Written descriptions of care planning often suggest a rather linear, mechanistic and a somewhat bureaucratic way of developing help for a young person that may feel a bit remote from experience of this work. Our intention is to try to capture the more dynamic and changing aspects of this process without the text becoming too shapeless and vague.

As ever in AMBIT, the task is to balance a number of linked aspects of practice: namely attending to the relationship with the young person, knowing where the work is on the therapeutic journey and then applying planning appropriate to that stage.

(a) Understanding how the young person stands in relation to me (and help)

First: Develop clarity about the client's Relationship to help (or to me, the worker) at this time.

• This is the "Sustaining sensitive attunement" and this is fully covered in all the material linked to Active Planning: a core process with clients.
• Understanding their perspective may help the worker to make specific adaptations to the way they present the help they are able to offer.

(b) Understanding which phase of work we are in?

Second: Develop clarity about Where are we in the therapeutic journey?

• Mentalizing theory suggests that knowing which of the Phases of AMBIT work my client and I are currently in is helpful for my state of mind, and clarity about my aims, goals and plans.
• It is easy to imagine that the Phases of AMBIT work are dictated solely by a calendar (see the Intervention timeline), but in reality the nature of the therapeutic relationship may dictate rather differently from the "best laid plans"! So Phases of AMBIT work are not necessarily sequential, and you may return to earlier phases at those points in time when you are introducing a new focus for the work. This is not so distant from the concept that workers talking to young people using substances should Adapt your Discourse in recognition of different states of mind or motivation.

(c) Applying planning to whichever phase we are in

Third: Apply these principles at every stage in Active Planning: a core process with clients

• To some extent planning is "just planning", but we have tried to break this process down into stages to allow workers to think about this vital skill, and offer tools to support this.
• See Active Planning: a core process with clients for more detail on selecting What to do?.
• See the Active Planning Map for a simple tool to help carry this out with your client
• See advice on How to draw up a Care Plan as a document
• Active Planning: a core process with clients underpins the production of the Care Plan
• But we emphasise that "Care Planning" is much more than just the production of a document!

There are a range of Timescales for Active Planning (immediate, short term, and longer term).