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Care and support planning for paid carers

As a paid carer, you might find that part of your role will include support planning – helping your clients to live independently by identifying areas that are important to them in their lives and determining what can be done to help them carry on with the things that they love.

The first step in support planning is to determine what needs an individual person has and what their desired 'outcomes' are. For example, your client might 'need' a weekly food shop and their 'desired outcome' could be that they want to be able to go to the shop and pick their own produce. You would then look at difficulties or hurdles that are preventing the desired outcome, such as being unable to go alone, and then come up with a solution, such as arranging for a weekly trip with yourself or a family member to help with the task.

A support plan is a record of all of the different needs, outcomes, problems and solutions that you discuss with your client, their families and any other interested parties, such as a doctor. This should be kept somewhere safe and reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that outcomes are being met, and if not, what can be done differently.

In order to help you get started with support planning, especially if you are setting up as a self-employed paid carer or support worker, or starting a homecare business, we have added a support-planning bundle to our Document Store. This includes a booklet with guidance on how to create a support plan, who should be involved, what it needs to include and how to maintain your records. It also comes with a form template that you can use for support plans and a detailed case study, with worked example of the form.