Service User Perspectives: The need for an up-to-date care plan
Learning Objectives
After considering this resource, you should understand the significance of an up-to-date care plan to a service user and their carers, and the impact of external factors on planning.
Holloway (2009, p.229) argues: 'Planning, once seen at best as a bridge between assessment and intervention, has come to occupy centre stage in contemporary social work.' This prominence in care planning should in turn have service users at the heart of the planning task.
In the following case study, Mavis shares her concerns over Janice's care provision.
- Think of a task you recently had to plan for. What skills did you use? What main skills do you think social workers need when planning?
- What do you consider to be the main weaknesses in Janice's care plan?
- If you were asked to create a new care plan for Janice, how would you approach the task?
- How do programmes such as direct payments help to support person-centred planning?
The main aspects of law and policy that surround the issues addressed in this resource are listed below. For more information on a specific piece of law or policy, please click on the link.
Law:
Care Standards Act 2000
Policy:
NSF for Older People (2001)
NSF for Long-term Conditions (2005)
Reference:
M Holloway (2009) 'Planning' in R Adams, L Dominelli and M Payne (eds) Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates, 3rd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.