What makes a good support plan

This is demonstrated through the introduction of person-centred planning for people with learning disabilities Valuing People , and more recently as a core-aspect of the personalisation policy set out in Putting People First Building on this, the Care Act introduces a duty on councils to make sure that everybody eligible has a personalised care and support plan and personal budget.

Statutory guidance describes in detail how this should work to put people in control and enable a more holistic approach meeting needs and promoting wellbeing. In Adult Social Care, the personal budget process starts with an assessment which leads to an indicative allocation.

The next step is for the person to develop a care and support plan. This sets out how the person wants their needs to be met, identifies the outcomes important to them and describes how the personal budget will be used to achieve them.

The plan is then signed off at team manager level or through a panel and then implemented. Department of Health guidance for Putting People First suggested a range of person-centred practices for use in support planning. Further work identified 12 key principles of best practice in support planning and brokerage which people grouped under the following headings:. A range of guidance materials have been published to support further implementation of personalised care and support planning from different parts of the system.

NHS England and the Coalition for Collaborative Care published materials on personalised care planning for people with long term conditions opens new window in January, while TLAP published practice guidance to support implementation personalised care and support planning under the Care Act.

TLAP's intention with this work was not to replace previous guidance on personalised care and support planning Rather it is to provide a bridge between the two traditions and to suggest practical ways in which learning and evidence can best be deployed in designing an integrated approach for people with both health and social care needs.

The first task was to build on earlier work in health, social care and personal budgets to align the stages.

Here are the stages developed by National Voices, those used in social care and those within personal health budgets. These should be at the heart of the training and support programme for staff and need to be the organising principles for local design teams. The following principles will also help to guide the care and support planning process:. Personalised care and support planning tool.

Personalised care and support planning in health settings In health settings, personalised care and support planning is expected to become the routine way in which traditional health care and support for self management is brought together for each person by: sign posting to activities within a supportive community coordinating with social care when necessary. Personalised care and support planning in social care settings In social care settings, personalised care and support planning PCSP is described in statutory guidance as a holistic, person-centred process that enables the person to identify their needs and outcomes.

What should good care and support planning look like? Working with members of TLAP's National Co-production Advisory Group and its equivalent from the Coalition for Collaborative Care, the following statements describes what good personalised care and support planning looks like from their perspective: I am trusted to write my own care and support plan, with whatever help I need.

My care and support plan is about the whole of my life, not just about assessed needs or money. I am encouraged and supported to think creatively about ways to achieve my outcomes. If I need help to plan, I can choose who supports me and who will help put the plan into practice. People who support me to plan, have a flexible, open, honest, positive, solution-focussed attitude. I can involve friends and family in the process if I choose.

I have all the information I need to plan - when I need it, in an accessible way, including signposting to what is available locally. I am supported to take risks, and know it is OK to make mistakes and change my mind. Personal budgets Adults with eligible needs can be given a personal budget by the local authority. The personal budget can be given to you in three different ways or a combination of them : By services being provided directly by the local authority such as the local authority giving you a placement at a day centre.

By services being provided by an organisation like a charity. By the provision of direct payments. What can you spend your direct payments on? This can be done by: directly employing personal support staff. Local authorities should ensure the direct payment covers the costs associated with directly employing support staff e. National Insurance, DBS checks, holiday pay and training costs. The provider will take on all the employment duties and responsibilities and include this in the amount it charges.

Providers should work alongside you and when appropriate your family to make sure you are actively involved in recruitment, supervision of staff and identifying training needs. Examples of how you might use your direct payments: To pay someone to support you in a job.

To pay someone to support you at college. To get support for you to take a short break. To get support for personal care. To get support for cooking or cleaning. Some carers will have substantial difficulty being involved in the Support Planning process. The Local Authority has a duty to determine who these carers are and to provide independent advocacy to facilitate their involvement. For further information about the advocacy duty, including how to establish substantial difficulty see The Duty to Provide an Independent Advocate.

Ultimately, the guiding principle in the development of the plan is that the process should be person-centred and person-led, in order to meet the needs and achieve the outcomes of the carer in ways that work best for them as an individual or part of a family.

Both the process and the outcomes should be built holistically around the carers wishes and feelings, their needs, values and aspirations. During the Support Planning process the Local Authority should support the carer and their advocate if appropriate to explore:. The indicative personal budget amount should be shared with the carer and anyone else involved in completing the plan at the start of Support planning, with the final amount of personal budget being confirmed through this process.

They should be made aware that the indicative budget amount can go both up and down as a result of the Support planning process. Providing an indicative budget enables the carer to exercise greater choice and take control over how their Support needs are met. It means knowing, before Support planning begins, an estimate of how much money will be available to meet a carer's assessed needs.

For information about how the indicative personal budget amount should be calculated see Deciding the Indicative Budget and Personal Budget Amounts. They should be made aware that the indicative budget can go both up and down as a result of the Care and Support planning process. Providing an indicative budget enables the person and their advocate if they have one , to exercise greater choice and take control over how their Care and Support needs are met.

It means knowing, before Care and Support planning begins, an estimate of how much money will be available to meet a person's assessed needs. For information about how the indicative personal budget amount should be calculated see Deciding the Indicative Budget and Personal Budget Amounts. One of the decisions normally made when preparing the Care and Support Plan is how the personal budget will be managed. The person carrying out the Care and Support planning process must be able to provide good information and advice about the different ways that a personal budget can be managed so that the person can make an informed decision about what would work best for them.

Whatever method of managing the personal budget is agreed the Local Authority must be able to amend this at any point should it no longer be appropriate or desired. Specifically the Care Act expects the Local Authority to promote the use of Direct Payments, stating that any ability to meet needs by taking a Direct Payment must be clearly explained to the person, so that they can make an informed decision about whether they wish to take this maximum level of choice and control over their Care and Support.

This should mean offering the choice of a Direct Payment more than once in the planning process and enabling that choice by providing examples of how others have used direct payments, including via direct peer support, for example from user-led organisations. For more information about Direct Payments see Direct Payments.

For more information about the different ways that a personal budget can be managed see Managing the Personal Budget. The Care Act recognises a wide range of methods for meeting needs and expects the Local Authority to be open to exploring all.

The Local Authority must take all reasonable steps to reach an agreement with the person for whom the plan is being prepared about how the Local Authority should meet the needs in question and the method of managing the personal budget.