Getting it Right in West Lothian Child’s Planning Meetings - Autumn 2013

Learning Intentions By the end of this session you will: Have an understanding of how a Solution Oriented approach can be applied in Child’s Planning Meetings in order to lead to positive outcomes. Have had an opportunity to discuss and experience the process of a Child’s Planning Meeting in detail. Have a plan for how to take this forward in your school / agency

Outline of the Session Introduction to the strengths based approach / principles Child’s Planning Meetings Preparing for the meeting (child & family) Roles in the meeting Stages of the meeting Practical Activity 3. Action Planning

1. Introduction to the strengths based approach / principles

Solution Oriented Principles A focus on future possibilities enhances change The problem is the problem, not the person Everyone has their own ways of solving problems. Co-operation enhances change. In all situations, there are strengths and resources that can be used to effect change Small changes can lead to bigger changes If something works, do more of it. If it doesn’t work, do something different.

Why a Solution Oriented Approach for Child’s Planning? It offers principles and a structure for identifying creative solutions Helps us develop goals and solutions rather than analysing current problems Focuses on the present and future, on goals and how to achieve them Recognises the importance of involving the person in the solution process Focuses on ‘what works’ and amplifying strengths rather than analysing weaknesses

Background to Solution Oriented approaches Milton Erikson MRI Steve de Shazer Insoo Kim Berg SFBT Jasmin Ajmal Harvey Ratner Brief Therapy Practice Bill O’Hanlon SO Brief Therapy Ioan Rees SO Approaches Sycol Solution Oriented Approaches

Solution Oriented Approaches Whole School Meetings Class / Groups Individual Whole school improvement / self-evaluation framework SO policies and paperwork Child Planning Meetings SO processes within school Class/group Planning Meetings with parents and carers SO Circles Reflective Team Pupil Planning Staff professional reflection and coaching Pupil Coaching

Focus and purpose of Child’s Planning Meeting within the Continuum of Support To establish a shared understanding of needs and/or concerns To understand the impact of strengths and pressures on an individual child / family To help children and families and the practitioners working with them agree what needs to change To identify solutions and ways forward To jointly construct the Child’s Plan

Strengths-based Child’s Planning Meetings How much do we currently focus on strengths in our planning meetings about children? What would be different about a meeting that is mainly focused on strengths and solutions?

Problem Solving Solution Building Problem Talk 9.30 am 9.45 am Solution Talk Solution Talk

2. Child’s Planning Meetings

Preparing for a Child’s Planning Meeting Only professionals already working with the child/young person should be invited to a Child’s Planning Meeting Relevant professionals will have already been involved as a result of the Assessment of Wellbeing (AoW) process. The AoW process will have identified areas of concern that can be shared at the meeting.

5 Key Questions What is getting in the way of this child or young person's well-being? Do I have all the information I need to help this child or young person? What can I do now to help this child or young person? What can my agency do to help this child or young person? What additional help, if any, may be needed from others?

Participation in the meeting Genuine engagement of the child and family in the meeting is dependent upon effective preparation The views of the child / young person should be gathered before the meeting in order to support their engagement in the process. A variety of tools are available for this purpose. Consider whether this approach would be helpful for use with parents too Consider how this might be used with other agencies

My Views / What I think

My Views / What I think

Activity: Participation of children and young people in meetings Discuss your thoughts on the participation of children and young people in meetings. What do you do currently to support this? What are the strengths of supporting children to participate in meetings? What are the challenges? What are the solutions?

Child’s Planning Meeting Roles in the meeting Child’s Planning Meeting Facilitator Scribe Time-keeper

3.Concerns/ Risk Factors 5.Goals/Desired Outcomes SO Meeting Stages 1.Explain the Meeting format and agree purpose (5 mins) 2. Strengths/ Protective Factors What’s going ok?(10 mins) 3.Concerns/ Risk Factors Listen to the concerns (immediate and emerging) 4.Current Strategies What is currently working well? How could we do more of this? (10 mins) 5.Goals/Desired Outcomes Use well-being indicators for desired outcomes (10 mins) 6.Action Plan Construct a Child’s Plan. Agree what, who, when and review (10 mins)

1. Explaining the meeting format Facilitator: Use 5 minutes at the start of the meeting to outline the stages of the meeting and the purpose of this approach to a Child’s Planning Meeting (see suggested script)

2. Strengths / Protective Factors Facilitator: open a discussion about the child’s strengths What strengths does the young person have? Explore areas of interest/activity Invite everyone to share something that they consider to be a strength of the child/young person Invite the child/young person to contribute to this discussion

3. Concerns / Risk Factors Facilitator: open a discussion about the reasons why the meeting has been convened. What is not working just now? Discuss the current concerns Take everyone’s views into account Take time to agree on the top priorities This discussion will be used to identify goals for the meeting.

4. Current Strategies / Exceptions Facilitator: explore what is currently working well. Explore times when the issues are not as challenging. Strategies What strategies are currently working? What should we keep doing? What could we try to do differently? What has worked or made a difference in the past? Exceptions: When is the problem not so difficult, what is different about those times? When was the last time things were even a little better? What was different then? Use Scaling to identify the most effective strategies

5. Goals / Desired Outcomes Facilitator: open a discussion about what people at the meeting want to be different / where do we want to be? ‘If things were a little better over the next week, what would John / his teacher / his parents be doing differently?’ How would we know? Which exceptions can be developed/expanded? Which strategies can grow, be altered or re-tried? What can we try to do differently? This information can also be used to identify possible goals for action

6. Constructing the Child’s Plan Agree the priority goals jointly Goals should be worded positively Then agree: Who will do what? When will it be done? When will we review?

Providing a Constructive Summary Facilitator provides a 5 minute summary including: Key things that have been discussed Review of the Plan Thanks for attending and contributions Take time to reflect on the usefulness of the Child’s Planning Meeting process – use Scaling?

Feedback from pilot schools

BREAK !

Activity: Child’s Planning Meeting Prepare an Action Plan for Jamie 30

3. Action Planning

Practicalities Consider what, if anything you will be required to do differently to facilitate meetings in this way. Consider how you might communicate differently with children/young people and their families regarding this type of meeting. Consider pre-meeting preparation. Handout with prompts provided for Facilitators Recording the meeting: Use smart board if familiar? Use flip chart if preferred Use the relevant documents to record the meeting Take time to evaluate the meeting.

Follow up Support The Additional Support Needs team Educational Psychology Service Edweb resources Revised Continuum of Support Ongoing evaluation