Carer's assessment
A carer's assessment can help you understand your situation, get the support you need and build on your strengths.
The assessment will look at all your needs and the things you want to achieve in your day to day life.
The assessment also looks at other important areas - for example, whether you:
- are able or willing to carry on caring
- work, or want to work
- want to study or be more social
You only need to share the information you want to - your assessment will only go into detail about the things that are important to you.
If you and the person you care for both agree, you can have a joint assessment.
The assessment process
You can complete your own assessment, or get help to complete it by a professional from care and support services - this could be a:
- social worker
- carer support worker
- occupational therapist
The assessment looks at:
- details of the person you care for
- your caring role, and what you do
- how much care you provide
- services and support you already receive
- family and friendships
- leisure and recreation
- employment
- education and training
You'll also develop a summary of your needs and things you want to achieve.
The assessor will look at any risks to your wellbeing and agree how to best manage these with you.
Your assessor will then give you their professional opinion and decide whether you're eligible for support - if you are, then together you'll draft a support plan for how to best meet your needs. Help could include:
- information, advice and guidance specific to you as a carer
- equipment and housing adaptations to support moving around the home, safety, getting out and about and day to day tasks
- technology to support safety, mobility and independence
- support accessing community activities and events, including spending time away from your caring responsibilities
- practical training to help you in your caring role
- psychological support
- regular contact with the carers team - by phone, email or newsletter
Eligibility
You can be eligible for support in your own right - it does not matter if the person you can for receives care and support services from us.
There is a national carers eligibility threshold. You will be eligible if:
- you have needs because you provide care
- you are unable to achieve one or more specified outcomes, or you health is (or is at risk of) deteriorating
- as a consequence, there's a significant impact on your wellbeing
How to get a carers assessment
Visit our self-referral portal
If you are a professional, you can refer a person you're working with through our professional referrals portal.
If you're unhappy with the outcome of your assessment
If you are unhappy about any part of the assessment process, including the outcome of eligibility and have been unable to resolve it directly with a care professional, then you can make a complaint through our Let Us Know service. This will not affect the care and support services you receive or how we treat you.