Provide active support — iCan Qualifications Limited End-Point Assessment Health & Social Care Revision
This element focuses on the principles and practice of active support, a person-centred model that empowers individuals with disabilities to participate me
Topic Synopsis
This element focuses on the principles and practice of active support, a person-centred model that empowers individuals with disabilities to participate meaningfully in daily life. It covers understanding the ethos of enabling rather than doing for, interacting positively to promote engagement, implementing tailored daily plans, and maintaining accurate records of participation to evidence person-centred outcomes.
Key Concepts & Core Principles
- Person-centred care: Tailoring support to the individual's preferences, needs, and values, ensuring they are an active partner in their own care.
- Safeguarding: Protecting vulnerable individuals from abuse, neglect, or harm, following policies like the Adult Safeguarding: Prevention and Protection in Partnership (Northern Ireland).
- Effective communication: Using verbal and non-verbal techniques to build trust, understand needs, and report concerns accurately.
- Equality and inclusion: Ensuring everyone has equal access to care and is treated with dignity, respecting diversity in culture, age, disability, and more.
- Health and safety: Applying risk assessments, infection control, and emergency procedures to maintain a safe environment for both service users and staff.
Exam Tips & Revision Strategies
- Directly link your practice evidence to the key concepts of active support: that every moment has potential, little and often, and graded assistance to ensure independence is maximised.
- When evidencing positive interactions, include specific examples of how you tailored your communication and approach to the individual’s needs, using their preferred methods.
- Ensure daily plans and records are clearly linked to the individual’s own goals and preferences; assessors look for a golden thread from plan to implementation to recorded outcome.
- Use person-centred language in all documentation, describing what the individual did, what support was provided, and how participation was enabled, rather than what was done to them.
Common Misconceptions & Mistakes to Avoid
- Confusing active support with simply supervising or doing tasks for the individual, rather than enabling them to participate as independently as possible.
- Failing to individualise daily plans, resulting in generic activities that do not reflect the person’s specific preferences, abilities, or cultural background.
- Recording participation in vague terms (e.g., ‘had a good day’) instead of documenting concrete evidence of engagement, support provided, and outcomes achieved.
- Overlooking the importance of positive interaction techniques, such as positioning, timing, and communication, and assuming participation is solely about physical involvement.
Examiner Marking Points
- Award credit for demonstrating a clear understanding of active support principles, including focusing on strengths, enabling choice and control, and breaking tasks into achievable steps.
- Award credit for evidence of positive interaction techniques such as using the individual’s preferred communication methods, offering encouragement, and adapting approach to promote active engagement without coercion.
- Award credit for implementing person-centred daily plans that reflect the individual’s interests, goals, and preferences, with documented adaptations made to support participation in a real work setting.
- Award credit for maintaining person-centred records that are factual, objective, and detail the level and quality of participation, including any changes or progress, in line with confidentiality and data protection.