Today, I’m at the swimming pool with Minh, who has autism and an intellectual disability.

Minh has a personal plan that assists me when I work with him.

It has been developed in collaboration with his mum and the people the support him.

It includes what he wants to achieve whilst he is with me or my colleagues.

It also details how he wants us to support him.

Minh’s plan does change. He’s a typical teenager. He’s always looking for new things to do.

Swimming is what he’s interested in at the moment, so here we are.

Minh has a good support network and we help him with a bunch of activities.

Which in turn helps his skills and his confidence.

This is Michael, Minh’s swimming coach who works with him in the pool.

To get the best possible outcome for Minh, I work very closely with his support network,

which means that some weeks I’ll take him swimming.

Another support worker might take him shopping, and someone else will help him with his volunteer work.

We all use an iPad to document what we do with Minh.

This allows us to share strategies on how to get the best outcomes for Minh.

We are currently working with Minh to help him increase his independence,

to use things like using public transport and to talk to shop assistants.

When working with Minh we are constantly referring to his plan to make sure that we understand his needs,

his goals, and what he wants from us.