Carer's Assessment
If you’re looking after a family member, friend or neighbour, then you’re entitled to request a free Carer's Assessment from your local council. Find out what support may be available from a Carer's Assessment and how to request your own.
Plus, carers in the Mobilise community have shared their own experiences of a Carer's Assessment, nine tips for getting the most out of your Carer's Assessment and how you can ensure you get the most out of it.
Free Mini Carer's Assessment
If we want to get started straight away, then take our free mini carers assessment - it takes just three minutes.
We will follow up with an email that includes a simple checklist of things to do next as well as details of how to get a full Carer's Assessment in your area.
"I found out that having a carers assessment could result in me receiving a personal budget to support me with my caring"
Suzanne
Everything we need to know about Carer's Assessments
Carer's Assessments in Scotland
How do I apply for a Carer's Assessment?
Can I have a Carer's Re-assessment?
Who is entitled to a Carer's Assessment?
Is a Carer's Assessment means-tested?
What support can I expect from a Carer's Assessment?
What are direct payments for carers?
What is a Parent Carer's Needs Assessment?
What section of the Care Act 2014 mentions Carer's Assessment?
Top tips for getting the most out of your Carer's Assessment
Questions to help prepare for a Carer's Assessment
Carer's real-life experiences of a Carer's Assessment
What is a Carer's Assessment?
Carer's Assessments (not to be confused with a Care Needs Assessment) are a conversation or series of conversations that focus on us and our caring role. It explores our caring situation, how caring impacts us, and whether there is any support we need to help us continue to care going forward.
It’s a chance to step back and understand the difference that caring is making in all areas of our lives and to think about what support we have and what might be needed in the future.
A Carer's Assessment will include the following:
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Our caring role and how it affects our own life and wellbeing
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Our health – including physical, mental and emotional issues
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Consider the things we want to achieve in our own day to day life
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Our feelings and if we are able or willing to carry on caring
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Whether we work or want to work
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Whether we want to study or do more socially
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Any housing issues
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Planning for emergencies - it’s a great opportunity to discuss support for our What if Plans and Emergency Response plans
Our Carer's Assessment can be completed by a whole range of services depending on where we live. This could include our local authority, our local carer organisation, our GP or carer support service.
With so many different ways to complete a Carer's Assessment, it is unsurprising that many of us have had one, and hadn’t realised.
“A carer's assessment is a very important thing to have completed - it does at times offer some additional help and allow us to have more time and freedom from caring, whether it be someone sitting with your loved one so you can leave the house for a bit. There are quite a few things that you can gain out of it so good luck!”
- carer in our community during our Virtual Cuppa
The Carer's Assessment typically takes about one hour. There might be a few basic questions to answer first of all and then they might make notes or complete a form whilst they talk to us.
However, every carer’s experience of a Carer's Assessment is entirely different - for some, it is completed through a form or document and for others, it can seem like an informal conversation.
Living in Scotland?
Scotland's equivalent of a Carer's Assessment is known as an Adult Carer Support Plan. If we're living in Scotland, head over to our Adult Carer Support Plan to explore how and where to request one, and read up on carers' top tips.
How do I apply for a Carer's Assessment?
The local council of the person being cared for is responsible for carrying out the Carer's Assessments. They may also have arranged for the local carers centre to carry this out on their behalf.
Often it’s worth contacting our local Carers’ Centre first. In many cases, they’ll be carrying out the Carer's Assessments. And if they’re not, they’ll almost definitely be able to signpost us. Alternatively, we can find our local Social Services department here.
They are also great sources of other information, advice and support. Check out our “10 ways your local Carers’ Centre can help you”.
Alternatively, we can find our (or our cared-for’s) local council here. Many councils have a “First point of contact” phone number or email address we can use to get things started. Or search their webpage for “carers assessments''. They may have an online form to complete and get things started.
Find your local carers centre here.
