The strengths approach is all about being person-centred, but the concept of person-centred planning is much more closely associated with learning disability services. It is about ensuring the individual’s needs, wants and personal choices are paramount; and that the role of workers is to listen and learn from the individual in order to shape service responses to meet the priorities expressed.
In this episode I outline the historical development of person-centred planning, its 4 principles, 2 broad questions, 4 specific tools, the ‘circle of care’, and the outcomes represented occasionally by the ‘Personal Book’ or ‘One-Page Profile’. I also review some of the examples of how it is best implemented, and what the critics have to say about whether it really works or not.
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“If a child is labeled as having a learning disability, it has very concrete consequences for the kinds of services and potentially accommodations that child will get.” [Robert Sternberg].