This week I have had the powerful experience of facilitating a Circle of Support for Jon, the son of a good friend of mine Emma (who you met in my October blog about family budgets and support plans how-to-develop-whole-family-support-plans). It reminded me of just how important Circles of Support are in creating person centred change - not just for an individual but for the families and people who support them in their community.

It got me thinking - what can we do to ensure more people and communities benefit from them?

I have been facilitating Circles for over 12 years but I always get a little nervous beforehand as each new Circle has a different character.  My challenge - as facilitator - was to keep Jon firmly at the centre.

Jon is described as having 'high functioning autism' and the original reason for setting up the Circle was to gently support and encourage him to try new things and meet new people. Eventually, Jon would need more people in his life who can support him, rather than just his Mum and Dad. Feeling comfortable with other people in his life was going to take a while and he was very cautious and nervous about the Circle.

The local church minister where Emma and Jon attend, agreed to come, as too Matt, who supports Jon's Brother Tom for a few hours each week. They were joined by long-time family friend Patricia and her son Robert, who is a few years older than Jon but who had known each other as children.

I put my pinboard up in Emma's lounge and after tea, mince-pies and introductions, I asked Emma to explain what we hoped for the Circle and the evening's meeting (knowing Jon would not want to do that himself).

"Teeny-weeny steps" was how Emma described what we wanted to achieve.

I started by drawing three interlocking circles (a Venn diagram). One was 'new people'; one was 'new places' and the other 'new things to do'. I explained how where the three circles overlapped in the middle - a new thing to do, with new people in a new place - was a big step and not what we were after right now. A 'teeny-weeny' but important step was either a new thing to do, but with familiar people in a familiar place, or a new place, but with familiar people, doing a familiar thing.

I suggested that our roles tonight were to act like an 'ideas team' for Jon to come up with possible new places and things to do. Jon would then evaluate each of them and let us know which ones he was interested in taking forward.  Then together, we could see what we could do to take these forward.

We then did several rounds where everyone contributed their ideas, based on how they knew Jon, their best guesses at what he could be interested in and also sharing their own hobbies and interests, in case he wanted to share them. The list included  playing chess;  going to a book club,  bible study group or astronomy club; obtaining National Trust membership and doing walks; going to movie nights, photography course, philosophy classes, Tai Chi  or meditation Group; bird watching and playing Monopoly.

So that Jon did not feel on the spot, I asked him to evaluate each of them over a break for more tea and mince pies. Emma explained, with Jon's agreement, that he could do complex evaluations, so we asked him  to evaluate each of them in relation to how interesting they were to him (1 - 10 using an orange pen) and how scary they felt (1 - 10 with a purple pen).

We took the two with the highest scores for interest, and the lowest scary scores, and started there.

At the end of the evening, we had agreed actions based on Jon's evaluations for him to start playing chess with Alan, the church minister every week and for the family to buy a National Trust membership, plan walks in different places and invite Circle members to join them. We have another three possibilities that Jon was interested in thinking about more - meditation, a book club and a philosophy course.

Jon looked quietly pleased and relieved. Emma was delighted. As the meeting finished, people started to talk about how great it would be to start a book club together and whether Jon starting chess, could lead to a chess group where some of us played each other. It was clear that the Circle was creating opportunities for all of us to try new things together, find other ways of connecting together and enrich our lives, in a way we probably did not expect.

It reminded me of this New Economics Foundation report (http://neweconomics.org/articles/ten-big-questions-about-the-big-society-html) that says evidence shows that when people feel they have control over what happens to them and can take action on their own behalf, their physical and mental well-being improves. When individuals and groups get together in their neighbourhoods, get to know each other, work together and help each other, there are usually lasting benefits for everyone involved. Networks and groups grow stronger so that people who belong to them tend to feel less isolated, more secure, more powerful and happier.

So if Circles are a good thing, that benefits not just individuals but communities as well, what would it take to have more of them in the UK?  I've listed some possibilities - not all new nor without their challenges and some controversial - but I would be interested in your thoughts:

1) All social work, community and health courses have an opportunity for people to learn about Circles of Support and learn the skills to facilitate or contribute to them as a core part of their curriculum. Some may be able to contribute to Circles in their own time, as I do.

2) There is an expectation that social work students (and those from other related courses) are matched with an individual or family (family chooses!) to support them as part of a Circle of Support in a commitment that lasts three years. The best way to learn about personalisation is to be part of creating it with a family or individual.

3) Providers and other organisations explore contributing to Circles of Support as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. For example, banks could fund training for Circle facilitators; providers could release some staff for four hours per month to contribute to a Circle.

4) Partners in Policy Making courses and their graduates enable people to both have a Circle of Support but also to contribute to someone else's Circle.

5) People buy Circle facilitation with their personal budgets - facilitators provided through social enterprises (where did all those person-centred planning facilitators go?)

What else could we do? Can we move forward on any of these? Please let me know what you think.

In the meantime, I'll let you know how Jon gets on with trying his new activities.