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Assessment of your Care Needs

What is an assessment of your care needs?
Why do I need it?
Who is involved?
How do I get it?
What happens during an assessment?
What happens after the assessment?
What does it cost?
Find out more

What is an assessment of your care needs?

An Assessment of your Care Needs is an assessment carried out with you by care professionals to find out what your care needs are and how they might best be met. It is sometimes known as a 'community care assessment', 'joint needs assessment' or a 'shared assessment'.

Why do I need it?

You need to have an Assessment of your Care Needs if you want to receive help from your Local Authority with arranging or providing most care services, for example, home care, day care, or a place in a care home.

Even if you plan to arrange and fund these services yourself, it is still a good idea to get an assessment of your care needs to ensure that all your care needs are identified and that you are aware of any help that may be available to you from your Local Authority or the NHS.

Who is involved?

The most important person involved in the assessment is you. The assessment gives you the chance to talk about your needs and wishes and this information is written down and goes into preparing your care plan.

The person who carries out the assessment with you may be a social worker, district nurse, occupational therapist or another care professional. They may be the 'lead' care professional who is involved with your care, but they may work closely with other care professionals in preparing your care plan. To do this, they must ask for your written permission to share specific information with other care professionals. Information is shared in order to make the best informed assessment possible and to avoid having different professionals needing to ask you the same questions. This is sometimes known as a 'shared assessment'.

If you receive support from a family member, or an unpaid carer, they are entitled to a separate Carer's Assessment of their own needs in caring for you. They can also, with your agreement, be involved in your assessment.

You can choose to have a friend, relative or advocate present with you during the assessment, even if they are not involved directly in caring for you.

How do I get it?

You can contact your local Social Work Department and ask for an Assessment of your Care Needs. This is known as 'self-referral'.

You can also ask someone else to do this on your behalf. Your GP, district nurse, member of hospital staff, local housing officer, welfare rights officer, citizens' advice worker, relative or carer can ask for an Assessment of your Care Needs for you. An Assessment of your Care Needs is completed before anyone enters a care home, followed by a six week assessment period and continual review.

You may not receive a visit right away, as visits are carried out in order of priority of need. Some questions will be asked during an initial phone conversation with you or your carer to find out how urgent your needs are. If your needs are very urgent, you may receive some help immediately, before the assessment of your care needs can be arranged, but this does not take the place of a full assessment of your care needs at a later time.

What happens during an assessment?

The care professional carrying out the assessment will arrange to visit you and will ask you questions to help them understand what your care needs are, how suitable your home is for your needs, and whether you have specialist needs due to disability or health conditions. If you have a carer, they will also be asked about your needs.

The care professional will fill in forms with the information you provide and ask you to sign them. You will be also asked to sign a form giving your consent for specific information to be shared with other professionals. The assessment may involve more than one visit. All of the information will go into creating your care plan which will set out how your assessed needs may be met.

What happens after the assessment?

After your assessment, you will be sent a copy of the outcome of your assessment, which sets out how your assessed needs may be met. You are entitled to receive this, so you should ask for a copy if you do not receive it.

You will be given a review date which is usually six months after the date of the assessment. If your circumstances change before your review date, you can ask for an earlier review. The person who carried out the assessment should be told in advance if any part of your care package is likely to change to ensure this is discussed with you before any change is made.

If you disagree with the outcome of your assessment, you can ask for a further discussion of your needs.

If you have a complaint about the way the assessment was carried out, you should use the Social Work Department's complaints procedure.

You should be told about what you will receive and the length of time you may have to wait before receiving any of the services you have been assessed as needing. You may not receive all of the help that you may have been assessed as needing right away as it is allocated in order of priority of need. If, while you are waiting, your needs change, you should get back in touch with the Social Work Department.

What does it cost?

The assessment of your care needs is free.

Any services or equipment supplied by the NHS is free.

If you have been assessed as needing Social Work services, some of these may be charged for, and the Social Work Department will carry out a financial assessment to determine how much you will have to pay. You must be told how much you have to pay before you decide to accept the service. For more information, please see our section on financial assessment.