Our family, my life
Contents
Our Family, My Life: Introduction to this resource
What can it help you to do?
Information about me
One page profile
Other things that are important to know about me and my family
The following times are difficult for me or my family to attend appointments or meet professionals:
The following barriers make it more difficult for me or my family to attend appointments or meet professionals:
These are some of the important people in my life
Important to me now
Important to me for the future
How best to support me now
How best to support me for the future
What is working
What’s not working so well
MY SUPPORT PLAN
Summary of what I need to support me and my family well
Detail of Outcome 1
Detail of Outcome 2
The following people discussed and wrote this plan
Appendix 1: List of people working with me and my family
Appendix 2: Assessment information
Appendix 3: Communication chart
Appendix 4: Decision making chart
Appendix 5: How I learn best
Other possible appendices, across the age range
Our Family, My Life: Introduction to this resource
Early Support provides a set of resources that can be used by you and by people who are working with you. The resources have all been developed after close consultation with those in the know – families like you and practitioners working in both the statutory and voluntary sectors.
The resources include, amongst other things, Our Family, My Life resources. The Our Family, My Life resource is a family-held or young person held record, which brings together all relevant information about a child’s or young person’s needs and services supporting the child/young person and family.
Our Family, My Life is for families with childrenwho need help and support or for young people who would like to take control of their support for themselves.
You can take it with you as you attend appointments and meetings in different places as your situation and development is being discussed. You can use this version or the Early Support app version. This resource can help you tell health practitioners, childminders, teachers, social workers or other practitioners about you and your family.
The Our Family, My Life resources concentrate on working together and finding positive ways forward and contains a standard set of templates that can be used in many different situations.
Our Family, My Life is designed to inform practitioners working with you about the support needs you and your family have and to keep any current information about you and your family together in one place. You might want to ask somebody who is working with you to explain how the resource could be used and to go through it with you.
Our Family, My Life is intended to help you not to have to repeat your story to every new person you meet. It can also help practitioners find a starting point in their work with you. It supports you through change and provides you with a way to keep a complete list of up-to-date contacts, helping you pass on accurate information to other people and giving practitioners a snapshot of all of those working with you and your family.
What can it help you to do?
Our Family, My Life:
- Improves communication and helps practitioners working with you to work in partnership with you
- Improves co-ordination when you’re in contact with lots of different people working for a number of different services
- Helps you give the right sort of information about your family and child to people who are working with you
- Keeps everyone up to date with what’s been happening
- Encourages joint planning - particularly when lots of different people are involved.
If you have key working support then this resource will help the person providing that support to keep everyone who is involved with your child up to date on developments and to co-ordinate discussion and planning.
The Our Family resource is useful if:
- You’re meeting lots of different people because of concern about your child’s health or development
- You already know that your child has a particular condition, disability or difficulty, but you’re still finding out about how best to use any help or support that’s available
- You’re receiving help but sometimes it’s difficult for everyone involved to agree what needs to happen next
- You could do with some help coordination everything that’s going on.
The resource provides a simple set of templates to help with some of these things and you can use it in whatever way you find most helpful:-
- Some people like to use all the sections
- Some find some sections more useful than others
- Some families find different templates useful at different stages of their child’s development, because the services they use change as time goes by.
However you choose to use this resource, the idea is to keep you at the centre of discussion and decision-making about you and your family.If you don’t want to use the resource, that’s fine, but save it somewhere safe so that you can find it again later if you want to - it sometimes takes a bit of time to work out whether it can help you and if so, how.
At the heart of the original set of Early Support’s resources was the Family file, which included a single family centred plan – the Family service plan. This plan was intended to enable multiagency and integrated working with the child and family at the centre. This plan needed to be redeveloped so that it is consistent with the Education, Health and Care plan. In the absence of a current template for this plan, Early Support has developed a version, which is included in this resource. NOTE: This is not a statutory Education, Health and Care Plan. You will need to discuss the use of the Support Plan element of this resource with those working with you to check how they suggest you should use it.
This Support Plan will help everyone working with you to review how things are going and to agree joint, shared priorities, keeping you and your child at the heart of decision-making and encouraging practitioners to work in partnership with you. The format provided for the support plan is designed to take a person-centred, outcomes based approach to planning. It is also designed to dovetail with the new Education, Health and Care Plan, which will replace statements – however, it is NOT in itself a statutory Education, Health and Care Plan and does not, as it stands, guarantee provision.
If you are feeling overawed by the plan then don’t worry – the idea is that the support plan section of this resource would be completed with practitioners, possibly in the context of a multiagency meeting with you. Ask the practitioner who is working most closely with you to explain how it could be used and to help you to work out the best way to use it for you.
[Name]
[Photograph of you and/or your family could go here]
Information about me
Full name: / Parent or carer names (indicate parental responsibility)Date of birth: / Telephone:
Mobile:
NHS/NI number: / Email:
Contact address:
Other relevant registration numbers (e.g. education) / School/ College/ work details (if appropriate)
Contact address: / Language used at home
Main communication method
Main support need (include any special educational need identified through assessment) / Communication support needed? / Yes / No
Is this support required for child/young person or parent carers?
1
This documentmustnot be shared with anyone without asking the child, young person or family first
One page profile
Current photo of [name] / What people like and admire about meWhat’s important to me
How best to support me
1
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Other things that are important to know about me and my family
The following times are difficult for me or my family to attend appointments or meet professionals:
The following barriers make it more difficult for me or my family to attend appointments or meet professionals:
These are some of the important people in my life
Insert photographs in here if you wish
Photo / Name / RelationshipImportant to me now
(this might include health, relationships, family,education, independence, housing, community, inclusion, play, friendships, further education, university and employment)
Important to me for the future
(this might includethings that are likely to be important for future health, relationships, family, education, independence, housing, community, inclusion, play, friendships, further education, university and employment)
How best to supportme now
(this might includesupport for health needs, education needs, inclusion, employment needs, support in different settings etc)
How best to support me for the future
(this might includesupport for future health needs, education needs, inclusion, employment needs, support in different settings etc)
NOTE: At transition or as the child gets older, you might wish to include a separate ‘important for’ section for the young person’s family.
What is working
What’s not working so well
MY SUPPORT PLANSummary of what I need to support me and my family well
Outcome / What and how / Who / By when / Resources needed(include personal budget and/or direct payment where applicable)Provision / What and how / Who / By when / Resources needed
Summary of Special Educational provision to be made
Summary of health care provision required
Summary of social care provision required
Preferred school, nursery or post-16 setting (draft plan)
Agreed school, nursery or post-16 setting (final plan)
Detail of Outcome 1
What will we do? / Who will do it? / By when? / ProviderHow will we know we are successful
How well did we succeed?
Detail of Outcome 2
What will we do? / Who will do it? / By when? / ProviderHow will we know we are successful
How well did we succeed?
Repeat for more outcomes and actions
The following people discussed and wrote this plan
All agree to work to the next steps and to provide the support outlined in this plan
Name / Role / SignatureThe following people also contributed by writing a report
Name / RoleMe and/or my family consents to this plan being shared with the following people:
Name / Role / Contact detailsToday’s date is:………………………………………………………
We expect to review the plan about………..months from now.
Appendix 1: List of people working with me andmy family
Name: / Name:Professional role: / Professional role:
Telephone or mobile: / Telephone or mobile:
Email: / Email:
Date of first contact: / Date of first contact:
Name: / Name:
Professional role: / Professional role:
Telephone or mobile: / Telephone or mobile:
Email: / Email:
Date of first contact / Date of first contact
Appendix 2: Assessment information
In this appendix, you could include any assessments carried out by those who are working with you. Include in this any further information from you and/or your family, that you haven’t included elsewhere, about what you need to support you.
Appendix 3: Communication chart
This is how I prefer to communicate
What is happening / I do this / We think it means this / Those working with me should do thisAppendix 4: Decision making chart
This is what I need to help me make decisions
Preferred format/method for receiving information / Method for presenting choices to me / How to help me understand / Good and bad times to ask me to make a decisionAppendix 5: How I learn best
Best way to present information to me / Best place for me to learn / These are the things I am interested in / These are the things that are not helpful to my learningOther possible appendices, across the age range
Appendix 6: Detailed housing specification
Appendix 7: Employment profile
Appendix 8: More detailed how best to support me
Appendix 9: In the event of a crisis plan…
Appendix 10: Transition support information
1
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first