A method from the 'lifeworld': some possibilities for person centred planning for children in care

• Published in: Children & society Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 57 - 70
• Main Author: Houston, Stan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2003; Blackwell
• Subjects: Care plans; Caregivers; Child care; Child Care Services; Child welfare; Child. Socialization; Children; Family; Family relations; Family studies; In care; Northern Ireland; Person centred approach; Planning methods; Residential Institutions; Social life; Social Services; Social Workers; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Treatment Methods; United Kingdom; Frame Analysis; Family; Goffman (E.); Habermas (J.); Child care; Social work
• ISSN: 0951-0605; 1099-0860
• DOI: 10.1002/chi.728

This paper describes a method for working with children who are the subjects of care planning and review under the Children Act 1989. The person centred planning method, as it is termed, has been well established in working with adults with special needs but can be extrapolated to encounters with children. It focuses on three fundamental areas: relationship, meaning and narrative. In underscoring these areas, the method restrains the bureaucracy and experience of stigma that is often present for those residing in state care. On a wider plane, the paper argues that the method stands as a veritable example of Habermas's ideas concerning the application of communicative rationality and discursive democracy in social life.