What is an assessment?
An assessment is when we find out as much as possible about the things you're finding difficult and about how you're managing the situation.
As you’re the expert on your own situation, the more help you can give us, the better the assessment – we’ll ask you lots of questions and we’ll want to talk to anyone else who helps you (with your permission) – carers, friends, family and your doctor for example. We will only ask them about relevant information and the information we collect is protected by the data protection act.
During the assessment, we’ll discuss with you the situation and you should ask as many questions as you want.
Together, we’ll:
- Understand your situation better
- Understand what the risks are if you don’t have any support
- Work out what options there are for managing or making your situation better
- Work out what you want to be able to do and how much support you think you’ll need
- Make decisions about what happens next.
We’ll look at how you manage personal and other daily routines (such as washing, going to the toilet, cooking, cleaning, moving inside and outside your home), your freedom to make choices, your safety and how much involvement you have with your family and your community.
At the end of the assessment, we should have agreed with you the risks to your independence if you don’t get services and it is the level of risk which helps decide the level of services we can help with.
If the risks to your independence are low, then we’ll help you by offering you advice and information.
If the risks to your independence are critical, substantial or moderate, we may be able to help you by offering services.
Even if you decide to pay for and arrange your own care you can still ask us for an assessment and advice/ information. We could even help you make a care plan that you could then use with care providers to buy your care.
What happens next?
If we agree to offer you services, we'll talk to you about the types of services available and how you would like them to be provided - in Salford there are currently two options - we can arrange services for you, or there are direct payments where we give you money to arrange your own care. In the next few months, you'll also be able to make use of a personal budget which gives you even more freedom.
If you want to arrange your own services, then we can give you a copy of your assessment and we can advise you about what to look for in a care provider - you can also look at the Commission for Social Care Inspection website which gives different providers between zero and three stars, depending on the quality of service.
If we agree to provide you with advice and information, then this may include looking to other organisations that may be able to help or we may suggest other activities and services that you might be interested in or find useful.
How long does an assessment take?
Depending on how urgent your situation, we'll start the assessment between four hours and two working days after you've contacted us. If your situation is complicated, it can take up to 28 days to complete the assessment.
Services may start within a few days of the assessment, or shortly after it's completed. After six weeks, we will contact you to review that you still need a service and to check that you are happy with the services you are getting.
Better Care, Higher Standards sets out our standards in more detail.
This page was last updated on 06 October 2008
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