If you’re having a ‘what matters’ conversation as part of a planned process, such as an assessment or care plan, there’ll usually be an agreed way to record the information.
Keeping the information up-to-date
Social work assessments and reviews may only happen once a year. Reviews in registered services will usually be once every three months.
The information about what matters to the person will be a key part of all these assessments and reviews.
What matters to the person may change often, even daily. This means you’ll usually need to share that information regularly with other people who are supporting the person with a learning disability.
You’ll need a way to record this information and keep it ‘live’ and relevant. You’ll also need a way to share it with anyone else who needs to know.
Ways to record conversations
You need to capture the information in a way that involves the person as much as possible. There are lots of ways to do this, including:
- having a conversation and recording it in writing (the most common method)
- using pre-designed symbols or images, and taking photos of these
- using art and drawings to create a picture of what matters
- taking photographs or videos of things that matter to the person
- asking questions in different ways – for example, ‘what does a good or bad day look like?’ or ‘what does a good life look like?’
- writing things down on sticky notes as they happen and keeping these together in a box.
If you use some of these other ways to record what matters to the person, you may need to create a written version if they’re difficult to share with others.
From a statutory point of view, a conversation will usually have to be documented on a ‘what matters’ form.
It’s always helpful to have a type of form that you can share immediately (or soon afterwards) so everyone’s clear on the actions they agreed to do.
Why you record conversations
It’s important to record this information to support the person to understand and achieve what matters to them, and improve their quality of life.
If you do it for the sake of it, it won’t benefit the person and will create unnecessary work for staff. If you’re not sure, take a moment to ask yourself why you’re recording the information.
Sharing records of your ‘what matters’ conversations
There may be times when statutory partners must share information. To do this, they’ll issue ‘consent to share’ forms for the person with a learning disability to sign. There may also be an agreed way to share information.
The contents of a ‘what matters’ conversation is very personal and you should only share it with people who need to know.
If the person with a learning disability can understand and communicate themselves, they can tell you who they want to share this information with.
If they’re unable to tell you, you should only share with the people who give direct and ongoing support. Sometimes, you’ll need to share it with people who have occasional contact with the person.
Remember
Think about the conversation from the supported person’s point of view:
- “remember that sometimes there may be better ways to record what matters to me other than writing it down – be creative!”
- “if what’s important to me changes from one day to another – you need a simple way to record this to share with others.”
- “this is my information and you should always check with me, or somebody who represents me, who else can see it.”