Liverpool City Council - Carers assessment

Main Content

 

Carers assessments

What is a Carer's Assessment?
A Carer's Assessment is your opportunity to discuss with Adult Social Care about the things that could make caring easier for you.  You can also discuss any help that would maintain your own health and balance caring with your life, work and family commitments. 
To complete your assessment a member of Adult Social Care staff (usually a Social Worker or Community Care Assessor) will usually meet with you and the person that you care for.  This may be once or on a number of occasions.  As a carer you should always be given the opportunity to speak to the assessor on your own.  You can also have someone with you at the assessment if you wish.
The assessor will ask you some questions about your caring role and also about what you would like to happen as a result of the assessment.
It is important to remember that an assessment is not a test.  It is a way of finding out about you and the things that could make caring easier for you or help you if you are no longer able to care.

Preparing for a Carer's Assessment.
You might want to think about the following when preparing for an assessment:

  • Do you get enough sleep?
  • is your health affected in any way?
  • are you able to get out and about?
  • do you get time for yourself?
  • are your other relationships affected?
  • do you want information about benefits?
  • are you worried you may have to give up work?
  • Is the person you care for getting enough help.           

What happens after a Carer's Assessment?
A Carer's Assessment is your opportunity to tell Adult Social Care about the things that could make caring easier for you.  From this you might be entitled to services to support you and help maintain your health and wellbeing.  These services might include; services that give you a break, emotional support from other carers or people who understand; activities for the person you care for, benefits advice or equipment that will help you in your caring role.
Adult Social Care will try to get these for you as soon as possible.  They will either provide the service, arrange for another organization to provide it or provide you with the funding to buy the service yourself via a Direct Payment.  You will be able to discuss what is most suited to your needs with the assessor.
Certain services have more people needing them than there are services to give, so you might not be able to get it straight away.  If this happens we will always try to find an alternative.

Will I have to pay?
There is no charge for a Carers Assessment but there may be a cost for some of the services that Adult Social Care provides.  The assessor can give you more information about what services cost when they do a financial assessment to work out how much you, or the person you care for can afford to pay.

How do I get a Carer's Assessment?
You can ask for an assessment for yourself and / or the person that you care for by contacting Adult Social Care in the following ways: