Carers Assessments
Carers have a legal right to an assessment of their needs. It is your chance to discuss what help you need with caring. You can also discuss any help that would maintain your own health and balance caring with other aspects of your life, like work and family.
These are some common questions carers ask about assessments:
Do I qualify for a carer’s assessment?
The law says you have a right to an assessment if you care for someone for ‘a substantial amount of time on a regular basis’. You may be a carer living with or away from the person you care for, caring full time or combining care with paid work – you will still have a right to a carer’s assessment.
If you are aged over 16, your right to an assessment is not affected, even if the person you care for does not want to receive help from Social Services.
You also have a right to an assessment if you intend to look after someone. For example: if your friend or relative is in hospital and you expect to look after them when they return home. Or it may be very helpful to ask for an assessment if you intend giving up work. If you look after a disabled child you also have a right to an assessment. You do not always have to be the child’s parent, but must have parental responsibility for the child.
What is the purpose of a carer’s assessment?
The purpose of a carer’s assessment is to discuss with Social Services the help you need with caring, plus help to maintain your own health and balance caring with your life, work and family commitments. Social Services use the assessment to decide what help to provide.
The person carrying out the assessment should not assume you want to take on a caring role or continue caring. They should ask if you are able and willing to carry out the tasks involved. For instance, you may find it hard to move someone in a wheelchair due to your own health problems or you may suffer from stress in coping with the challenging behaviour of the person you care for. You may still care about the person you look after, but you may no longer be able to care for them.
As well as looking at the help you need, the assessment can be useful in:
- exploring how you feel about caring with a professional
- giving you information on benefits and support such as carers groups.
- deciding if you want to stay or return to work and how to make this happen.
- looking at how caring may affect you in the future and what help you might need
