Care Act 2014
Carers Assessments
The NHS is committed to working in partnership with carers and ensuring that they are involved and consulted about decisions where this is appropriate (NHS Constitution 2015). This relates to ALL carers and forms a key part of our work across all of our services in HPFT. Beyond this, HPFT has further statutory duties to particular groups of carers and these duties are set out in The Care Act 2014. The Care Act covers the rights of both adult carers and child carers and ensures that carers’ needs are identified by having a Carer’s Assessment.
HPFT is responsible for Carer’s Assessments for adult carers of people over the age of 18 with a primary diagnosis of a functional mental health problem. This would include people with schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders etc.
It is not necessary for people to be open to HPFT services in order for their carer to have a Carer’s Assessment. HPFT adult community teams are commissioned to provide Carer’s Assessments to carers where the cared for person lives in their geographical area and has a mental health problem, even if they are not currently receiving or have never received services from HPFT.
Other organisations are responsible for Carer’s Assessments for many other people that we work with including Carers in Herts who are responsible for providing Carer’s Assessments for young carers under 19. Hertfordshire County Council is responsible for carers assessment for carers of people with primary diagnoses that are not functional mental health problems. This includes people with organic brain disorders (eg dementia, stroke & Korsakoff’s), physical health problems, learning disability, autism, ADHD and drug and alcohol dependency. HCC’s 0-25 team is responsible for carers assessments for parent carers/ adult carers of a child.
Types of carers assessments
|
Who is being assessed? |
Type of assessment |
Legislation |
Responsible organisation |
|
A young carer (child under the age of 19 providing care for someone of any age) |
Young Carers Assessment (also known as Young |
The Children and Families Act 2014 amended the Children Act 1989 |
Carers in Herts |
|
A parent carer of a child |
Parent Carers Needs Assessment |
The Children and Families Act 2014 amended the Children Act 1989 |
HCC 0-25 team |
|
An adult carer of an adult |
Carer’s Assessment |
Care Act 2014 |
HPFT where cared for person’s primary need is mental health (does not include dementia) |
HPFT Hertfordshire responsibilities in blue.
For more information about carers assessments under the Care Act, click here
If you would like to ask HPFT for a carer’s assessment, you can ask the team working with the cared for person directly. If the person that you care for isn’t receiving a service from HPFT we may still be able to offer an assessment – contact the Single Point of Access on 0800 6444 101.