In the second article in this series on person centred planning (PCP), Jackie Kilbane and Jeanette Thompson alert us to some of the misconceptions surrounding this approach and discuss why some professionals are guilty of making PCP fit their practice, rather than the other way round

When first contemplating writing this article we considered what aspect of person centred planning (PCP) we could embrace that was both fresh and useful. After all, nearly everyone involved with people who have a learning disability can say what they think person centred planning is. Many of us have been crediting ourselves with thinking about and doing person centred planning for more than a decade. But can we assume that most people who have a learning disability have great plans and great lives? Experience and evidence informs us this is not so, despite many of us being able to define and describe PCP.