getting it right in west lothian child’s planning meetings - autumn 2013
TRANSCRIPT
Learning Intentions
By the end of this session you will:
• Have an understanding of how a Solution Oriented approach can be applied in Child’s Planning Meetings in order to lead to positive outcomes.
• Have had an opportunity to discuss and experience the process of a Child’s Planning Meeting in detail.
• Have a plan for how to take this forward in your school / agency
Outline of the Session
1. Introduction to the strengths based approach / principles
2. Child’s Planning Meetings – Preparing for the meeting (child & family) – Roles in the meeting – Stages of the meeting– Practical Activity
3. Action Planning
Solution Oriented Principles
• A focus on future possibilities enhances change
• The problem is the problem, not the person
• Everyone has their own ways of solving problems. Co-operation enhances change.
• In all situations, there are strengths and resources that can be used to effect change
• Small changes can lead to bigger changes
• If something works, do more of it. If it doesn’t work, do something different.
Why a Solution Oriented Approach for Child’s Planning?
• It offers principles and a structure for identifying creative solutions
• Helps us develop goals and solutions rather than analysing current problems
• Focuses on the present and future, on goals and how to achieve them
• Recognises the importance of involving the person in the solution process
• Focuses on ‘what works’ and amplifying strengths rather than analysing weaknesses
Milton Erikson
MRI
Steve de Shazer
Insoo Kim Berg
SFBT
Jasmin Ajmal
Harvey Ratner
Brief Therapy Practice
Bill O’Hanlon
SO Brief Therapy
Ioan Rees
SO Approaches
SycolSolution Oriented
Approaches
Background to Solution Oriented approaches
Staff professional reflection and coaching
Reflective Team
Child Planning Meetings
Whole school improvement / self-
evaluation framework
SO policies and paperwork
Pupil Coaching
Class/group Planning
Whole School
Meetings
Class / Groups
IndividualPupil Planning
SO Circles
Meetings with parents
and carers
SO processes within school
Solution Oriented Approaches
Focus and purpose of Child’s Planning Meeting within the Continuum of Support
• To establish a shared understanding of needs and/or concerns
• To understand the impact of strengths and pressures on an individual child / family
• To help children and families and the practitioners working with them agree what needs to change
• To identify solutions and ways forward
• To jointly construct the Child’s Plan
Strengths-based Child’s Planning Meetings
How much do we currently focus on strengths in our planning meetings about children?
What would be different about a meeting that is mainly focused on strengths and solutions?
Problem Solving Solution Building
9.30 am
9.45 am
10.15 am
10.30 am
Problem Talk
Solution Talk
Solution Talk
Problem Talk
Preparing for a Child’s Planning Meeting
• Only professionals already working with the child/young person should be invited to a Child’s Planning Meeting
• Relevant professionals will have already been involved as a result of the Assessment of Wellbeing (AoW) process.
• The AoW process will have identified areas of concern that can be shared at the meeting.
5 Key Questions
1. What is getting in the way of this child or young person's well-being?
2. Do I have all the information I need to help this child or young person?
3. What can I do now to help this child or young person?
4. What can my agency do to help this child or young person?
5. What additional help, if any, may be needed from others?
Participation in the meeting
• Genuine engagement of the child and family in the meeting is dependent upon effective preparation
• The views of the child / young person should be gathered before the meeting in order to support their engagement in the process. A variety of tools are available for this purpose.
• Consider whether this approach would be helpful for use with parents too
• Consider how this might be used with other agencies
Discuss your thoughts on the participation of children and young people in meetings.
What do you do currently to support this?
• What are the strengths of supporting children to participate in meetings?
• What are the challenges? • What are the solutions?
Activity: Participation of children and young people in meetings
SO Meeting Stages
1.Explain the
Meeting format and
agree purpose (5 mins)
2. Strengths/Protective
FactorsWhat’s going ok?
(10 mins)
3.Concerns/ Risk Factors Listen to the
concerns (immediate and
emerging)(5 mins)
4.Current StrategiesWhat is currently
working well? How could we do more of
this? (10 mins)
5.Goals/Desired Outcomes
Use well-being indicators for desired
outcomes (10 mins)
6.Action PlanConstruct a Child’s Plan. Agree what,
who, when and review (10 mins)
1. Explaining the meeting format
Facilitator:
Use 5 minutes at the start of the meeting to outline the stages of the meeting and the purpose of this approach to a Child’s Planning Meeting
(see suggested script)
2. Strengths / Protective Factors
Facilitator: open a discussion about the child’s strengths
– What strengths does the young person have?– Explore areas of interest/activity– Invite everyone to share something that they consider
to be a strength of the child/young person– Invite the child/young person to contribute to this
discussion
3. Concerns / Risk Factors
Facilitator: open a discussion about the reasons why the meeting has been convened.
What is not working just now?
– Discuss the current concerns– Take everyone’s views into account– Take time to agree on the top priorities
This discussion will be used to identify goals for the meeting.
4. Current Strategies / Exceptions
Facilitator: explore what is currently working well. Explore times when the
issues are not as challenging.
Strategies• What strategies are currently working? • What should we keep doing?• What could we try to do differently?• What has worked or made a difference in the past?
Exceptions: • When is the problem not so difficult, what is different about those times?• When was the last time things were even a little better? What was
different then?
Use Scaling to identify the most effective strategies
5. Goals / Desired Outcomes
Facilitator: open a discussion about what people at the meeting want to be
different / where do we want to be?
‘If things were a little better over the next week, what would John / his teacher /
his parents be doing differently?’
How would we know?
• Which exceptions can be developed/expanded?
• Which strategies can grow, be altered or re-tried?
• What can we try to do differently?
This information can also be used to identify possible goals for action
6. Constructing the Child’s Plan
• Agree the priority goals jointly• Goals should be worded positively
Then agree:
• Who will do what?• When will it be done?• When will we review?
Providing a Constructive Summary
Facilitator provides a 5 minute summary including:
• Key things that have been discussed• Review of the Plan• Thanks for attending and contributions• Take time to reflect on the usefulness
of the Child’s Planning Meeting process – use Scaling?
Practicalities
• Consider what, if anything you will be required to do
differently to facilitate meetings in this way.
• Consider how you might communicate differently with
children/young people and their families regarding this type
of meeting.
• Consider pre-meeting preparation.
• Handout with prompts provided for Facilitators
• Recording the meeting:
Use smart board if familiar?
Use flip chart if preferred
Use the relevant documents to record the meeting
• Take time to evaluate the meeting.