Carers

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