Time to get rid of the forms

Published in Features on 9 Sep 2014

Good assessment of someone's care and support needs to start from a blank sheet of paper. This is a notion that has the power to strike terror into hearts of seasoned professionals - or does it?

When one of organisations I've been working with decided to experiment with blank sheet assessments there was an uproar, as some people saw it as reducing their professionalism.

Six months on and moving away from ' boxed in' assessments has allowed people to use their creativity and be creative in finding solutions to the care and support issues people were presenting.

This led me to think about whether or not we under estimate the creative instincts of people working in social care. If we were better able to tap into creative thinking and doing maybe we'd find solutions to peoples care and support needs that we just aren't able to imagine. Maybe 'boxed in' assessments don't give us the licence to experiment and create an environment that allows people to be creative.

After all if we are developing people's knowledge and skills why don't we then let them use what they have learnt to be creative and come up with creative care and support solutions.

When I mentioned this idea at a conference I was at recently there was a spontaneous sigh of relief and a round of applause..

I wonder..

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