Overview of The Influences and Features of Human Well-being

The overall aim of person centred planning is “good planning leading to positive changes in people’s lives and services” (Ritchie et al, 2003). Person centred planning is not so much a new technique for planning as a new approach to – or new type of – planning that is underpinned by a very exacting set of values and beliefs that is very different to the current norm. It is planning that takes as its primary focus a person- as opposed to a disability or a service or some other particular issue.

It is ‘whole person’ oriented as opposed to disability-management focused. It is about citizenship, inclusion in family, community and the mainstream of life and self-determination and can, therefore, require some very fundamental changes in thinking and the established balances of power, the implications of which are potentially enormous and far reaching. It is grounded in a social model of disability and a strengths based approach.

Person centred planning was developed because people with disabilities often find it difficult to get the kinds of basic services, opportunities and experiences most people take for granted – and even when they do, they frequently find they are required to somehow fit into someone else’s idea of what that service, opportunity or experience should be like and how they should act, think or feel in relation to it (see Howell et al, 2004 and Routledge and Gitsham, 2004; see also John O’Brien, 2004).

Person centred planning seeks to:

• Craft a vision for a person’s life as part of their local community and/or the broader mainstream of life and
• Describe the actions needed to move it in that direction.

It accomplishes this through:

1. Discovering and responding effectively to the various aspirations, capacities and concerns of individuals with disabilities;
2. Understanding and addressing the core issues for individuals – exploring where the person is now, how they would like their life to change and what bringing about that change might entail;
3. Identifying and exploring choices available to the individual;
4. Mobilising and involving individuals’ entire social network as well as resources from the system of statutory services in responding to what is expressed and helping to bring about whatever changes are desired;
5. Making arrangements to follow up on plans on a regular basis in order to go through them, review progress on putting them into action and update them;
6. Discovering a way to record, on an on-going basis: Person centred planning has been a very positive step forward for our service but more significantly for the people who use our service who obtain a service that is right for them and one that works for them.

Policies and Procedures also have a very important part to play in promoting well-being. DBS – This system ensures that everyone who is employed in social care is screened to ensure they are an appropriate person to work with vulnerable adults and or children.

Risk Assessments – These are critical especially in today’s risk averse society. There has to be a risk assessment for everything from person centred risk assessments which can promote positive risk taking which is important for well-being, to risk assessments for the building and the procedures that are carried out. All undertaken to ensure as much of the risk is removed whilst enabling the service to operate and the service users to be safe and well and exploring what is important to them.

Systems and processes play an extensive part in promoting an individuals well-being from the In any recruitment stage ensuring only appropriate people are employed through the DBS system to inspections, audits etc, which are undertaken to establish the quality of the service and that a service users health and well-being are being catered for, to the policies and procedures such as safeguarding, health and safety , staff training requirements etc. All are in place to ensure the well-being of all service users and staff.