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16 NOVEMBER 2009
NO 1514
Assessment and planning
Assessment and planning involve an interactive process of determining and assigning value and meaning to what is known about the lives of those we serve while, simultaneously, formulating and determining the methods by which something is done to improve their circumstances. In CYC practice, life-space (known also as therapeutic milieu) interventions are selected to generate favoured results, outcomes, or goals, whatever one chooses to call them. They are intentional and purposeful, and are based on values that are considered important and useful for enhancing the growth and development of children, youth, and families.
When considering assessment and planning in any context, let alone a relational context, some practitioners take a dim view of case-planning approaches, systems, models, or frameworks that prescribe explicit methods of thinking and doing. If this is true for you, note that all frameworks have both benefits and limitations with regard to planning. In the benefits column, frameworks can achieve the following:
In order to be intentionally relational in planning, those involved require a framework, or way of thinking, about critical aspects of planning and how each aspect works, or unfolds, in relation to the others. Different aspects of planning serve to identify and define the focus of inquiry and change (i.e., basic premises, behaviour-change frameworks, and process models). They can then be used to organize the essence or fundamental nature of the conversations with children, youth, and families, and our thinking about and planning of what to do within each critical aspect of the planning process. Ultimately, our frames of reference affect how we do what we do.
The benefits of interpretive frameworks, like those identified above, diminish when frameworks are applied in a reductive or simplistic manner that addresses the components but which causes the CYC worker to lose sight of the whole. A framework for assessment also loses its efficacy if it is poorly defined and enables disparate or inconsistent application because it can be interpreted in a variety of ways; on the other hand, if a framework is brought to bear in a prescriptive manner, such that the practitioner believes that "this is how it must be done," and no flexibility in application is permitted, this will minimize the usefulness of an otherwise productive model. Finally, the mechanical and unthinking application of a framework cannot stand in for competence; the step-by-step deployment of a set program of activities does not ensure that the job is done well or thoughtfully, nor does it necessarily serve those the CYC worker seeks to assist.
GERARD BELLEFEUILLE AND DONNA JAMIESON
Bellefeuille, G. and Jamieson, D. (2008).
Relational-centred planning: A turn toward creative potential and
possibilities. In Bellefeuille, G. and Ricks, F. (Eds.) Standing on
the Precipice: Inquiry into the creative potential of Child and Youth Care practice. Edmonton, Alberta. MacEwan Press. pp. 36-37.
