Sally Millar 'invented' the Personal Communication Passports approach in 1991/1992, which coincided with a similar approach known as 'Client Books', one part of the Newcastle Interaction Assessment Network. At the time Passports was a new way of documenting and presenting information about children and adults with disabilities who were unable to speak for themselves.
They have become widely used home, care, social work, health and education settings. Personal Communication Passports are a way of making sense of formal assessment information and recording the important things about a child, in an accessible and child-centred way, and of supporting children's transitions between services. Importantly, also, a Passport is more than the end-product booklet. Creating a Passport is a process. The decision to create and use a Passport gives a clear focus for ongoing home/school liaison, partnership working with parents and for interdisciplinary collaboration.
Passports aim to:
- present the person positively as an individual, not as a set of 'problems' or disabilities;
- provide a place for the person's own views and preferences to be recorded and drawn to the attention of others;
- reflect the person's unique character, sense of humour etc.;
- describe the person's most effective means of communication and how others can best communicate with, and support the person;
- draw together information from past and present, and from different contexts, to help staff and conversation partners understand the person and have successful interactions;
- place equal value on the views of all who know the children well, as well as the views of the specialist professionals.