If the person we are caring for is already receiving support from our local council social care team or is having a care needs assessment, then our Carer's Assessment can also be carried out at the same time. But only if that suits us. Many of us prefer to talk privately, and we’re entitled to request that.
Can I have a Carer's Re-assessment?
The simple answer is yes. Remember a Carer's Assessment's main goal is to find pockets of help in our caring role that our council can provide for us. What our needs are right now, and how to make caring a little easier. If our current caring situation has changed, so will our current needs.
So it's always helpful to have an annual review or request a Carer's Re-assessment if we find that the current care plan is no longer working. In some areas, this may look like a telephone conversation but it's always good to double-check with our local council or carers' service.
Who is entitled to a Carer's Assessment?
Can I apply for a Carer's Assessment? is a really common question.
If we are caring for an adult over the age of 18, then our Local Authority has a duty to assess our needs for support (under the 2014 Care Act or Carers [Scotland] Act 2016) .
For those of us who provide care to a child under 18, we can request a Parent Carer Assessment.
We don't have to live with the person we care for, and it doesn’t matter how many hours of care we provide.
And if we share the care with someone else, then we are both entitled to our own Carer's Assessment.
Am I a carer?
The government describes a carer as:
“A carer is someone who helps another person, usually a relative or friend, in their day-to-day life”
They go on to say:
“Where it appears to a local authority that a carer may have needs for support (whether currently or in the future), the authority must assess — whether the carer does have needs for support (or is likely to do so in the future), and if the carer does, what those needs are (or are likely to be in the future).”
As an idea, the NHS says you're a carer if you're doing any of the following on a regular basis for someone that is ill, elderly or disabled:
Practical support, including:
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washing, dressing or taking medicines
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getting out and about
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travelling to doctors' appointments
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shopping, and cleaning
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organising finances and paying bills
Emotional support, including:
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sitting with someone to keep them company
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watching over someone if they can't be left alone
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fielding telephone calls to manage someone's anxiety
Is a Carer's Assessment means-tested?
Yes and no. Firstly all carers are entitled to an assessment regardless of our individual financial situation. So access to a Carers’ Assessment is not means-tested.
If we are considered to have ‘eligible needs’ and support is agreed, then the local authority may or may not propose a charge, based on a financial assessment. This will look at our income and capital.
Be aware that a carer cannot be charged for the support given to the person we care for. And that the person we care for, cannot be charged for the support given to us as their carer.
Ultimately, any request for money towards the support, must not negatively impact on our ability as a carer, to look after our own wellbeing, and we should not be charged more than it is reasonably practical to pay. We can find out more about charging and financial assessment here, including income thresholds for payments.
“It may be that there are circumstances where a nominal charge may be appropriate, for example to provide for a service which is subsidised but for which the carer may still pay a small charge, such as a gym class. Ultimately, a local authority should ensure that any charges do not negatively impact on a carer’s ability to look after their own health and wellbeing and to care effectively and safely.”
Government Statutory Care Act guidance
How do I prove I'm a carer?
There are many ways we can register and prove that we are a carer. The first step would be registering with our GP, simply by filling in a Carer registration form.
Documents that also prove we're carers can also include those showing what benefits the person we care for receive. and that are widely accepted include:
If we're receiving Carer's Allowance, the Carers Allowance Letter of Award is also proof that we are carers.
Note that these documents will have to be dated within the last 12 months.
What support can I expect from a
Carer's Assessment?
Support can vary wildly, depending on our own individual needs, and also the area we live in. Here are just some of the things carers have told us they have received, following their Carers’ Assessment:
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One-off direct payments to pay for support such as a paid carer
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Respite
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Gardener
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Gym membership
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Physio sessions
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Training in how to lift safely and use a hoist
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Massage and therapy vouchers
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Mobility equipment and house adaptations for cared-for
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Stairlift
“ They may be able to offer you a Moving and Handling course, to help you move your wife without hurting yourself. Or sometimes they can provide equipment such as a hoist or toilet frame. ”
“ I asked for support to pay for carers and now receive something called direct payments, which allow me to pay a carer for 12 hours each month. It’s not means-tested and now I can pay someone to look after my husband, so I can take a break. ”
What are direct payments for carers?
