Before completing module 2, you should know: Understand what outcomes are Understand how aspirations, needs, outcomes and provision link together Know how these fit in with the Graduated Approach and EHC plan

By the end of module 2, everyone will: Understand the importance of: o using person centred planning tools and techniques to develop outcomes o including outcomes for young people which relate to preparing for adulthood Be able to write a good SMART outcome

What does the Code of Practice say? ‘Planning should start with the individual and local authorities must have regard to the views, wishes and feelings of the child, child’s parent or young person, their aspirations, the outcomes they wish to seek and the support they need to achieve them.‘

What does this mean and why is it important? The child or young person and their family must be central to the development of the outcome. The outcome must be created alongside the child or young person and their family, to do this they need to be developed using a person-centred approach. In order to develop an outcome we must first understand more about the child, or young person and their family which can be achieved through person centred practices.

Tips for developing outcomes The following tips are to help you develop outcomes and include the steps of how to gather person centred information. They build on the SE7 developing outcomes tips 2.

1. Prepare The following person centred activities may be done all at once or over various sessions/meetings. You can use person centred thinking and approaches as a framework for the conversations and record the information in a one-page profile. 3 It is important to plan these meetings/sessions carefully and think about: – What is the best time for the young person, their family and professionals? – Is school college the best place for the meeting? – How welcoming is the room space? – How will the young person share their views? – Sharing the questions with the young person and family before the meeting

More things to consider when planning a meeting can be found in the Portsmouth Person Centred Annual Review forms and guide 4

What does person centred mean? Person centred means to focus on the child or young person as an individual and listening to their views and feelings Person centred tools: the following tips include a selection of person centred tools but there are a wide variety of creative ways to collect this information including videos. Gathering person centred information

2. Identify the aspirations It is essential to meet with the child or young person and/or their parent carers to listen and understand what matters to them and what their hopes and dreams are. Use structured questions to clarify aspirations so that they can be more easily expressed as outcomes. Essential to breakdown the elements of the aspiration and understand why it is important This will help us ensure that we are really person centred and not imposing on them our own views or preconceptions.

Identify the aspirations - Example tools and techniques: Questions to ask: What do you like doing? What are you interested in? What kind of job would like after school? Where would you like to live? Who would you like to live with? Hopes and dreams tool – what to capture  What are my hopes and dreams?  Who do I need to involve?  What are my resources?  What are my next steps?

3. Find out how are things now Find out what their every day lives are like. What makes a good day or a bad day? What are the things that the family and the community do or can bring to the situation? Who are the important people in the circle of support? What are the barriers to achieving the aspirations? Find out what works and what does not work.

Find out how are things now - Example tools and techniques : Good and Bad day tool IT’S ALL ABOUT ME – A fresh approach to person centred thinking in Wolverhampton 6 Questions to ask: What do you do on your favourite day of the week? Can you tell me about the times you have most fun? Ask - who they are with, where they are and what they are doing – where something happens can be as important as what happens. Ask the person about food and drinks – do they need their morning cup of tea in their favourite mug? Do they like to eat their meals on their own? Do they like to know what they will be eating each day, or do they prefer surprises? Is a good or bad day about someone’s routine, rhythm or pace of life – do they like to be busy, or prefer a slower pace? Adapted from the Surrey Toolkit for Pathway and EHC Plans 5

Find out how are things now - Example tools and techniques: Circle of support tool Southampton ‘My circle of support’ 7 2/wiki/slide/attachment/5d ac65 91e54a97c7f25b81a98497ba.pdf Questions to ask: Who supports you at school? Clubs? Tell me about your family – brothers, sisters, aunts Do you have any pets? Tell me about your friends

4. What is important? Talk about what is important to the child or young person. Identify what is important for the child or young person taking into account professionals’ views and advice. Does the young person or their family have any priorities? Is there a priority order for steps to be addressed?

What are the priorities - Example tools and techniques: Important to, important for tool Helen Sanderson ‘Important to, Important for’ 8 on-centred-practice/person-centred-thinking- tools/sorting-important-tofor Think about: what’s important TO - what makes them happy, content, fulfilled what’s important FOR - health and safety, being valued, being happy, making progress with learning working towards a good balance.

