If you or someone you know has a health condition or disability that is making it difficult to manage everyday activities, you can contact us. We’ll have a chat and ask you some questions about your day-to-day life to work out what your needs are and look at different types of support that could meet your needs.
We may be able to offer you advice about what you can do to help yourself or give you information about support that is available in your community. Alternatively, we may arrange for a member of our team to visit you at home or where you are staying to carry out a needs assessment.
What is a needs assessment?
A social care needs assessment is for an adult aged 18 and above.
A needs assessment is a discussion between you and your social worker that helps us to understand:
- the things that are important to you and your family
- the things that you find difficult to do in your daily life
- how this affects your health and wellbeing
- any care and support you receive from your family and friends
- what would you like to achieve with care and support
- the things you can do to keep you healthy, active, and independent.
Your needs assessment is a very important part of the social care process. The assessment will help us to work out if you are eligible to receive social care and support from us.
Who can have an assessment?
Any adult who may have care and support needs can have an assessment.
Anyone who looks after another adult and may need help to continue to care for them can have a carers assessment.
Get a needs assessment
If you think you or someone you know may need care and support, you should contact us. Please call 01642 771500 to arrange a needs assessment or carers assessment.
When you contact us, we will ask you some questions that help will us to decide on the best way to help you. This help might include:
- providing information
- providing advice
- arranging for you to have a needs assessment.
What happens at the needs assessment?
A full assessment for social care and support will be carried out face to face. This will take place somewhere you feel comfortable, usually in your home or where you are staying, and will be at a time that suits you.
The person who carries out your needs assessment will be a trained social worker with the right skills, knowledge, and training to be able to help you. The social worker will explain the assessment process to you and will tell you how long things are likely to take.
When your social worker visits you for your assessment, they will bring a needs assessment form with them. They will use this to record what you talk about in your assessment. We will send you a copy of the questions before your assessment takes place, so you know what to expect.
Support during the assessment
When you have your assessment, you may wish to have someone with you, for example, a relative, friend, or someone who cares for you.
If you need help communicating your views, we will make sure you have the right support to enable you to tell us your views and wishes.
After the assessment
When the assessment is finished, you will need to sign the form to say you agree with what has been written.
Your social worker will take the assessment away to record your information onto our computer system. They will print a copy of the assessment and send this to you.
We use national guidelines to decide if your needs are at a level where the council should plan care and support services for you. This is set by the government to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and equally.
Eligible for social care
If you are eligible, we will give you a financial assessment form to complete. This will help us to work out if you will need to contribute to your care and support. More information about paying for care can be found on our Guide to paying for care and support:
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Document
After the assessment, we can work together to write a care and support plan about how you will be supported, your choices about the support you need to achieve your desired outcomes and arrangements you wish to put in place.
Do you have to pay for care?
We might decide you need to pay for some of the support we provide or arrange for you. If you are eligible, we will need to see how much money you have to work out what you may be required to pay towards the services you receive. If you don’t want to tell us about your money, you will have to pay for all your care.
Not eligible for social care
If you are not eligible for social care, we will offer you information and advice that will help you to live independently.
We will provide you with a personal wellbeing pack with information and advice that relates to the issues discussed in your assessment.
You can find out more about how needs and eligibility are assessed by downloading our guide to needs assessment and eligibility:
Adult social care team
You can contact the adult social care team by telephone on 01642 771500.