Direct Payments may be one part of our carer support plan following the Carers Assessment. This means the council may give us a small budget to spend on specific things that have been identified during the Carers' Assessment conversation.
Direct Payments can be used to help pay for a number of things, specifically to improve our wellbeing. These might include gym memberships, relaxation classes, stress management classes, tools and materials for hobbies or a new laptop to stay in touch with friends and family.
If we are hoping for help or funding to provide replacement care so we can take a break from caring, we may need to approach this differently. Under the 2014 Care Act this would be considered in a Care Needs Assessment (for the person you care for) rather than your Carers' Assessment.
We have further content on getting paid care at home, and how we might get respite for ourselves.
What is a Parent Carer's Needs assessment?
If we care for a child with a disability and have parental responsibility, then we have the right to request a parent carers' needs assessment, under the Children and Families Act 2014.
Our parent carers' needs assessment must consider:
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Our individual needs as a parent carer
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Things that could make looking after our child easier for us
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Our well-being as a parent carer
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The need to safeguard and promote the welfare of our disabled child
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The need to safeguard and promote the welfare of any other children that we care for
For more information, our Carers’ Rights and the Law blog can help.
How do I request a parent carer's needs assessment?
A quick search of your local council’s website (or use Google!), should give the contact details of your ‘Children with disabilities’ team.
The Charity Contact has lots more information on parent carers needs’ assessments.
What section of the Care 2014 mentions Carer's Assessment?
The 2014 Care Act is the key piece of legislation that covers care and support for adults. (For children with disabilities, it is the Children and Families Act 2014). Under Section 10, it defines the role that local councils have, to make sure that people who live in their areas:
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Receive services that prevent their care needs from becoming more serious, or delay the impact of their needs
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Can get information and advice they need, to make good decisions about care and support
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Have a range of high quality, appropriate services to choose from
The relevant piece of legislation in Scotland is the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 provides our right to an Adult Carers Support Plan.
Carer's Assessments in Scotland
In Scotland, we can request an Adult Carer Support Plan (ACSP). Read our carers' guide to an Adult Carer Support Plan to explore how and where to request one, plus carers' tips on making the most out of it.
Carers' tops tips for getting the most out of your Carer's Assessment
1. Do it before you need it
Having a Carer's Assessment already in place is incredibly helpful if and when a situation arises or things suddenly become more challenging.
Our carers told us that it is often easier to update an existing plan or document, telling people about the changes in circumstances. Rather than tell the whole situation from scratch to someone new. It also reassures the carer that they haven’t missed anything because it has been spoken about and written before that conversation. And we’re not trying to remember everything when we may well be in a crisis.
It is also worth noting that if there is an emergency or situation which requires support, it may not be the most convenient time for a Carers Assessment. This could be because we do not have the time, there are other priorities or that the emotions of the situation are too raw to talk about.
“ I thought to myself, if I wait until I really need this, I am not going to have time to go through the process. ”
2. Be prepared:
Carers shared that it really helped to have thought everything through before arriving at the appointment:
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Have a full picture of everything you do and the impact it has on you (emotionally, physically and practically)
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Know ‘what would help’
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Have in mind what support you would like
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Write it all down
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See our 10 top questions to prepare for a Carer's Assessment
“ Prepare a list of things you do - it's surprising how much you can overlook! ”
“ Before you go to your Carers’ Assessment, try to write down what’s going on right now, and then what you would like to happen in the near future. It's always best to have the info to hand so you don't overlook anything. It’s easy to forget stuff when you're there. ”
3. Describe your worst day:
A Carers Assessment aims to provide an overview of the whole range of support that we might need within our caring role.
To help provide the full picture for this, our carers recommend thinking about the worst possible day and all of the challenges it could present. This allows the professional to understand how each of the challenges could be addressed with support.
