Needs Assessment for social care services
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Assessments are usually carried out in your home. We will normally contact you to make an appointment within two days of receiving your request.
Your assessment will usually be completed within 28 days of the assessment visit which may take an hour or more.
There are exceptions to these general arrangements and timescales. For example, if you are in hospital and need help at home when you are discharged, we will make arrangements while you are in hospital to come and see you.
We will also respond appropriately to emergency situations.
The assessment will be carried out in a way that will encourage you to take part and have your say. You may, of course, have an advocate or friend with you during the assessment meeting.
The Adults and Housing department will also arrange an interpreter if your preferred spoken language is not English. We are very keen to deliver equal services to all of Leicester’s communities.
The assessment, therefore, will take account of any needs you may have which arise from your cultural or religious background.
The member of staff doing the assessment may ask you questions about how you are coping with the following:
- your independence
- maintaining personal safety
- daily routines and tasks, such as preparing and cooking food, and climbing up and down the stairs
- involvement in family, social, work activities, etc.
You may also be asked about your physical and/or mental health. Some assessments may involve other practitioners such as your GP, district nurse, occupational therapist, physiotherapist or consultant.
When we do the assessment, we will also ask what help you get from relatives or friends, and whether they are willing and able to carry on in their caring role. Many carers are happy to carry on helping if they know they can have regular support.
If a relative or friend provides or intends to provide you with regular and substantial care (more than 10 hours a week on a regular basis), they will be entitled to a Carer’s Assessment.
Their assessment will take account of their needs and will identify any help they may need from us in continuing to support you.
You have a right to see and have a copy of the information we write down about your assessment.
Following the assessment, we will send you a Care Plan, which explains:
- what services will be provided
- when they will start
- at what times they will be provided
- who will provide them
- what the cost will be.
The Care Plan is an agreement made with you, the Adults and Housing department and any carers who help you. We will check from time to time in case changes in your services are needed.
We may be able to increase the help if you are having more problems or we may reduce it if your situation has improved.
We may be able to increase the help if you are having more problems or we may reduce it if your situation has improved.
Assessing needs forms an important part of our response to requests for assistance. However, many people with lower dependency needs are unlikely to be eligible for services.
Because the money we have to spend is limited, we have to limit who can receive services from us.
We do this by applying ‘eligibility criteria’ which ensures that services are targeted on those individuals with the greatest needs.
It is therefore important that full use is made of help available from families and voluntary help. Our criteria is based on critical, substantial, moderate and low risk bandings associated with various forms of disability, impairment and difficulty.
Whether or not we can help you directly, we may be able to signpost you to other organisations or individuals that could assist you. For example, other Council Directorate’s such as Housing, your GP, etc.
We will not charge you for the assessment. However, depending on your income and savings, you may be charged for some of the services we provide for you.
The person doing your financial assessment will be able to give you information on how the charges are worked out, so that you will have an idea of what, if anything, you should pay.
We will give you details about any charges for services, and details of how they are worked out and how you can pay them. We will also tell you about where you can get advice about any Social Security benefits you may be entitled to.
You have the right at any time to ask us to reconsider a particular charge if you think it is more than you should reasonably be expected to pay.
The person who does your assessment will give you information about different services that may be available to you. Our services are wide ranging and include:
- offering information and advice
- arranging support and care services at home, within family units or in day or residential settings
- supporting carers who look after adults with personal care needs.
It is likely that the individual Adults and Housing staff you come into contact with will change over a period of time.
This may happen, when, for example, your need for services change or we have operational considerations to work around.
We will treat as confidential the information that you give us. You can find out more about the information we record in "Your Social Care Record".
We will always act within the law if we need to discuss or share personal information with anyone else.
We encourage our service users to help us plan and develop services. Therefore, if you have any comments or suggestions on improvements, then we will be pleased to hear from you.
We also welcome compliments, as they can help us ensure other service users receive a good service. You have the right to complain if there is something we have done or failed to do in a reasonable way.