The role and function of the Individual Support Services planning team is to ensure that service providers in conjunction with the child and family collaborate on the development of a common support services plan. The support services planning document reflects the agreed upon contributions of all team members to meet the child’s identified needs.

    While the composition of the team will always be determined by the nature and complexity of the child’s needs, whenever possible the number of team members should be kept to the minimum. Streamlining the process is not meant to compromise service quality or the contribution of any service provider. During initial or other subsequent team meetings it may be necessary to involve multiple service providers, from your or other agencies, to ensure the range of issues are identified and addressed. Again the determining factor should be the child’s needs.

Responsibilities

1. ensuring involvement of the child unless one or more of the following compelling reasons exists:

• the child chooses not to participate;

• the child’s level of language development indicates that he/she would not understand the conversation/dialogue;

• the child has demonstrated in a prior meeting(s) that he/she is unable to constructively participate in the process from a behavioural perspective;

• the information to be shared between the team members and the parent(s)/guardian(s) could be harmful to the well-being of the child.

2. selecting the Individual Support Services (ISS) Manager, recognizing that the role is open to the parent/guardian, the child or the professional, based on the individual’s

• understanding of and commitment to the role;

• ability to facilitate a collaborative and team approach;

• ability to maintain contact with those involved in the case;

• projected ability to remain as the team leader for the duration of the team’s activity;

• ability to support the involvement of ALL members equally;

• knowledge of related services and supports;

3 developing the individual support services plan, reflecting the individual contribution of each person and the commitments of each person/agency;

4. ensuring support services and interventions provided are documented;

5. ensuring ongoing review of the ISSP to evaluate the outcomes and effectiveness of each team member’s component of the plan;

6. recording date of termination of service and reasons;

7. continually checking at each team meeting to see if other agencies or divisions of agencies have become involved in the delivery of consultative or direct services to the child and when this occur moves the process to the next stage outlined below.

Where the team is comprised of more than one member of an agency they are responsible for:

1. selecting the Individual Support Services (ISS) Manager. The person who has functioned in this role prior to the formation of this individual support services planning team may continue in this role for the team, if that is deemed appropriate, or another person may be selected based upon that individual’s:

    * understanding of and commitment to the role;

    * ability to facilitate a collaborative and team approach;

    * ability to maintain contact with those involved in the process;

    * projected ability to remain as manager for the duration of the team’s activity;

    * ability to support the child and the family’s involvement and decisions where the parent and child have opted not to assume the role;

    * knowledge of related services and supports.

2. developing the individual support services plan, reflecting the individual contributions of team members to the plan and the commitments of each agency in terms of resourcing, etc.

3. ensuring support services and interventions provided are documented.

4. recording date of termination of service and reasons.

5. ensuring ongoing review of the individual support services plan to evaluate program outcomes and effectiveness, in particular with respect to each team member’s component of the plan.

6. ensuring written reports are submitted to the individual support services manager when it is not possible for a team member to be physically present for the actual meeting(s).

7. ensuring all relevant information/records on the child are made available to the team in accordance with policies for consent/confidentiality, and that such information is provided to the person replacing the team member to ensure continuity and minimum disruption of service.

8. ensuring team members respect the role of all transdisciplinary team representatives.

9. completing the child profile, communicating service needs and resource requirements.

10. ensuring goals are established which take into account the role and responsibilities of each agency and the resources available to meet child needs.

        Appendix A describes the role and potential contribution of some individuals who may be part of the individual support services team.