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Person Centred Thinking and Planning

Introducing Person Centred Thinking
For people being supported by services, it is not person centred planning that matters as much as the pervasive
presence of person centred thinking. If people who use services are to have positive control over their lives, if they
are to have self directed lives within their own communities then those who are around the person, especially those
who do the day to day work need to have person centred thinking skills. Only a small percentage of people need to
know how to write good person centred plans, but everyone involved needs to have good skills in person centred
thinking, in the value based skills that underlie the planning.
There are a number of reasons for this. Teaching and supporting the use of person centred thinking skills will mean
that:
• It is more likely that plans will be used and acted on, that the lives of people who use services will improve
• You will have a number of ways to get plans started
• Updating the plans will occur “naturally”, needing less effort and time
Every style of person centred planning is rooted in a person centred way of thinking. It is made up of a set of valuebased skills that result in seeing the person differently and give us a way of acting on what is learned. Training in
person centred planning is training in a way of thinking as much as it is in a way of developing a plan.
In essential lifestyle planning we have identified 5 basic skills and with 7 tools. One way to think about them is in this
skill pyramid:
Helen Sanderson Associates

1

Supporting Dreams

Supporting Relationships/ Community Connecting

Being ‘Mindful’ and Recording Learning:
• Working/ Not Working
• The 4 Questions
• Learning Log

Matching Staff and Those
Using Services

Recognizing/ Sorting Important
To and Important For: Finding the
Balance Between

Learning, Using and
Recording Communication

Defining Staff Roles and
Responsibilities

Skills Needed To Support People

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