Carer's Needs Assessments in Wales

A carer’s needs assessment is a legal entitlement and is for all carers who, regardless of their age, care for someone who is disabled, ill, has a mental health condition or is elderly. If you want to, you can ask for a carer’s needs assessment before taking on a caring role. Where it appears to the local council that you may have needs for support, the local council must assess whether you do have needs for support (or are likely to do so in the future), and if you do what those needs are. The assessment is an opportunity to discuss with your local council what support or services you may need to help you with your caring role. There is a clear legal duty on the local council to consider the following:

• they must assess whether you have needs for support or are likely to do so in the future
• the extent that you are able and willing to provide care and will continue to be able and willing to do so
• what matters to you and the personal outcomes that you wish to achieve
• the extent to which support, preventative services, provision of information, advice and assistance can assist you with achieving those outcomes
• the assessment must also have regard to whether you work, wish to work and whether you are participating or wish to participate in education, training or leisure activities.

As a carer you are legally entitled to an assessment. An assessment should be offered as soon as it appears to a local council that you may have a need for support. Each local council has an Information, Advice and Assistance service. If you have not been offered an assessment, then you should contact them and ask for one.

At the first point of contact, an assessment may be delivered in person, over the phone, video call or through a form. If advice or assistance is given, then a simple assessment of your needs will have taken place. This is often called a 'What Matters Conversation’. If at this stage, the local council is satisfied you have further support needs, then the local council must take the assessment to the next stage and complete a comprehensive assessment of your needs.

The local council must ensure that there is a named individual whose function is to co-ordinate and carry out the assessment. The local council must also make a written record of the assessment and offer to give you a copy.

If the assessment involves a meeting, it should be carried out in a convenient and private place. It is your choice whether the person you care for is present or not. Assessments can be done over the phone or online but this should only happen if you agree.

Your local council may carry out a supported self-assessment. This could involve you filling in a self-assessment questionnaire, and then being contacted by the local council to discuss what you have written.

In some areas, local organisations may be asked to carry out the assessments but arrangements should still be made through your local council and they should explain who will carry out the assessment. The assessment should be carried out by a social worker or another trained professional.

The assessment will consider whether or not your caring role impacts on your health or prevents you from achieving your well-being outcomes. As an example this could be staying in work, having a social life, being able to attend medical appointments or doing some leisure activities. The assessment should cover:

• your caring role and how it affects your life and well-being
• your health – physical, mental and emotional issues
• your feelings and choices about caring
• work, study, training, leisure
• relationships, social activities and your goals
• housing
• planning for emergencies.

You should be asked about these issues, if not you can raise them yourself. The aim of the assessment is to help you get the support you need, whether this support is provided directly by the local council or through providing you with information about local services in the area to help you arrange this yourself.

If your level of need varies, the local council must take this into consideration so that a full picture of your level of need is developed. The pattern of needs that you may be able to meet yourself or needs that you may require additional help or support with will vary over time depending on your circumstances. The reason for the variation is not important: it could be because the condition of the person you care for fluctuates, or because you have other responsibilities that can affect you every so often.

The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act introduces national rules for deciding who is eligible for care and support. It will be the local council who decides whether your needs are eligible under the eligibility rules and whether they have a legal obligation to meet them. The Act however does contain discretionary powers to enable local councils to meet care and support needs without having to decide on eligibility. When carrying out the assessment the local council must:

• seek to identify how caring affects your life and what outcomes you wish to achieve to look after your own well-being
• assess whether the provision of support, preventative services, information, advice or assistance could contribute to help you achieve those well-being outcomes
• consider what well-being outcomes you wish to achieve and work with you to produce solutions.

To meet the eligibility criteria for a local council to provide, or arrange to provide support, the well-being outcomes to which a need must relate are set out in the regulations as:

• ability to carry out self-care or domestic routines
• protection from abuse or neglect
• involvement in work, education, learning or in leisure activities
• maintenance or development of family or other significant personal relationships
• development and maintenance of social relationships and involvement in the community
• fulfilment of caring responsibilities for a child.

When considering your well-being and personal outcomes you wish to achieve, the local council will consider the following:

• you are best placed to judge your well-being your views, wishes, feelings and beliefs should be taken into account
• the importance of reducing existing needs, and preventing or delaying the development of needs
• decisions should be based on your circumstances, not assumptions about you
• you should be able to participate as fully as possible in decision-making
• the needs of the carer and cared for person need to be balanced
• the need to protect people from abuse and neglect
• any restrictions on rights or freedoms should be kept to the minimum possible.

The regulations state that you will meet the eligibility criteria if you cannot meet your need:

• alone
• with the support of others who are willing to provide that support, or
• with the assistance of services in the community to which the adult has access; and
• the adult is unlikely to achieve their personal outcomes unless the local council provides or arranges care and support to meet the need.

This would suggest, for example, that if your needs could be met by community resources then they are not eligible needs. To ensure you get the help you need explain when this is not the case – for example if a gym membership would help you but you cannot afford it without financial support from the council, then make sure it is recorded and written into the support plan so it is clearly an eligible need.

Information and advice

The local council must provide an information, advice and assistance service. Everyone, including those whose needs are considered not to be eligible for support should receive information and advice from the local council on the following:

• advice on how to access care and support
• care providers and services that are available in your local area
• how to get financial advice
• how to access services that could delay or prevent your needs from increasing
• how to raise concerns about the well-being of an adult who has needs for care and support or a carer who needs support
• the outcome of the contact, and what, if any, action will be taken and by whom.

If at this stage, it is deemed that you are not eligible for support, you may only receive information and advice from your local council. The information and advice should be local to where you live and could, for example, be guidance about a local carers’ support service. You do not need to have any type of assessment to access information as this should be freely available from your local council.

Support Plan

If your local council decides that your needs are eligible, then providing that you want them to, they have a legal obligation to meet these needs. The local council can provide the services themselves or arrange services through other organisations. Alternatively, you can request to receive direct payments to buy in your own package of support to meet your eligible needs. A support plan must be drawn up detailing how these needs will be met and a copy must be offered to you.

Your local council may or may not charge you for services. If they do, they must carry out a financial assessment to decide whether you have to make a financial contribution and if so, how much you will be expected to contribute. If the help you are offered is free, then the local council do not have to do a financial assessment.

Your support plan must contain a description of:

• your eligible needs
• the personal outcomes you wish to achieve
• the actions to be taken by the local council or other organisations or people to help you achieve your personal outcomes or meet your eligible needs
• arrangements for monitoring the extent to which the personal outcomes have been achieved
• arrangements to review the support plan. This must be agreed at the start of the plan and at each subsequent review.

Some examples of the kind of help that could be available for you as a carer if you are eligible for support:

• help getting around, taxi fares, driving lessons, repairs and insurance
• costs for a car where transport is crucial technology to support you. For example:
• a mobile phone or a computer where it is not possible to access computer services from a local library
• help with housework or gardening
• help to relieve stress, improve health and promote well-being such as gym membership.

Some examples of the kind of help that could be available to the person you care for in order to help you as a carer:

• changes to the disabled person’s home to make it more suitable equipment such as a hoist or grab rail
• a care worker to help provide personal care at home
• a temporary stay in residential care/respite care
• meals delivered to the disabled person’s home
• a place at a day centre
• assistance with travel, for example to get to a day centre
• laundry services
• replacement care so you can have a break.