My support network

What it is for

The shape does some of the work. The young person is in the middle and everything else arranges itself around them, which is a different feeling from writing a list down a page. Four boxes also make absence visible: an empty quadrant is as informative as a full one, and you can see it at a glance rather than having to count.

The three questions underneath turn the map into something you can act on. Who they would contact first is a safety question. Who helps in different ways separates the person who listens from the person who turns up. Where they would like more support is the only part of the sheet that asks what is missing, and it is usually the part worth quoting back in a plan.

Using it in a session

• An empty box is information. Do not fill it for them. A young person with nothing under Friends has told you something. Writing a name in to make the page look better loses it.
• Professionals is often the fullest box. That is worth noticing out loud and gently. A network made mostly of people who are paid to be there is a particular kind of network.
• Question one is about what they would really do. Not who they ought to contact. If the honest answer is a friend rather than an adult, that is the useful answer.
• Question two separates listening from doing. Ask who they would ring at two in the morning and who they would ask for a lift. They are often different people.
• Question three is where the plan comes from. It is the young person naming the gap themselves, which is far stronger in a review than you naming it for them.