Includ-ed, red europea de educación inclusiva

Summary

The project “New Paths to Inclusion” focused on the transfer of the evidence based and innovative concept of “Person Centred Planning” (PCP) and Practice from the United Kingdom. Main aim was to adapt and conceptualize the PCP approach into new vocational education qualification formats for the rest of Europe and to advance inclusion in all aspects of society for people with intellectual disabilities in the participating countries.

Project object:

The purpose of the project “New Paths to Inclusion” was

• > To transfer the newest developments and experiences of person centred planning and practices from the United Kingdom to partners in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy and Luxembourg
• > To develop a modular and inclusive training in person centred planning and practice to stimulate organisational change in the participating organisations and countries
• > To develop joint European quality criteria on training in Person CentredPlanning
• > To set up national transfer platforms in the participating countries to promote  sustainable implementation and dissemination of project results

Methodology

In the curriculum development process it was important to transfer the latest developments of person centred approaches from the UK and incorporate experiences from other European countries. Helen Sanderson Associates, an experienced training and consultancy organisation in person centred thinking, planning and practice, organised the transfer of expertise from the UK and took a lead in developing the training course.  

The curriculum and training course were developed by a European Curriculum Development Team Julie Allen and Julie Lunt from Helen Sanderson Associates, Oliver Koenig from Austria, Milena Johnova from the Czech Republic, Ines Boban and Stefan Doose from Germany and Andreas Hinz from the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and approved by the advisory board that consisted of the other project members. The curriculum development group also formulated a collection of standards for trainers.

Target

People with intellectual disabilities, vocational education and training organisations, service providers, funding authorities, self-advocacy organisations, research institutions and umbrella organisations

Good practice innovations

Person centred planninghas been developed mainly in the English speaking countries over the past 30 years to support people with disabilities to life a self determined life in the community (see O’Brien/ O’Brien 2000). However there are certain barriers to full and effective implementation for person centred planning that were tackled within the project “New Paths to Inclusion”:

•     > The absence of long term coordinated and certified training programs
•     > The implementation gap within service providers.
•     > The absence of sustainable support structures on a regional and national level.

Good practice achievements

The European training course in person centred approaches consists of six modules with seminars each one to three days on a facilitation level, that should enable the participants to support and facilitate person centred planning processes and two additional European multiplication  seminars , for those who want to facilitate training events in person centred planning and influence change at organisational and strategic levels (http://trainingpack.personcentredplanning.eu/index.php/en/)

Another important element of the project was the transfer platforms and conferences on a regional and/or national level. The transfer platforms promoted the involvement of other organisations interested in the project and person centred planning.

In Germany the transfer platform consisted of a network of about 20 regional partners, who supported the project. They organised a big regional conference “New Paths to Inklusion – Zukunftsplanung in Ostholstein”. In Austria there was a series of big transfer platforms with over 100 participants on different topics like person centred practices in the UK, personal budget, the role of public authorities and service providers in implementing person centred services, a public presentation of different planning processes of the training course. In the Czech Republic a range of person centred planning tools were presented on the QUIP conference for change in Prague. The project was presented on the European conference “Europe in Action” organised by Inclusion Europe in Cyprus in May 2011. In each country the results of the project were presented in autumn 2011 on national conferences.

All project results were presented at the annual conference of Inclusion Europe „Europe in Action“ in May 2011 in Cyprus as well as on national dissemination events. As an outcome of the project national Networks on Person Centred Planning have been established in Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

The Curriculum including a detailed Training Pack, many stories of experience and success of course participants and organisations, background information on Person Centred Planning, as well as the results of the accompanying research ("Training and Practice in Person Centred Planning: AEuropean Perspective") can be found on the project website under www.personcentredplanning.eu.

Project partners and other stakeholders

The partnership included service providers, which were willing to develop their services in a more person centred way, vocational education and training organisations, funding authorities, self-advocacy-organisations, research institutions and umbrella organisations on a regional, national and European level as operative and supporting partners. The operative partners were:

• > Vocational education and training organisations acting as national coordinators: Academy of the Lebenshilfe (Vienna, Austria), Fachschule für Sozialpädagogik (Lensahn, Germany) and QUIP - Association for Change (Prague, Czech Republic)
• > Service providers for people with disabilities as changing organisations and members of the advisory board: Balance (Vienna, Austria), Ostholsteiner Behindertenhilfe (Eutin, Germany), Rytmus (Prague, Czech Republic), Lebenshilfe Südtirol (Italy), APEMH (Luxembourg), Social Advisory Board (Bratislava, Slovakia).
• > Research organisations with an expertise in person centred planning: Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany)
• > Transfer experts in person centred thinking, planning and practice: Helen Sanderson Associates (United Kingdom)
• > Organisation with an expertise in supporting online learning platforms: BIDOK (Innsbruck, Austria)
• > European umbrella organisation: Inclusion Europe (Brussels, Belgium)

> Project- coordination: queraum. cultural- & social research (Vienna, Austria).

Evaluation

The inclusive training course and the project were evaluated by Andreas Hinz, Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Hinz/Kruschel 2011), who is experienced in person centred planning and practices. Another aim was to get an overview on person centred practices in Europe by a European Survey.