About this tool

Let’s start by taking a closer look at some of the questions you might have about the perfect week tool.

What does the perfect week tool do?

The perfect week tool shows what a person wants to do each week and how they want to spend their money to achieve this.
 
A “perfect week” is one that is an ideal week for the person, which is both practical and possible within resources (e.g. individualized funding or budget).
 
It describes what could really happen and not just things that would be wonderful but are not possible. 

When should I use the tool?

This tool is a great way of converting all of the information you have gathered from the person-centered thinking tools into practical outcomes that will make a difference to someone’s everyday life.
 
It includes the routines that matter to a person and identifies the important relationships, things to do, places to go and so on.
 
You can use it as:

• A framework for delivering personalized support

• The raw material for a personalized schedule

• A basis for looking at “just enough support” to see if there are more creative ways to support the person such as assistive technology and community connections

What should I do before I start?

You can use information from the other person-centered thinking tools to help you to plan a person’s perfect week. Use the tools to find out:

• Who the important people are in their lives from their relationship circle

• What is important to the person from their one-page profile

• Where the person spends their time, when and with whom from their community map

• Where the person wants to be in one year’s time from the outcomes from what is working/not working and good day and bad day, as well as what people’s dreams are for the future. 

You also need to know if the person has any individualized funding or support schedule.

Who should I involve?

As well as talking to the person, you might find it useful to talk to:

• The person’s family

• The person’s friends and close networks

• The people responsible for providing support

• The people that the person chooses to be present, for example at a planning event such as planning live or reviewing a perfect week at a person-centered review. 

These people could come together through a person-centered review or Planning Live as a way to generate the person-centered information and develop a perfect week.

How can I use this tool to evaluate the service a person receives?

You can use this tool to help you to evaluate the service a person receives by comparing their perfect week to their existing week. Think about:

• Are you delivering what the person wants each week?

• Is the person living the life they want?

• What can you do to make sure that the reality is as close to the perfect week as possible?