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Carers Assessments
 

 

Carers Assessment Fact Sheet by Carers UK, download from here

What do we mean when we say ‘Carer’?
 A carer is a person who is unpaid and looks after or supports someone else who needs help with their day-to-day life, because of: their age, a long-term illness, disability, mental health problems substance misuse. 

As a carer, you may help with tasks such as getting up and going to bed, washing, dressing, using the toilet, shopping, cleaning, laundry and making meals. The care may mean keeping an eye on people who are confused or at risk if not supervised, or encouraging them to do everyday things for themselves.

Carers may be family members, including children and young people, who live with the person they care for, or family, friends or neighbours who live elsewhere.

The term ‘carer’ does not include any carer who: gets payment either in cash or in another way for the care they provide or works as a volunteer on behalf of a voluntary organisation.

If you provide a substantial amount of support for the person you care for you are entitled by virtue of the Carers & Disabled Children’s Act 2000, to a Carers assessment of your own needs.

If you are of working age, particularly if you have left ‘paid’ work to care, it is strongly advised that you have an assessment. Even if you do not wish for services, you may qualify for Home Responsibilities Protection, which will favourably affect the amount of your state retirement pension.

For a Carers Assessment you will need to contact Northamptonshire County Council, Community Services on the following number: -

0845 124 4500

There is a Department of Health website, found at www.carers.gov.uk/carersleaflet.htm#download which allows you to download 'Your Right to an Assessment' leaflet in the following languages:

English, Vietnamese, Urdu, Turkish, Somali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Greek, Chinese, Bengali and Arabic.

The first government paper recognising the valuable contributions made by Carers to society was the ‘Carers Recognition & Services Act 1995’, with the ‘Carers and Disabled Children’s Act 2000’ coming into force in April 2001.

This is a summary of the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000, the full document is available on the Governments web page at www.carers.gov.uk  

1. The Carers National Strategy document “Caring for Carers”, published on 8th February 1999 highlighted the need for legislation to enable local councils with social service responsibilities to provide services direct to Carers.
2. The Government’s aim is to support carers in their caring roles and to help them maintain their own health and well being.
3. To meet these aims the Carers and Disabled Children Act 2000 that came into force on 1 April 2001 gives local councils the power to supply certain services direct to carers following assessment. There is also a new right to a carer’s assessment for, or the provision of, community care services.
4. Persons with parental responsibility for a disabled child (parents or other Carers) also have a right to ask for an assessment.
5. The Government has given local councils the discretionary power to make direct payments to carers (including 16 and 17 year old carers receiving support under the Act) to meet their own needs.
6. Local councils may also make direct payments to parents of a disabled child to purchase services to meet the assessed needs of the disabled child and family. In addition councils may make direct payments to 16 and 17 year old disabled young people.
 

 

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