Whilst it can be difficult to talk about the worst possible scenario, by dealing with it in this way, it ensures that there is support should the worst day ever happen.
Make sure you plan some down time or a chat with an upbeat friend, to help lift you afterwards.
“ Think about your needs in full and the needs of the person you care for. Consider the impact upon you of your caring role - physically, emotionally and mentally. The importance of what you do and how much bigger an impact - especially financially (as that's what they prioritise) - it would have on social care services if you were unable to continue in your role and therefore they had to fully take over the responsibilities. ”
“ It’s a bit like filling in a PIP application or similar... it’s helpful to describe things at their most challenging. ”
4. Revisit annually (or sooner if circumstances change)
Life happens and things change so do not be afraid to ask for a reassessment. It’s important to note the changes so that your plans and support remains up to date.
“Your caring role should be always under review
because as carers, our needs are ever changing.”
5. Know that we can have our assessment on our own (we don’t have to have our cared for with us)
It’s entirely up to us. We can combine our assessment with the person we care for, or we can request to be seen on our own. There should be no pressure to do it one way or the other.
6. Make a note of everything that is agreed
It’s easy to forget things once we’ve left the appointment, plus often quite a lot of time can elapse between support being requested, agreed and received.
It can be helpful to write everything down during the appointment, to give us a base from which to follow-up and chase things up (if needed).
7. Share any existing plans and support we have in place
During our Carer's assessment, it’s helpful to take a moment to talk about the routines and systems we have implemented already. Particularly those in place if something should happen to us.
The professional might ask if we have a ‘What If Plan’ or ‘Emergency Response Plan’ which would include things like our next of kin and the plan if we were unable to care (for any reason).
It is an opportunity for us to inform them of how things are to be done if we are unable to do it.
8. Managing the feelings of guilt
Carers tells us that one of the barriers to applying for a Carer’s Assessment can be feelings of guilt. In fact guilt in a caring role is so common it has its own name! "Carer's guilt". Feelings of guilt are completely natural. What's important is that we spot them and know how to move past them.
Acknowledging these feelings of guilt is a healthy first step. But remember that accessing the support we need (and are entitled to) as carers, will help both ourselves and the person we care for.
9. Be kind to ourselves afterwards
Talking about everything we find challenging and the help we need, can be really tough. We may feel hopeful at the support we can get in place, but it’s also common to feel rather low afterwards, as the enormity of everything sinks in.
It's important to acknowledge our feelings, and when we're ready we can help ourselves to feel a bit better.
It can help to book a little treat for afterwards. Something that will give us some uplift. Perhaps a cuppa or phone call with a friend, a walk in nature or even just a nap.
Gratitude practice can help
To help provide some balance to all the challenges and negative ‘stuff’ we may have just talked about, some carers recommend using gratitude practice.
Simply start with saying three things we’re grateful for today:
It might be the sunshine, the opportunity to access support, and a call with a friend.
Once we have three things, let’s find three more:
Perhaps it’s a relaxing bath, the roof over our heads or something nice for dinner.
Focussing on ‘the good stuff’ can help us get some balance.
Questions to help us prepare for a Carer's Assessment
Often, there may be so many things around caring to think about that it's hard to put down on paper.
We've broken down different areas of care to help you really think about where, and how much of our lives are impacted by caring - so you make the most of your Carer's Assessment.
1. How do we spend our time caring?
We're may be thinking "where do I even start!". Well, we can try starting by thinking exactly about what the 'big chunks' of caring we do, are. For example, are we the main cook, shopper, prescriptions arranger or person who baths the person we care for? Are we responsible for the person we care for's personal hygiene?
This could also lead us into thinking about whether we care throughout the day, night or possibly both? What help would be useful to us to ensure we get enough rest?
