Before we can arrange community care services for you, we must find out what you need. This is called a needs assessment. We carry out this assessment – it helps us decide how we can help you.
The assessment will establish:
- your needs
- what services may be available for you and how much they cost
- whether or not services can be arranged for you.
If you have a carer, we will also offer them an assessment of their needs.
Your assessment involves you and a trained member of our staff. You may also want to involve someone who looks after you (your carer) or someone to speak for you. The assessment can also include other people, such as your GP, district nurse or social worker. We may ask them to share information about you so the assessment is as complete as possible. We will only do this if we have your permission.
In your assessment, we will ask you:
- What you think your needs are?
- What problems you are facing?
- What help you have now?
- What help you think you may need?
- How you want the help we give to improve your life.
We will use this information to decide which services to arrange for you. If your needs are straightforward, the assessment will be straightforward too. If your needs are more complicated, your assessment will be more detailed. If necessary, we can arrange services to meet your needs while your assessment is completed.
We want to help as many people as possible, but we have to make sure that our services go to those who need them most. Whether you qualify for a particular service will depend on your level of need.
During your assessment:
- we will consider your views and wishes
- you can have a friend, relative or someone else to help you or speak for you, if you want
- we will arrange for an interpreter if you do not speak English or if you use sign language
- we will consider your carer's views
- the people involved in your assessment will work together effectively.
- we will give you information about the services that are available and any charges involved.
After your assessment, we will tell you:
- which services you will get, who will provide them and where and when they will be provided
- the name of the person who is your social worker or is responsible for managing your care.
Who is eligible
Government guidance has been sent out to help councils decide who they can help. This guidance is called Fair Access to Care Services (FACS). It is there to help us make sure the needs of every adult is worked out in the same way.
There are four levels of need we have to look at:
- critical
- substantial
- moderate
- low.
These levels try to describe how serious it will be if you do not get the help you need. To provide help to people in all four levels would cost more money than community care services has. We are only able to help people who we think are at ‘critical’ or ‘substantial’ risk.
We are not able to help people with a ‘low’ or ‘moderate’ level of need.
How to access the service
If you, or someone you know or care for may need a community care service, you can visit, email or phone us.
What happens next
We will arrange for someone to visit you to carry out an assessment.