In Canada we have been exploring how we can use person centred practices within strategic planning. I have been working with Helen on this and we wanted to share with you what we are trying, and hope to hear from you about what you are doing in this area.

Traditionally, strategic planning includes an analysis of where the organisation is now; the context that it is operating in; a way to hear from people who use the service; and using this to create 3 - 5 year objectives.

This is what we are trying in Canada:

a) Listening to people differently through Working Together for Change

Working Together for Change is a way to use person centred information (from person centred reviews) to identify the top areas that people think are working well, the most important areas where people think things are not working, and an understanding of what people want for the future. Therefore the process is based on the person centred thinking tool 'Working and Not working' but then aggregates individual information to be able to identify themes. The process does more than identify themes, people (including families and people who use the service) work together to identify and then analyse the root causes of what is not working, and develop success statements. These statements then give us a focus for quality assurance - are we working towards these success statements? How can we know how well we are doing?

Using Working Together for Change eliminates the need for costly service user satisfaction surveys that take up the person's time as well as staff time in getting and analysing the data. Instead, people's views are taken from their reviews (where we ask people to simply prioritise their top two working/not working and important in the future). Another benefit is that people who use services and families rarely get to see what happens as a result of the data. In Working Together for Change they have the opportunity to aggregate, analyse and act on the data together, something that in the UK is called 'Co-production'.

b) Self assessing ourselves against best practice using 'Progress for Providers'

Progress for Providers is a self assessment for providers in delivering person centred services. It is high level, and looks at how the structures, systems and processes in the organisation work in an effective and person centred way. Senior managers are asked to score their service on a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being best practice. One of the benefits of using Progress for Providers is the discussion it generates about where people think they are, and how they know this (and then how they check this). Another benefit is that it conveys a clear sense of what 'good' looks like at an organisational level, and therefore an opportunity to measure against that standard.

c) Reflecting on what we have tried and learned using the Four Plus 1 person centred thinking tool

So far the information we have gathered is the working/not working and important in the future from the perspective of people using our service, put alongside how we are doing in the way we organise ourselves to deliver our service (Progress for Providers) and now we want to think about what we have tried and learned through our existing efforts to change our service.

One way to approach this is to use 4 plus 1 on the existing objectives that the organisation has been working towards from its last strategic planning (or other initiatives to develop the service, like Transforming Teams or Good2Great). This gives staff and managers a chance to reflect on their progress and look at what has been learned and what needs to happen next.

d) Putting this information alongside a PEST  or SWOT analysis

PEST is an acronym to examine the following areas of influence on the organization:

• Political/Legal factors
• Economic factors
• Social factors
• Technological factors

The PEST analysis is used to evaluate the factors affecting the organization's work, progress and future direction and to examine the organization's main threats and opportunities, providing a context with which more detailed planning could take place.

A SWOT analysis is also a helpful check for the staff and managers. Here is how the information from Working Together For Change (WTFC), Progress for Providers and the 4 plus 1 contribute to this:

Strengths  - what is 'working' from WTFC, the scores of 4 and 5 from Progress for Providers and the list under 'what we are pleased about' from 4 plus1 add to this

Weaknesses - what is 'not working' from WTFC, the scores of 1 and 2 from Progress for Providers, and 'concerns' from the 4 plus 1 add to this

Opportunities - the information from WTFC on 'important in the future' contribute here

Threats - not changing what is not working from WTFC and scores of 1 or 2 would also contribute to threats

Here is how we can putt this information together to begin to generate 3 - 5 year objectives:

Putting it together with a K.I.S.S

The Keep, Increase/Expand, Stop, Start format is used to celebrate successes, identify top priorities and develop objectives and an action plan. This is a way to take the learning and priorities from WTFC, PEST, Progress for Providers and 4 plus 1 and to see what this tells use we should:

• Keep (Items that are going well and should be maintained)
• Increase/Expand (Items that need further attention, expansion and development)
• Stop (Items that are currently being done and need to be stopped because they are not effective or of value)
• Start (Items that are not currently being done and should be action planned and started)

There are a large range of processes used within strategic planning. This is what we are trying in Canada, and I am keen to learn how other organisations are integrating their person centred practices within strategic planning processes. Please comment and let me know.