Our family, my life
Contents
Our Family, My Life: Introduction to this resource ............................................................................................................................................................................... 3
What can it help you to do? .................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Information about me ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7
One page profile..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Other things that are important to know about me and my family ................................................................................................................................................... 10
The following times are difficult for me or my family to attend appointments or meet professionals: ........................................................................................... 10
The following barriers make it more difficult for me or my family to attend appointments or meet professionals: ....................................................................... 10
These are some of the important people in my life ............................................................................................................................................................................ 11
Important to me now ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Important to me for the future ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 13
How best to support me now .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 14
How best to support me for the future ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 15
What is working ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16
What’s not working so well ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 17
MY SUPPORT PLAN .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 18
Summary of what I need to support me and my family well .............................................................................................................................................................. 19
Detail of Outcome 1 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 21
Detail of Outcome 2 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 22
The following people discussed and wrote this plan .......................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Appendix 1: List of people working with me and my family ............................................................................................................................................................... 25
Appendix 2: Assessment information .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 26
Appendix 3: Communication chart ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 27
Appendix 4: Decision making chart ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 28
Appendix 5: How I learn best ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 29
Other possible appendices, across the age range ............................................................................................................................................................................... 30
2
This document must not be shared with anyone without asking the child, young person or family first
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 children who 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 kee p a
3
This document must not be shared with anyone without asking the child, young person or family first
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:4
This document must not be shared with anyone without asking the child, young person or family first
 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.
5
This document must not be shared with anyone without asking the child, young person or family first
[Name]
[Photograph of you and/or your family could go here]
6
This document must not be shared with anyone without asking the child, young person or family first
Information about me
Full name:
Parent or carer
names (indicate
parental
responsibility)
Date of birth:
Telephone:
Mobile:
NHS/NI number:
Email:
Contact address:
7
This document must not be shared with anyone without asking the child, young person or family first
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?
8
This document must not 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 me
What’s important to me
How best to support me
9
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:
10
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
These are some of the important people in my life
Insert photographs in here if you wish
Photo
Name
Relationship
11
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Important to me now
(this might include health, relationships, family, education, independence, housing, community, inclusion, play, friendships, further
education, university and employment)
12
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Important to me for the future
(this might include things that are likely to be important for future health, relationships, family, education, independence, housing,
community, inclusion, play, friendships, further education, university and employment)
13
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
How best to support me now
(this might include support for health needs, education needs, inclusion, employment needs, support in different settings etc)
14
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
How best to support me for the future
(this might include support 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.
15
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
What is working
16
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
What’s not working so well
17
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
MY SUPPORT PLAN
18
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Summary 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)
19
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
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)
20
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Detail of Outcome 1
What will we do?
Who will do it?
By when?
Provider
How will we know we are successful
How well did we succeed?
21
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Detail of Outcome 2
What will we do?
Who will do it?
By when?
Provider
How will we know we are successful
How well did we succeed?
Repeat for more outcomes and actions
22
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
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
Signature
The following people also contributed by writing a report
Name
Role
23
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Me and/or my family consents to this plan being shared with the following people:
Name
Role
Contact details
Today’s date is:………………………………………………………
We expect to review the plan about………..months from now.
24
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Appendix 1: List of people working with me and my 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
25
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
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.
26
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
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 this
27
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Appendix 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
decision
28
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Appendix 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 learning
29
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first
Other 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
30
This plan should not be shared with anyone other than the people listed without asking the child/young person or family first