Carers Assessment
What is a Carer's Assessment?
Social Services offer an assessment to any Carer
(or someone who is planning to care for someone) where it appears that the Carer may have need for support.
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The assessment looks at:
- The extent to which the Carer is able and willing to provide the care and to continue to provide the care
- The outcomes the Carer wishes to achieve
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Carers are involved in this process
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The social worker will pay attention to whether you wish to work / participate in education, training, or leisure activities. It is important that Carers and the people they care for are an equal partner in their relationship with professionals.
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A local authority may combine a person’s needs assessment with the needs assessment of his or her Carer if it considers it would be beneficial to do so. However, the local authority may only do so if valid consent is given.
Whether you can access support depends upon whether
- The need is because of your caring role
- You cannot meet that need by yourself, by others or by local services
- It affects your well-being
Well-being is about more than just being healthy, it can also include:
• being safe
• having somewhere suitable to live
• being involved in decisions that impact your life
• having friends
• being part of good, strong communities
• having every chance to do well in education
• feeling good about your life
• for adults – being able to work
• for children – being able to grow up happily and successfully, and being well-looked after
After the assessment, you may have a care or support plan, describing the help you will get as a Carer.
To prepare for an assessment, you may want to think about:
- The kind of support and help the person you care for needs
- What you would like to happen and what you would like to do
- The things you do for them
- How much time you spend caring
- Whether anyone else supports you
They will also look at whether you need information or training, and consider the impact caring has on your work life and leisure as well as your health and well-being. Before the assessment, have a think about the sort of support that would help you.
You can ask for the assessment to be carried out confidentially, at a convenient time, without the person you care for being there. You can have someone else there to support you, such as a Credu Outreach Worker, a friend or another Carer. Afterwards, you'll be given a copy of your assessment and advice on the information, support and services that could help you. This fact sheet from Carers Wales gives you lots more information about Carers Assessments, your legal rights and how you can prepare: