Carers assessments with Adult Social Care

What is a Carers Assessment?

This is a conversation with Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council about your needs as a carer. It’s your chance to tell the Council about your caring role and the impact it has on your health and wellbeing.

After the assessment you can find out what support is available to you from Adult Social Care.

This support is to help you look after yourself and the person you care for. It does not assess your ability to care for someone.

You should be offered a Carers Assessment if you appear to need support because you care for (or plan to) care for an adult living in Newcastle. If you are not offered an assessment, you should ask for one.


Who is a carer?

You are a carer if you give unpaid care and support to someone who can’t manage without your help.  This could be a family member, friend, partner or neighbour.  The person you look after may have:

  • a disability or learning disability
  • a long term or life limiting illness
  • mental health difficulties
  • alcohol or drug related problems

Help is available for carers in Newcastle. This includes benefits advice, carers support, taking a break so you can rest and more.


Why might I need support as a carer?

Caring for someone can be stressful. You may find that you experience a wide range of conflicting emotions. Feelings of isolation, guilt, anger or depression are common. Having extra support, a chance to take a break, someone to talk to about how you feel can make a difference.

It’s really important to take care of yourself so that you can continue to support the person you care for. Read more about Looking after someone.


What happens during a Carers Assessment?

Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council want to understand more about your life. To help reduce the impact of caring on your work, life and wellbeing. They will talk to you about:

  • your feelings
  • your choices about caring
  • work, study and training,
  • leisure and social activities
  • relationships
  • housing
  • planning for emergencies

A carers assessment is usually carried out by a social worker. This could be the social worker working with the person you care for or a social worker from a specialist team

You are usually assessed alongside the adult you care for. This helps the social worker understand the whole situation. So they can identify ways they can support you and the person you care for.

You can ask for a separate assessment.

The assessment is about you, so the person you care for does not need to be there. It can be carried out in your own home or in private. It can take place away from the person you care for, if you would prefer this.

If the person you care for does not want to be assessed, or hasn’t had a Needs Assessment, you can still have a carers assessment.


Preparing for a Carers assessment

Before your assessment, it can be helpful to make a list of everything you do to help the person care for. You may want to ask yourself:

  • Do you get enough sleep?
  • Do you eat well?
  • Is your health affected by caring?
  • Can you leave the person you are looking after?
  • Are you worried about having to give up work?
  • Do you get enough time to yourself?

You might want to think about how caring affects you because of your:

  • age
  • health
  • work or study (or if you are looking to work or study)
  • other activities or commitments

After your assessment

Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council will decide if you are eligible for support. This could be provided to you or the person you care for, to reduce the impact caring has on you.

All carers, (even if you are not eligible for support) will be provided with information and advice on local services that can help you.

You can ask for a re-assessment if your situation changes and you need more support.


How to get a Carers assessment

Contact Adult Social Care at Newcastle City Council to ask for a Carers Assessment.


Other useful information

Newcastle Carers support adults, children and young people who care for someone living in Newcastle upon Tyne. To talk to someone about your caring role, or for information or advice, call their Carers Information line. This is a free, confidential and non-judgmental service. Helping carers to find ways to make their situation easier. The can help you with benefits, support groups and counselling.

NHS has more information on Carers assessments

Carers UK have more information on how carers assessments will be carried out and how carers can access practical support.

The Care Act 2015 means that carers have more rights than before.


Advocacy

Advocacy is free, independent support to help you to get your voice heard. Advocacy services pair you up with an independent advocate who is on your side if you need support. Advocates can help people use NHS, housing and Adult Social Care services.


Information in other formats

You can change InformationNOW to suit your needs. Our website can be read aloud and translated into other languages. You can change the colour, size and contrast of the website to make it easier to read. You can print out the pages to share with people who aren’t online.

Accessible health and social care information is available in the format you need. This means people with a: disability, sensory loss or impairment can get information in different formats. For example, you could need large print information or a BSL interpreter at medical appointments. You can tell services how they need to communicate with you. They have to do this by law. This is known as the Accessible Information Standard. (section 250 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012)

The NHS App gives you access to your health information.

Last updated: March 28, 2024