Carer's assessment
What is a carer’s assessment?
It is a chance to sit down with someone from social services and talk about:
- how much care you give
- how this affects the rest of your life
- what help you need to keep going
- what your worries are for the future
- what help might make life better for you
Why should I have one?
We may be able to give you some advice or information.
We may be able to suggest places to go to get advice or help.
We may be able to offer support to the person you care for, in order to help you.
We may be able to increase support to the person you care for, in order to help you.
We may be able to give you some help for yourself, for example around your health needs, at home, or to work, learn, or relax.
You may want to make sure we know about what you do, what support would be needed if you could not carry on caring, and who else might help in an emergency.
Many people say that they appreciate just taking the chance to stop and think about what they do, and what they might want to do apart from caring. Sometimes people slip into only seeing someone as a carer, not as a person who also cares.
Types of assessment
There are two ways we can assess your needs for support – as part of assessing the person you care for, or in a separate carer’s assessment. If you have a ‘shared assessment’ you can still ask for one for yourself.
Shared assessment
If a social worker comes to see the person you care for to assess their needs and possibly arrange help for them, they should ask you whether you need help to carry on caring and plan ahead. If that brief discussion is all you think you need then that shared assessment should include any agreed support to help you. A shared assessment will normally mean talking about your needs in front of the person you care for, which some people are very happy to do, but some people may find this difficult or limiting.
You may be identified as a carer, by yourself or others, before during or after the shared assessment. At any point when you are identified as a carer you should also be offered a separate carer’s assessment for your needs.
Requesting a separate assessment
Whether or not you have been part of a shared assessment, you can request a separate carer’s assessment by contacting us.
This can include situations where you are planning to care for someone in the near future. This can be because someone’s needs are increasing or when they are expected to come home from a period in hospital or residential / nursing care.
Details on how to make that contact can be found in our contact list.
Carer’s assessment
This is your right under the law – under the Carers (Equal Opportunities) Act 2004, local authorities are under a duty to offer and carry out carer’s assessments. This must not only consider how you carry on caring, but what effect this has on your ability to have a life outside caring – to work, to learn, and to have some leisure activities.
With a separate assessment, you can choose whether to:
- do this at another time, or place,
- do this without the person you care for
- do this with a friend or someone to support you.
You can also take some time to think about what you do, what your needs are, and what might help you now or in the future.
From the summer of 2006, we will give you a self-appraisal form to help you to reflect on this, and to feel prepared for the questions you will be asked.
Care plan
If services are provided to the person you care for then they will be included on their care plan. If services are provided directly to you, then you will have your own care plan to show what we will arrange for you, when, and who from.
Review
Whether you have had a shared assessment, or separate carer’s assessment, this should be reviewed every year to see if your circumstances or needs have changed. It is also a chance to see whether any new advice or service has become available since your original assessment.
If your needs have changed significantly in the meantime, you can request a fresh assessment.
What will it cost me?
It does not cost anything to have an assessment, but there may be a charge for some social care services.
In 2006, any service provided directly to a carer via a carer’s assessment is exempt from charging, but a service delivered to the cared for person may require them to contribute.
For more information about charges please see the Fairer Charging web page, ask a member of our staff for a copy of the ‘Fairer Charging’ leaflet or contact the Public Information Officer on 01922 658368.
Direct Payments
Support to a carer can also be through a Direct Payment. This means you receive the money from us to arrange your own support, in order to meet that need.
This may be about a one-off purchase or some on-going help, and there is guidance and support made available for you to manage the money.
To find out more go to the Direct Payments web page, ask for the separate leaflet from your local social work office or ask your social worker.
Comments or Complaints
If you are unhappy with the help you get from us, we need to know so that we can improve things. It is also really helpful to hear when we get things right!
You can first discuss any problem with the member of staff that you are dealing with, but if this does not feel right, or you remain unhappy, you can also make a formal complaint.
For information on making a compliment or complaint about social care, see the compliments and complaints web page, contact the customer care team on (01922) 650487, or ask any member of staff for a copy of the comments, compliments and complaints leaflet.
Contacting us and requesting a carer’s assessment
You can contact us in person, by letter, telephone, email or ask someone else to contact us on your behalf. An interpreter can be arranged if English is not your first language. If you are deaf, text phones are available and sign language interpreters or lip speakers can be arranged.
For contact details of our offices, please go to our contact list.
Contact us
Princess Royal Trust Walsall Carers Centre
The Crossing at St. Paul’s
Darwall Street
Walsall WS1 1DA
Telephone 01922 636663
Carers Co-ordinator
7th floor, west wing
Tameway Tower
Bridge Street
Walsall
WS1 1JZ
Telephone 01922 658451
This page was last updated on 14 August 2008