Assessment of Care Needs

People may need our help because they have an illness or disability, are frail or have family difficulties. We provide a wide range of support to adults with learning disabilities, physical or sensory disabilities (sight or hearing) or mental health needs.

Unfortunately we can't help everyone so we use guidelines set by the Government, to help us decide who can use our services. These guidelines are only used for services for adults.

What are eligibility criteria?

The Government set guidelines to make sure that everyone in the country has the same chance of getting help. These are called eligibility criteria. They are used to help us decide who we should arrange support for and what this support should be.

If you don't meet the criteria and don't qualify for our services, we will give you information or advice about who else can help, like voluntary organisations or community groups.

You can get more information about what the criteria are, by looking at our leaflet called 'Fair Access to Care Services'. You can download this by following the link at the top of this page on the left.

What will happen when you contact us?

When you first contact us we will ask some questions to find out what help you need, and if you may qualify for a service. For example, you might need help to manage at home or help to care for someone. The kind of questions you will be asked include your name and how we can contact you, what your situation is and what your strengths and difficulties are. We might ask these questions over the phone or meet with you. This part is called the 'screening process'.

After the 'screening process', we should know whether you need to have an assessment or not.

What is an assessment?
We carry out assessments to find out more information about you, so we can understand your situation and the sort of help you might need. We look at how your independence and day to day life is affected. We also look at what risks there would be, if you didn't get any support.

Saying what you think will be an important part of the assessment. You need to tell us about the things you can and can't do and what you would like to happen or what you need help with. You will be directly involved in decisions about your care.

We try to finish all assessments within 28 days. We may only need to see you once to finish it, or we may need to see you a few times.  

What if you are a carer?

If you help look after someone in your family, a friend or neighbour, and you are not paid to do this, we call you a carer. This means that you can ask us to look at what help you might need. We would do this by carrying out what's called a carer's assessment. To find out more about carer's assessments, click here.

What if you need help or support to speak up or ask for services?

If English is not your first language or you use sign language, we can organise an interpreter to be at your assessment. Or your first language might be English, but you may still need help to say what you feel. People called 'advocates' can help you with this and we can arrange for an advocate to be at your assessment. You can also have a family member or friend there to support you if you wish.

For more information follow the link at the top of this page on the left, to see our Fair Access to Care Services leaflet.