Family Footings, MacIntyre: Preparing Families for
Person Centred Review Meetings with Schools in London
What is Family Footings?
MacIntyre’s Family Footings is a project funded by a department of Education
grant for the ‘Improving Outcomes for Children, Young People and Families’
initiative.
Family Footings focuses on increasing the effectiveness of families of children
with Special Educational Needs to access services. Family Footings uses a
creative and dynamic approach to empower families to take more control.
Through sharing and using person centred approaches, families will feel more
listened to and more able to articulate and express their expectations and
aspirations for them as a family and also for their child. Using person centred
approaches provides a more transparent process that empowers families and
promotes inclusivity.
Family Footings Outcomes
 Families and individuals have increased control of their lives by being able to
create their own care and health pathways.
 Families and individuals have increased confidence in using person centred
thinking within their lives and increased expectation on services to work in
this way
 Family units / networks are stronger and more connected with their local
communities
 Family members have a greater campaigning voice to raise the standards of
services locally and nationally and act as role models
Specific Aims for this piece of work

Families to be equipped to confidently lead the planning process for their
young person

Families to know that they have been engaged with appropriately by those
professionals taking part in the review process

The young person to remain the focal point of all aspects of planning as a
result of preparation work achieved by the family prior to the actual
review process

The young person and their family to be able to define their own
personalised outcomes based on their priorities
Example Plan
Session Title
Session Content
Overall Purpose of the course
To Work with families and young
people so they gain a confident
understanding of the person centred
review process so that they are able to
fully contribute and take ownership and
leadership of them where they are
comfortable
Session 1: Looking to the future defining hopes, dreams and goals
This will raise families and young
people’s expectations and encourage
them to aim higher to achieve a better
life. Identify what is positive and
possible for them as a family
Session 2: Define skills, talents and
gifts that each young person and their
family bring
This will help families and young
people to think about the naturally
occurring supports that they have
access to within their
lives/communities. These can often
make the difference between a good
life and a great community life
Session 3: Identify what is ‘Important
to’ and what great support is for the
family and the young person –
This will help families to think about
the quality of life things that they are
unwilling to negotiate on – the things
that they want present every day
whilst balancing that with identifying
the way the young person and their
family prefer to be supported. The
things that they know work well and
are tried and tested. This will be
developing a one page profile with
guidance of taking it further
Session 4: Looking at What is Working
/ What is Not Working and developing
actions
– this is self directed support at it’s
most basic level and will provide an
action plan to begin to move things
forward for the young person and their
family as well as give us an idea of
other useful person centred approaches
would be useful.
Session 5: What is the person centred
review – and let’s bring it all together
This will enable families to spend time
looking at the person centred review
process and reflecting on their
information and looking how they can
make it useful and form actions. They
will be able to identify how they can
prepare for the person centred review
They will receive a brief overview of
the person centred thinking tools and
they will be able to be supported to
identify any other tools that they think
will be useful for themselves/their
young person.
Session 6: Celebrate, Reflect and Next
Steps
– A chance for the group to meet up
and celebrate their experiences, to give
feedback and to think about what’s
next
Evaluation and Monitoring
At the beginning of the process, we will use a tool to gauge parents’
understanding and how they are feeling about their involvement with services
for their young person. We will complete the process with the same tool. We will
also be asking for personal outcomes that young people and their families want
to achieve and we will evaluate whether the process has impacted on this or not.
Families will be invited to share their learning and experience with Family
Footings to be formally captured. This will be shared with the school partner.
The school partner will equally be expected to share their learning and feedback
on the process and impact with Family Footings.
Inputs
Family Footings will provide:

Facilitator(s) to run the sessions

Resources for the sessions

A report on the outcomes of the course for the school partner

Opportunity for school staff to get involved in the course
School Partner will provide:

Cohort of families who are signed up to attend and committed to the full
course

Meeting Room and refreshments

School commitment to engage with the process (precise details of what
this looks like to be agreed with individual school partner) including
participation in evaluation and monitoring of impact.

Access for Facilitator to attend some person centred reviews

Feedback and evaluation of the impact that the course has had on the
effectiveness of Family Leadership within the person centred review
process.
Logistics
Audience: Sessions designed for families to do together with their young person
present or for parents to develop skills and confidence and then go on to do this
with their families at home. Detail to be agreed with school partner
Capacity: 8-10 families, young people attending must be accompanied by a
family member
Timescales: Weekly meetings x 5 with a final celebration and feedback session
to happen after the families have experienced the review process.
Session Duration: 2hrs with break (precise time and duration to be agreed with
school and parents)
Session Style: Relaxed environment, interactive and creative exercises and
techniques to explain and capture the information. To be tailored to reflect the
specific needs of the group as the course evolves.
Contact: Yvonne Linton 07557435918 or
Email:Yvonne.linton@macintyrecharity.org