Eligible social care needs are national criteria used by councils to decide who can get help.
To qualify, your needs must:
- be caused by a physical or mental health condition, illness, disability or age
- make it hard for you to manage at least 2 everyday tasks
- have a big impact on your wellbeing
Carers may also be able to get support if caring affects their own health, wellbeing or daily life.
We will look at how your needs affect your daily life during an assessment. This helps us decide if you meet the criteria and what support you may be able to get.
Social care needs assessments
Care and support assessments
If you contact your local authority about your care needs, they will open a conversation with you to discover what you want from life, and the care, support and housing that will enable this.
Your local authority may ask you to complete a self-assessment, before arranging a meeting with an adult social care practitioner. This is an opportunity to discuss how your care needs affect your daily living, and the things that are important to you. Depending on your circumstances, your assessment may take place online, over the phone or face-to face.
Each conversation is personal to you, exploring how you manage your day-to-day routines and activities, such as washing, dressing, eating, remembering to take medication, and managing your household tasks.
You can ask a family member, friend or carer to be with you at your assessment. If you don’t have a friend or family member your local authority can arrange for someone to support you.
Your local authority must use the Care Act 2014 eligibility criteria to decide if you qualify for part or fully-funded care and support. If your care and support needs are not eligible for help from the Council, they will give you information about how to access services and support for yourself.
We use the national eligibility rules set out within the Care Act 2014 to decide if you can get support from us. We do this through a social care needs assessment. This looks at how your needs affect your ability to manage everyday life.
There are 2 types of assessment:
Paying for care
If you have eligible needs, you have a right to support. However, adult social care is not free. As part of the process, you will usually need a financial assessment. This tells us if you need to pay towards the cost of your care and how much.
Some people will need to pay for their care themselves. This is called self-funding. We can still offer information and advice to help you arrange your care. See Arranging and paying for your own care to find out more.