Different types of assessmentsCare and Support Statutory Guidance
8.17The Guidance sets out some of the different types of assessment process that a local authority might decide to adopt as the most appropriate/proportionate in a particular case:
6.3 An ‘assessment’ must always be appropriate and proportionate. It may come in different formats and can be carried out in various ways, including but not limited to:
•A face-to-face assessment between the person and an assessor, whose professional role and qualifications may vary depending on the circumstances, but who must always be appropriately trained and have the right skills and knowledge.
•A supported self-assessment, which should use the same assessment materials as a face-to-face assessment, but where the person completes the assessment themselves and the local authority assures itself that it is an accurate reflection of the person’s needs (for example, by consulting with other relevant professionals and people who know the person with their consent).
•An online or phone assessment, which can be a proportionate way of carrying out assessments (for example where the person’s needs are less complex or where the person is already known to the local authority and it is carrying out an assessment following a change in their needs or circumstances).
•A joint assessment, where relevant agencies work together to avoid the person undergoing multiple assessments (including assessments in a prison, where local authorities may need to put particular emphasis on cross-agency cooperation and sharing of expertise).
•A combined assessment, where an adult’s assessment is combined with a carer’s assessment and/or an assessment relating to a child so that interrelated needs are properly captured and the process is as efficient as possible.
8.18Regulation 2 of the Care and Support (Assessment) Regulations 2014 requires local authorities proposing to undertake an assessment to ascertain whether the subject wishes it to be a supported self-assessment (reg 2(2)) and, if so, the assessment must take that form, so long as the subject has the capacity to engage (reg 2(3)): supported self-assessments are addressed in the Guidance at paragraphs 6.44–6.53.
8.19Once the person has completed the assessment, ‘the local authority must ensure that it is an accurate and complete reflection of the person’s needs, outcomes, and the impact of needs on their well-being’ (paragraph 6.46 of the Guidance). This is consistent with the approach established under the earlier regime, under which it was clearly recognised that the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that there was an adequate needs assessment lay with the local authority.
1R (B) v Cornwall CC [2009] EWHC 491 (Admin), (2009) 12 CCLR 381 at para 68.See also:
6.47 In assuring self-assessments local authorities may consider it useful to seek the views of those who are in regular contact with the person self-assessing, such as their carer(s) or other appropriate people from their support network, and any professional involved in providing care such as a housing support officer, a GP, a treating clinician, a district nurse, a rehabilitation officer or relevant prison staff. In doing this, the local authority should first seek the person’s consent. This may be helpful in allowing local authorities to build an understanding of the individual’s desires, outcomes, needs, and the impact on their wellbeing.