Person-centred planning in education: an exploration of staff perceptions of using a person-centred framework in an alternative provision

ABSTRACT

Opportunities for children to be involved in the decisions made about them are part of current statutory educational legislation. Person-centred planning (PCP) has been proposed as an appropriate method of meeting statutory requirements to gather pupil views. However, young people within alternative provisions (APs) may lack opportunities to be heard. This paper reports on an action research project with staff from an AP for children at risk of exclusion. Participants opted to trial the use of the PCP approach ‘Making Action Plans’ (‘MAPs’; carried out virtually due to Covid-19 restrictions) and evaluated the project through two focus groups. Findings indicate that (virtual) use of MAPs requires staff to carefully consider their setting’s structure, needs, capacity and capabilities. Pre-meeting preparation and adapting the MAP process with technology improved engagement, access and alternative ways of working. The MAP process provided a range of positive outcomes as a by-product of its implementation.

KEYWORDS:

• person-centred planning
• MAP
• alternative provision
• SEMH

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [A.G.] upon reasonable request.

Notes

1. The authors identify that concern about student ‘behaviour’ is very commonly related to some aspect of an identification of SEMH needs (Department for Education & Department of Health 2015)

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded through England’s Department for Education (DfE) National College for Teaching and Learning (NCTL) Initial Training of Educational Psychologists Award 2018 I.

Notes on contributors

Anthony Gray

Dr Anthony Gray currently works for The Royal Borough of Greenwich Educational Psychology Service. His interests relate to person-centred practice, youth justice/youth violence, SEMH, tackling structural inequalities, alternative provision/PRU and exclusions

Kevin Woods

Kevin Woods works at The University of Manchester as Professor of Educational and Child Psychology and director of initial professional training in educational psychology. His research interests include the developing role of educational psychologists, children¹s

Clare Nuttall

Dr Clare Nuttall is a registered practitioner educational psychologist employed with Wigan Council's Educational Psychology Service. She is also employed in The University of Manchester as an Academic and Professional Tutor to the Doctorate in Educational and Child Psychology (initial professional training programme for educational psychologists).