Accreditation: detailed assessment criteria

Revised June 2021

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• For an overview of the UKASFP Accreditation scheme click here

Section A:    Solution Focused Observable Behaviours

To be accredited, practitioners must demonstrate the following observable behaviours:

1 Developing and sustaining interrelated sequences of questions

…such that successive questions are clearly linked to the client’s preceding answers and are based on the client’s ideas about their desired outcome, their preferred future, their present situation, what’s currently working and (if applicable) progress to date.

2 Making selective use of summarising or echoing-back

…so that the practitioner shows acknowledgement of what the client says, and is selective about what to amplify or ask more about, choosing those elements of the client’s narrative that contribute to the building of descriptions as detailed below.

3. Eliciting the client’s desired outcome

3.1. At an early stage in the session,  asking questions that elicit a desired outcome from the work, which has  the potential to affect the client’s day-to-day life in the near future.

4. Structuring the conversation so that its overarching theme is that of the client’s movement towards the desired outcome that the client expressed  in 3, above, and includes all of the following:

4.1 Inviting the client to elaborate on the desired outcome from the work to describe its complete achievement in the important areas of their life in which differences would be apparent (the preferred future);

4.2 Using a scale to elicit the client’s assessment of how close their present situation is to the preferred future they have described (and what they are doing or noticing that tells them that they are this number and not a lower one (if the number given is greater than zero) OR (if the number is zero) what they are doing or noticing that is helping them to cope, get by or remain hopeful, etc  (if applicable).

4.3  Asking the client to give several examples of things that are already working. These may be instances (specific occasions when aspects of the preferred future have happened), exceptions (specific occasions on which problems have been absent, or less troublesome), or ways in which things have improved recently in a more general sense.

            The practitioner may choose to ask questions to elicit these examples immediately following on from the client’s answers to the scaling question, and/or they may ask them at other points in the conversation, if this seems a useful way to respond to the client’s words.

            As the client is the judge of whether something constitutes progress towards or is an instance of their preferred future, if this is in doubt the practitioner should check this with the client as necessary.

4.4. Inviting the client to say what they might notice was different if they were to be making (further) progress towards their preferred future.

Explanatory Note for paragraph 5

The session must include sustained sequences of questions that do or could elicit detailed, fine-grained descriptions of at least one of the following:

• the preferred future in its entirety (5.1)
• progress made to date towards the preferred future (5.2)
• anticipated further progress towards the preferred future (5.3)

Detailed, fine-grained descriptions must always include interactional sequences or, at least, clear and sustained attempts by the applicant to elicit these.

Interactional sequences, here, are sequences in which the client describes at least three steps of actual or anticipated change, i.e. what others notice about them, what those others do or say in response, and what the client does or says in response to that. The steps described will be either anticipated (as in item 5.1 and 5.3 ) or retrospective (as in item 5.2)

Further details of the requirements for each of the items 5.1,5.2 and 5.3 are given below.

5. Eliciting detailed, fine-grained descriptions  

5.1 Preferred future in its entirety:  the descriptions elicited should be of concrete behaviours, thoughts and feelings located in specific time(s) and place(s) and cover those areas of the client’s life in which progress is desired. The descriptions should include:

1. first small signs of the desired outcome (or of progress towards it);
2. details of how one ‘event’ (behaviour, feeling, thought) leads to another, and so on;
3. multiple perspectives:what would be noticed by others;
4. interactional sequences constituting at least three steps of change, i.e. what others would notice, what those others would do or say in response and what the client would do or say in response to that.

5.2  Progress to date:  these descriptions will typically relate to examples given by the client under 4.3 above, or to any other examples of progress, instances or exceptions mentioned by the client at other times during the session. The descriptions should be of concrete behaviours, thoughts and feelings, set in specific times and places and relate to:

1. how the progress/instance/exception happened
2. the client’s part in this, i.e. what the client has done that has brought about the instances, exceptions or progress mentioned
3. interactional sequences constituting at least three steps of change, i.e. what others have noticed, what those others have doneor said in response, and what the client has done or said in response to that.
4. the client’s skills, qualities, strengths and resources evident in this instance.

5.3 Anticipated progress towards the preferred future: the descriptions elicited should be of concrete behaviours, thoughts and feelings located in specific time(s) and place(s) and cover those areas of the client’s life in which progress is desired. The descriptions should include:

1. first small signs of further progress towards the desired outcome;
2. details of how one ‘event’ (behaviour, feeling, thought) leads to another, and so on.
3. multiple perspectives:what would be noticed by others;
4. interactional sequences constituting at least three steps of change, i.e. what others would notice, what those others would do or say in response and what the client would or say in response to that.

Section B.     Staying with the Solution Focused Approach

To be accredited, practitioners must also demonstrate the ability to stay within the solution focused approach for the duration of a full initial conversation with a client.  Here, staying with the solution focused approach means working within the assumption that the sole purpose of the practitioner’s questions is to elicit the client’s descriptions, as detailed above, rather than to gather information for assessment or other purposes.

The practitioner should therefore refrain from:

• analysing problems
• ·offering solutions or giving advice (but see Note, below)
• introducing their own ideas
• interpreting what the client says
• imposing their own view about what constitutes progress
• ·offering theories of human behaviour or psychology
• information gathering for purposes of assessment (but see Note, below)

Note:  There may be times when practitioners have to step temporarily out of the solution focused approach in order to meet some of the obligations of their role, which may include elements of assessment, information gathering, advice-giving, statutory intervention, etc.  In these cases, practitioners need to ensure that these elements are clearly separate from the overall solution focused direction of the conversation even though the conversation around these matters may still be informed by solution focused principles.