Well-being Assessment
Assessing your needs
The initial conversation that you have with our first point of contact is the starting point for assessing your needs. If it appears that your needs may be such that they cannot be met solely through community and family support, we will carry out a fuller assessment. This assessment can be carried out by one person on behalf of a number of organisations who will work together to coordinate your support. These may include your local council, local health services, community services and voluntary sector organisations.
The assessment process for care and support is based on your needs and what matters to you as an individual, it will be completed in partnership with you and your family. As well as finding out what the issues are, we will look at your personal strengths, what is going well in your life and the resources and options available to you from your family, friends and others in the community.
Having an assessment does not always mean that we go on to provide a service for you.
The assessment will look at:
- your personal circumstances
- the outcomes you want to achieve
- what barriers there are to you achieving these outcomes
- what risks there are if these outcomes are not achieved and your strengths and capabilities
You can have a friend or relative with you at your assessment if you wish. If you have a carer – a relative or friend who provides you with unpaid help – we will also want to talk to them about what help they are able and willing to give and what support they may need with their caring role.
We may also want to get information from other people, such as your doctor.
Having an assessment does not always mean that we go on to provide a service for you.
We will consider all possible ways to meet your needs and achieve your personal outcomes, and make sure that you understand the options available and what these mean for you.
Your care and support plan
To be eligible for Social Services’ support, your needs must be such that they cannot be met with the care and support of others willing to provide such care, or with the assistance of community services, and you are unlikely to achieve your personal outcomes unless the local authority provides or arranges support to enable them to be achieved.
If you are eligible for Social Services’ support, we will work with you, and maybe with others, to write a care and support plan.
You will get a copy of this to keep. This explains how your needs are going to be met by local services, your family and your community and what outcomes this support is aiming to achieve. Often, the plan will be to provide you with services or support which work towards a specific outcome.
For example, you may need help to manage at home again after a period of illness, or you may want to develop practical skills or confidence that will allow you to become more independent and more involved with your local community. We will regularly review your plan with you to check that it is still meeting your needs, and to see if your needs have changed. This may mean that you receive more of a particular service, a different service, less of a service, or no service at all. “If your needs or circumstances change, you can ask us for a new assessment”