Support Planning

A support plan describes what a person wants to change about their life and how they will use their Personal Budget to make these changes happen.

HSA leads on support planning and has a separate support planning website www.supportplanning.org

Papers and Articles

Definitions of Self Directed Support in Halton.

The process by which state provided services can be adapted to suit you. In social care this means everyone having choice and control over the shape of their support, along with a greater emphasis on prevention and early intervention.

To view this graphic see the downloads box on the left.

The 7 Essential Criteria for a support plan.

To view this table see the downloads box on the left.

1. What is important

to you?

Guidance for Halton Citizens and Care Managers: What People Can Spend Their Money On.

To view this table see the downloads box on the left.

Guidance for care managers and decisions makers: Agreeing Support Plans.
This guidance has been designed to help people who are responsible for agreeing plans (decision makers) to think about what they should be looking for in a Support Plan. This is not a definitive guide and should be used in conjunction with 'What needs to be in a Support Plan?' and the 'Spending the Money' information which can be found at www.supportplanning.org It has two parts to it.
Firstly there is the guidance section which, using the 7 Criteria, describes in more detail what you might be looking for in each section of the plan. This can be used as a 'checklist' that can be used by individual decision makers or panels when looking at a plan, to prompt you to check all the required information is there. Secondly, there is a chart detailing the core responsibilities of decision makers when agreeing plans.

To view this paper see the downloads box on the left.

Guidance for care managers and decisions makers: 7 steps to the Self Directed Support process.
This is the 7 steps of Self Directed Support Process generally acknowledged across England as the framework for implementing the Governments Personalisation agenda. Halton's Support Planning and Reviews Strategy document accounts for all the policy/ procedures and structures that need to be in place for steps 1-7 to happen.

To view this paper see the downloads box on the left.

Guidance for care managers and decisions makers: What people in Halton can spend their Personal Budgets on.
This guidance is designed to be used by people who have a Personal Budget as they write their support plan, anybody helping somebody write a support plan and decision makers who are agreeing plans. It is not an exhaustive or prescriptive list and it is vital that people are continually encouraged to be innovative. We are sharing what we have learnt on our journey so far and would invite everybody to share their experiences with us so we can add to this information on an ongoing basis.

To view this paper see the downloads box on the left.

Guidance for Individuals and their families or carers: 7 steps to the self directed support process.
Sometimes people need help and support to enable them to live their lives as independently as possible. This may be because of a physical or learning disability, a visual or hearing impairment, issues affecting their mental health and wellbeing, or a range of conditions that can affect us as we get older. Whatever the reason for needing some new, or additional support, this is where social services can help.
Self Directed Support is a new way for people to think about and arrange the support they need to help them live the lives they want.
It's all about working out the money you may be entitled to. You can then choose and arrange your support. This booklet tells you about the 7 steps of Self Directed Support that Halton is using to support people who choose this option to take control of their lives.

To view this booklet see the downloads box on the left.

Person Centred Outcome Focused Review Document for Care Managers.

To view this booklet see the downloads box on the left.

Person Centred Outcome Focused Review Booklet to help you prepare for your review.

To view this booklet see the downloads box on the left.

Using 'Planning Live' to develop support plans with Gemma and Kirstie.
My Way Derbyshire is a partnership project between Derbyshire County Council and MacIntyre, it provides facilitator support for young people who are in transition to adult life. The My Way facilitators work to make a support plan and help find different options with young people about where they might live, who they may live with, what they might do during the day and how this can be done flexibly and in the way that works best for them. This is Gemma and Kirstie's story of the work they did with a facilitator from My Way, to create their support plans using a process called 'Planning Live'. Through this they created a strategy that will enable them to move out of residential college, and live together in their own home with the support they need.

To read this paper see the downloads box on the left.

Good practice in support planning in Australia.
A one page summary of good practice developed in a workshop with families and staff from different states in Australia.

To read this paper see the downloads box on the left.

Best Practice in Support Planning in Manchester.
A one page summary of best practice developed by HSA, Manchester City Council and Manchester NHS.

To read this paper see the downloads box on the left.

Putting People First - Planning Together - peer support and self-directed support.
The National Centre for Independent Living (NCIL) recently produced a report highlighting that the availability of effective peer support is essential in the transformation of adult social care and in enabling people using services to have greater choice and control.This report builds on that permise, summarising activity undertaken as part of the Putting People First Delivery Programme's Planning Together project in 2009. It shows how it is possible to build disabled people and carers' own support planning skills, rather than continuing to rely solely on professional solutions to help people direct their own care and support. The report showcases examples of councils working in partnership with local people using services, user led and other voluntary organisations, to transfer these important skills to other people who use services. The report was developed in partnership with eight councils who, with a small amount of seed funding were able to develop innovative ways to transfer support planning skills to people using services and build capacity for alternatives to formal support from professional care management. In some cases, developing these skills through training and other means has increased the number of disabled people working as support planners, in others it has led to people being empowered to take greater control of managing their arrangements with less dependence on professionals.

To view this paper see the downloads box on the left.

Putting People First - Support Planning and brokerage with older people and people with mental health difficulties.
This guide responds to the findings of the Personal budgets pilots evaluation, which concluded that more work was required to develop approaches to support planning and brokerage that work for all groups of people rather than just some. The guidance and examples below illustrate effective methods for support planning with older people and people with mental health problems that can be built upon by councils and other stakeholders in their local development of self-directed support.

To view this guide see the downloads box on the left.

Supported Decision Making - A guide for supporters.
This guide offers people best practice techniques and tools that may be useful when supporting others with their decision-making. This includes those people who make their own decisions and those who may lack the capacity to do so and where decisions are made in their best interest.
The book has been written in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and was correct at the time of going to print.

This book is one of a series produced by Paradigm, with support from the Valuing People Support Team. Others in the series include:

• Values for Money - a resource guide to funding for support

• A Handbook on Support Brokerage

• Support Planning - a guide to developing Support Plans

• A Handbook on Individualised Service Design

These are all available to download free from www.paradigm-uk.org or to purchase as a full colour print book from Paradigm.

To view this guide see the downloads box on the left.

All Together Now - Ideas from people and organisations in the North West on how to develop alternatives to paid support.

The content of this paper, aimed at sharing thinking and practical ideas, is the result of listening to and drawing out of the ideas from people and organisations in the North West. The paper details some of their efforts to explore what has and may work, in terms of supporting people, in today's world.

All involved were particularly taken with the notion of just enough support, where people have neither too much not too little (both of which can be equally bad), and where we work ethically and tirelessly, whatever the financial realities, to develop additional and alternative support through communities, families, technology and other solutions.

To view this paper see the downloads box on the left.

Support Planning Workshops - June 2011

Empower and Enable: a people led approach to support planning, Office for Disability Issues, Right to Control, Support Planning Events. 7th June 2011 - Manchester and 9th June 2011 - London. Designed and Facilitated by Lorraine Gradwell, CEO, Breakthrough, Helen Sanderson, Director, Groundswell, Simon Stockton, Director, Groundswell and Katy Murray, Right to Control, ODI

Author: Katy Murray, RtC Field Support Team, Office for Disability Issues.

To view this paper see the downloads box on the left.

In this short film, Lorraine Gradwell, CEO of Breakthrough UK, talks powerfully about disabled people doing their own support plans through the Empower and Enable Model.

In this presentation, Helen Sanderson discusses a people-led approach to support planning.