Inclusive practice

Colin: Sometimes when we’re doing person-centred planning, with the path and the map approach, the big visual approaches to planning, we encourage people to bring some Young people along from the schools and want a diverse range of Young people to be present. Sometimes we plan with Young people directly as well. They like the interactiveness of it and that they get a chance to speak, however they communicate, and obviously we value that. Having said that, we did once run our Keys to Inclusion training with 5 and 6-year-olds and that was interesting. We always wondered would the work we do with adults be transferable to very young children, because it’s very simple communication, and they loved it.

Derek: Equally, when we do work directly with Young people in terms of Circles of Friends, people are very quick to see that the issues of exclusion and social justice are ultimately relevant to everybody. Not just the person that happens to be the focus of the circle at that time. Young people are always very quick to see what the point of this is, why somebody is on the margins and what they can do to make that less likely. Maybe they haven’t named it in that way as an inclusion or social justice issue, but in their experience it’s crucial. So, tapping into that, what troubles or what pleases Young people, is also important and very relevant.

4. Maresa: Can you tell us more about Circles of Support?

Derek: One of the most obvious things is that if you’re in a mainstream setting then the key resources you need, for a circle of friends or circle of support, are already all around you – the peer group. In essence what we’re doing here is involving the peer group in building inclusion. Based on the idea that you go to school to be with other young people, not to be with adults, and if we can find a method that helps us recruit Young people in support of building inclusion then we’re being a possible support.

Colin: We’ve probably set up hundreds of circles all around the UK, occasionally internationally, with many young people. Just always really impressed by how the Young people step forward and volunteer. Even around the most challenging of their number who’s been causing them harm or upset for whatever reason, still there was always a team that would volunteer and wrap themselves around that Young person and problem solve with them. Meet with them weekly and make a change to their lives. And that they haven’t heard of the idea that the adults can step back and let Young people come forward and work their magic. It’s powerful, still very powerful. And interestingly we wrote that book a long time ago now but still copies every week get sold. Probably the best seller of all our books which says something as well, doesn’t it?

5. Maresa: What are you both most proud of?

Derek: I think the training methodology. We’ve worked over years to make the training a success in a way. I say now without boasting that we make it look easy. That kind of training or facilitating person-centred planning or whatever, but of course it’s not easy. For us, years of thinking and talk and trying things out have gone into it to get what you would see today. That doesn’t happen overnight. Looking back, I think to have become the effective, successful trainers we are, would be one of the things I’m most pleased about.

Colin: I would agree with that. And I kind of think of maximising the idea of drawing, not so much on the psychology but the arts really. There was music and drama. There was pictorial, graphic art and communication. And then bringing it all together. An interesting mulch that seems to work for