Sunfield Professional Development Centre
6th October 2006
This text is taken from http://www.sunfield-school.org.uk/Training/Autumn2006.htm. You can book a place on the course by downloading the application form from that website or directly from http://213.2.149.138/Downloads/PDC%20App%20Form%202006.pdf.pin
Sally Millar is joint Coordinator of the Communication Aids for Language and Learning (CALL) Centre, based in the University of Edinburgh. She is a specialist in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), who assesses children, delivers training, carries out research and development work, and generally tries to facilitate and promote development work and good practice through a range of activities. Sally Millar 'invented' Personal Communication Passports, with Gretel McEwen, back in 1992 and is the author of a recent book on the subject of Passports.
This course is suitable for professionals from a wide range of disciplines eg. education, therapy, social work, voluntary agencies, as well as parents and carers. It involves some background and discussion but is essentially practical and goal oriented. A Personal Communication Passport is a practical and person-centred way of supporting an individual who cannot easily 'speak for him/herself'. (This often means someone with complex communication difficulties, but Passports can equally be useful to people with 'hidden' difficulties.) A Passport draws together complex information and distils it into a clear, positive and accessible format – hopefully attractive and readable - helping staff and conversation partners to understand the person with disabilities and respond consistently, and supporting the person with disabilities across transitions. A Passport is a vital tool in 'joined–up' planning and working, partnership with parents /families, and is an excellent a way of implementing and recording service-user consultation and participation. A Passport belongs to the person, not to professionals. Many people already make something like this - this day will be a chance to revisit 'first principles' of good practice, identify some helpful tools and resources, and to discuss ways of making sure Passports are ethical, engage families and 'owners', and are updated and accurate
This course will benefit you by:
- Giving you an introduction (or a refresher) to the principles and practicalities of Passports
- Providing an update on good practice, ethical, procedural and management issues
- Inspiring you to review your own practices currently and to think about ways of developing this
- Giving you time to plan an outline of a Passport for yourself
- Giving you ideas about how to engage others in co-operative working
- Making you feel confident that you can make a good Passport, following best practice, that will benefit your service user(s) with disabilities.
At the end of this course those participating will have:
- Been thoroughly briefed on the principles and practicalities of Passports, including good practice, ethical, procedural and management issues
- Seen numerous examples of different Passports (both complete/real booklets and excerpts)
- Thought about how Passports fit in with other forms of assessment and documentation/record-keeping and taken decisions about your own service planning
- Discussed and worked in small groups to plan and draft Passport pages for their own pupils/clients, sharing ideas
- Received information about where to obtain further information and free resources
- Received useful handouts and had the option to buy Sally Millar's Passports book at a discount.
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