Make possible for you?• Where, when and with whom do you want it?

You can repeat these questions if you need to until you get to the outcome. This will help to find the outcome that is intended based on the provision.

Additional tools for planning outcomes

Contact/useful links:

Pat.bullen@leicester.gov.uk

• Templates:• http://www.sheffkids.co.uk/adultssite/pages/onepageprofilestemplates.h

tml• Useful tips and examples

• http://onepageprofiles.wordpress.com• http://www.personalisingeducation.org/one-page-profiles/

• Where it all began…• http://www.helensandersonassociates.co.uk

• Tips on developing your own one page profile• http://www.learningcommunity.us