2. How is our own mental and physical wellbeing affected?
For example, how does our awareness (or lack of awareness) about the diagnosis of the person we care for make us feel? Are we worrying about the future? Are we able to accept our 'new' or 'changing' situation? Are we struggling to find time for our own needs and wants. And are we also struggling with our own health problems that make it harder for us to provide care?
3. What are our wants and needs?
Identifying what we want and need to continue being 'us', is really important. If we're unable to also meet our own needs (health, emotional, social), we can find ourselves heading towards a
4. Are we currently working or studying - how does caring
affect this?
Are we struggling to balance working or studying with our caring responsibilities? Do we find ourselves having to compromise some of our working or studying hours to provide more care? What are the knock-on effects this has for us?
5. Are we missing out on leisure time (things that are good
for us)?
How does caring affect our personal lives outside of caring? It's important to remember that as well as being a carer, we also have our own dreams and ambitions. When was the last time we had a whole day (or even a few hours) to ourselves and not had to think about caring? What are things we enjoy but had to stop doing because of our caring role?
6. Do we see ourselves become more distant from family and friends?
The fear of being a 'burden' to those around us can often make us distance ourselves from family and friends and make us feel even more isolated. This is not uncommon. Are our relationships with friends and families being affected? Are we contacting them less?
7. What is our housing situation with the person we care for?
Do we live with the person we care for? Or are we caring from afar? What are the challenges of this? For example, is it a safe place for the person we care for to live in? Perhaps it may make our lives easier if we had some new equipment or home adaptations? Don't be afraid to explore the options during our Carer's Assessment.
8. Do we have time to upkeep our home?
This may sound like a very trivial question to consider but our living space is important - for us physically and mentally. Do we have enough time to look after our home at the standard at which we would like it? Would it be helpful if we could get a cleaner to come and help us?
9. How is our relationship with our employer (if we're working)?
Does our employer know about our caring role, and if so are they supportive? Are we confident that our employer knows enough about our carers' rights in the workplace? And will ensure we have time off should there be an emergency? If there are any concerns around work and our employer do also raise this.
10. What are three things we want to change (or achieve) coming out of our Carer's Assessment?
With so many things to think about, jot down three things we want to change (or achieve) coming out of our Carer's Assessment. We don't necessarily have to fulfil all of these in one go. But it's a good idea to identify what our needs are. If it helps, prioritise the top three questions from this list that we need the most support on.
Carers’ Assessments - Real life carers’ experiences
On the whole, carers’ experiences of a Carer's Assessment were positive. However, as with most facets of life, sometimes things can go wrong. We’ve included ‘all’ the stories, so we can feel best prepared.
Read more about our Co-Founder Suzanne's story on her carers' assessment experience here.
“ I had one through Adult Social Services about 5 years ago. They were brilliant. Asked me what care I gave my son, then were able to provide me with equipment that I needed to look after him more easily. They also requested as assessment for my son and he ended up with more equipment. Plus, our house was then adapted to support him to feel more part of our family and not just stuck in his room.”
“ We had one a few months ago, the person doing it was great, very helpful and knowledgeable. ”
“ I never ever heard back from mine. It felt like a tick box exercise. ”
“ Being referred to consider what future treatments are available forced us to face up to the long term reality of his condition and my role as his carer (wife and best friend too!). ”
Carers Assessment Myths
It may be helpful to know these common myths (told to us by carers!) that simply are not true.
“Carers assessment is always completed at the same time
as the review of the person in need”
NOT TRUE
“I was told I could only have a Carers Assessment
if my Mum had been assessed first!
NOT TRUE
“You can only get a carers assessment
if you receive carers allowance”
NOT TRUE
“Carers Assessment and
Carers allowance are the same thing”
NOT TRUE
What's your experience?
Our guide is built around lived carer experience. If you have something to share that would benefit other carers or if you have a question we haven't answered (yet!), simply email us at info@mobiliseonline.co.uk
You might also like
Carers Rights and the law
10 ways your local carers centre can help you
Carers' Assessment- My experience (our Co-Founder Suzanne)