5. What would good look like? Explore what good would look like – what would the child or young person consider to be success? How will you know when things have been successful?

6. Take some time to reflect and double check It should be possible to draft some person centred outcomes pulling together all the information collected Then it will be important to double check that they meet the essential criteria for effective outcomes.

Activity 1: Using top tips hold your own person centred conversation based on yourself Activity 2: Using top tips hold your own person centred conversation based on a CYP you work with Activities Suggestion:

Think about longer term planning Start thinking about children and young people preparing for adulthood or the next relevant phase early on. As you work through the activities to gather to the person centred information remember to think about and ask questions around longer term planning where appropriate. What does the Code of Practice say? ‘From year 9 onwards, the nature of the outcomes will reflect the need to ensure young people are preparing for adulthood.’ Other points to think about

For some CYP you may work towards the four Preparing for Adulthood outcomes: – support to prepare for further education and/or employment. This should include identifying appropriate post-16 pathways that will lead to these outcomes. – support to prepare for independent living, including exploring what decisions young people want to take for themselves and planning their role in decision making as they become older – support in maintaining good health in adult life, including effective planning with health services of the transition from specialist paediatric services to adult health care. – support in participating in society, including understanding mobility and transport support, and how to find out about social and community activities, and opportunities for engagement in local decision-making.

Preparing for Adulthood 4 pathways 10

Professionals remember: Provide advice which enables a person centred approach and the development of an outcome focused EHC plan Advice should support the development of outcomes Language should be clear, accessible and jargon free Focus on the child or young person at the centre but also consider any family support needed Outcomes should be linked to a child, young person and family’s priorities and feel relevant to them Think about training for advice givers including standard forms and materials See Module 4 (To be developed) for specific information on advice giving

Outcomes not solutions 11 Helen Sanderson notes that it is important to check your developed outcomes are actually outcomes and not solutions disguised as outcomes. The problem with confusing solutions with outcomes is that it shuts out alternative possibilities and other solutions too early. For example, To have 3 hours of speech and language therapy every week, may be a solution but we don’t really know what the child/young person wants to achieve or whether the speech and language therapy is the best way or only way to help them achieve that. To test if you really have articulated an outcome, the following questions, can be asked in no particular order or number of times. – What would it give you? – What would it do for you? – What would it make possible for you?

When you get to the point where you lose clarity and start talking about overarching aspirations, you need to focus back down to the last clear point you reached. So exploring the example of the speech and language therapy: – What would it give you? Time with a speech therapist – What would it do for you? Help me be more easily understood by my friends when we are playing – What would it make possible for you? Friendships, taking part in things, feeling more confident with other children. You can then take this information and develop a more detailed and specific outcome. For example: I am understood by my friends and I can play with them in the playground and at the after school club every day

Understand the importance of: o using person centred planning tools and techniques to develop outcomes o including outcomes for young people which relate to preparing for adulthood

Now you have all the information about the child or young person this needs to be written into a good outcome

Key features of a well written outcome from SE7 ‘Thinking about Outcomes’ 12 They maintain & support the achievement of the aspirations: Leading towards what the child or young person wants to achieve Support the achievement of the parent carers’ aspirations for the child or young person too They are person centred: Expressed from a personal perspective, not a service perspective Within the control and influence of the child/young person and/or those involved Specific to the child/young person

They build on what’s working well: Using strengths and assets Based in real life They change what’s not working well: Addressing challenges Lead towards the removal/reduction of barriers These can be difficult questions to ask. Important to think about the language used, to be sensitive but also as positive as possible. Think creatively and be solution focused.

They are shared: By the child or young person By the parents, carers and the family By the professionals They are holistic: Taking into account the whole life of the child or young person in the context of their family and everyday life, across settings and not from a single agency’s point of view

They are aspirational: Challenging and with high expectations – not our role to set limitations They are SMART: The child or young person and everyone else will be able to know when they have been achieved and cause for celebration

What does SMART mean? S pecific: Clear, precise, unambiguous statements M easurable: Targets i.e.. numbers, percentages, levels … or verbal confirmation – will it be clear whether the outcome has been achieved? A greed: With the child / young person, parents / carers, other professionals involved R ealistic: In terms of timescales, resource availability, current level of ability or capabilities, etc. – they need to be achievable T imed: Realistic deadlines for completion, Short, medium and long term timescales

Additional tips 13 Use an active verb for example ‘read’, ‘know’, ‘be able to’. Avoid: – Vagueness – for example John will have improved his literacy skills – Provision – for example Celia will have a teaching assistant to help her manage in class or Kishan will have access to a broad and balanced curriculum – Too small steps – outcomes should last for key stage/phase, with shorter term targets underneath (12 months) – Low aspiration – outcomes are not challenging – Outcomes that are outside of our responsibility – for example – Jazim will have a boyfriend (although you can add this into an ‘other’ section in the EHC plan)

What an outcome is not 14 Not... four sessions of speech and language therapy or programme of physiotherapy But... what the child will be able to do (that he/she cannot do now) after the speech therapy or after the physiotherapy Not a general statement of what needs to happen, for example: – To have acquired some basic literacy and numeracy skills – To emotionally prepare Wayne for his frequent hospital visits – To develop Scott’s expressive language

4 steps to a well written outcome 15 1Child willAction observable > How - prompt 2So thatWhat > can do/action 3ForTime > may include prompt 4By when End of key stage > age branding if appropriate

Example structure 16 By the time I’m…….. (age or key stage) + I can/ have learnt the skills to/ am maintaining/ am doing………

Examples of SMART outcomes NeedsOutcomes Laura has a metabolic disorder which leads to weight gain. She has a severe learning disability, which affects her ability to learn new tasks, including independent living skills. By the end of year 13, Laura will be: Eating three balanced meals a day. Able to write a shopping list and go shopping, with support, to buy healthy options. Taking exercise at least three times a week (walking, swimming and going to the gym). Able to use her health plan to remind her about her medicines, her diet and exercise. Attending regular health checks on her own, with her GP or nurse, to review her health plan. Laura will attend these appointments without her mum.

ThemeA not so good outcomeGood person centred outcome Health and Wellbeing Referral to the dietician to lose weight. To eat 3 healthy meals a day and exercise 3 times a week, so that I can fit into my prom dress by May. Learning and development/ learning skills and moving towards employment Go to college to do a car mechanics course To learn the skills to get a paid job working with cars, working at least 16hrs per by Home and Independence To develop independent Living skills To feel confident to catch the bus to college with my friend Jon, and know how to get support if I need to by September (new college year) Examples of good and bad outcomes 17

Activities Suggestion: Activity 2: Swap the SMART outcomes with another group and evaluate whether they are good Activity 1: Given a personal profile and use this to write 2 SMART outcomes for the child or young person

Be able to write a good SMART outcome

How was the training session? What support do you need next?

References: 1, 9 Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years, DfE, actice_January_2015.pdf actice_January_2015.pdf 2, 12, 13 SE7 Thinking about Outcomes (0-25 Coordinated Assessment and Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan (Version 6 – March 2015) Appendix 4) 3, 11, 17 Developing Person Centred Outcomes, Helen Sanderson Associates (Staffordshire shared document) - 4 Portsmouth Person Centred Annual Review forms and guide, 5 Adapted from the Surrey Toolkit for Pathway and EHC Plans, Surrey 6 IT’S ALL ABOUT ME – A fresh approach to person centred thinking in Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton - Available in resource pack 7 ‘My circle of support’, Southampton, 2/wiki/slide/attachment/5d ac6591e54a97c7f25b81a98497ba.pdfhttps:// 2/wiki/slide/attachment/5d ac6591e54a97c7f25b81a98497ba.pdf 8 ‘Important to, Important for’ Helen Sanderson, centred-practice/person-centred-thinking-tools/sorting-important-toforhttp:// centred-practice/person-centred-thinking-tools/sorting-important-tofor 10 Preparing for Adulthood life outcomes, outcomeshttp:// outcomes 14 Gloucestershire Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership ‘An introduction to child and young person centred, multi-agency, outcome planning’, Helen Watson for Gloucestershire - Available in resource pack 15 SEND Officers Training - Writing Good Outcomes, Wolverhampton City Council - Available in resource pack 16 Achieving Joined-Up, SMART, Flexible Outcomes, Enfield council presentation