Community Care ran a recent news story about the need to empower people and carers to take control of support planning based on the "Empower and Enable" approach we have developed. It ran with a headline about cutting back the role of the social worker, which wasn't in the spirit of our work.

Our approach to support planning is about taking a capacity view of disabled people. That means supporting people to do their own plans to free up social workers to support people who don't have capacity to plan themselves.

We hear a lot about the difficulties social care professionals face in helping people develop a support plan. Despite calls for individuals to do it themselves, we're still seeing tiny numbers doing so.  Councils where support planning is working well are the ones where the focus is on empowering and enabling people to do it themselves. They provide comprehensive information about support that is available locally from peer supporters, independent brokers or user-led organisations.

I have asked Jo Harvey, from HSA to do a guest blog this week, and she has four simple pieces of advice to give to professionals when it comes to support planning.

1. Never assume that a person can't or won't do their own plan.

There is a perception that people don't want to or are unable to participate in the support planning process and too many professionals feel they have to take on this responsibility themselves. People tell us they can and do want to be involved. Have trust and confidence in people to either do their own plan or engage in the process.

You can take more of an empowering and enabling approach that starts from the assumption people will do their own support plans, regardless of age or impairment. For example, give people all the information that is available to help them nationally and locally, then in two weeks' time, check in on how they're getting on. If the person or their family says they need more help, then recommend services where they can speak with someone who's been there before and can talk the process through. Wait another two weeks and then check back in again to see if more intensive support is required.

2. Know your role.

There has been some confusion over social care professionals' responsibilities when helping people to develop a support plan.

There is a statutory responsibility around the assessment process, giving people indicative budgets and providing information, tools and resources to develop the plan. There is also a need to share the rules on what the money can and cannot be spent on.

However, professionals do not have a statutory duty to do the support plan for the person themselves. I see many professionals who are still struggling to let go of their power and assume that people won't be able to do it as well as they can.

3. Change the conversation to a more person-centred approach.

We need to increase support for professionals to use the right tools that enable a different type of conversation - one that focuses on what a person wants rather than one that comes from the care management process. Person-centred thinking tools shift the focus from the deficits and impairments of a person, to what that person can do, what is already in place to help them, and what works and doesn't work for them as individuals.

The support planning process has become overly complicated, with templates that focus on meeting key performance indicators rather than a truly person-centred support plan. Complex sign off procedures in an era of severe funding cuts are restricting creative solutions when it comes to spending personal budgets. We should do all we can to work locally towards a simple sign off process that is honest and transparent.

4. Ensure you know and can share information about what information and support is available locally to help people do the support plan themselves.

Professionals need to know what is expected of someone's support plan - the local rules on what will and won't be agreed and what the person can spend their money on and how it will be signed off - so they can clearly communicate those to the person doing the support planning.

They also need to share more examples of what people have done with personal budgets so there are plenty of creative ideas that inspire people as to what can work.

The individual's capacity to do their own support plan is clearly an issue; so check the support around the person - whether family or friends can and are willing to help. If not, or if a person has complex needs, then ensure there is investment in locally developed support options like independent brokers, user-led organisations, peer support or drop in groups that can step in to help.  For example, in Derby City they're creating a hub of people that will offer a range of help for people when they are support planning.

We have been asked to share these tips with Community Care readers so watch out for them in a forthcoming edition!