Care Act assessment

In this section:

Under the Care Act 2014, assessments are for people over the age of 18 requiring help to live in the best way possible as a result of:

  • disability
  • ill health
  • old age

Our Community Advice Hubs can help you understand what a Care Act assessment is and how to request one.

A Care Act assessment will give us a full picture of your needs and help us to work out what level of care and support you require.

You are entitled to an assessment as soon as Solihull Council is aware of your need for care and support.

An assessment can be offered by the Solihull Council Adult Social Care team or requested by you. You can also be referred for an assessment by a medical professional, such as your GP or a consultant surgeon.

If you are deaf, deafened, hard of hearing, BID Services Solihull can provide social care and support assessments, care and support planning and reviews.

Reablement

Before you have a Care Act assessment a period of reablement may be discussed with you. This is short term support from the Solihull Adult Social Care Reablement team. The support is similar to rehabilitation and recovery. It can help you learn new skills, or regain and relearn any lost skills, to reduce your care needs.

Request a Care Act assessment

You can request an assessment by contacting our Solihull Connect Adult Social Care team:

To arrange an assessment we’ll need your:

  • name
  • contact details
  • individual care needs

Your assessment will be conducted at a time and place that suits you. This is usually your own home but does not have to be.

If you have difficulty understanding, remembering or using information, or have difficulty getting your point across, you may want to use an advocate.

During the assessment we’ll discuss:

  • your personal circumstances
  • what you want to achieve
  • how much you can pay towards your care

There will also be a financial assessment to see how much you can afford to help with paying for your care.

Resident of Solihull

This part of the process is to check that you live in Solihull with what is called ‘Ordinary residence’ status:

  • This looks at which council pays for your care
  • Understandably, it can be a complicated process
  • However, it is likely that you have lived in Solihull for most of your life and will not be affected by it

For further information, please take a look at:

Alternatively, you can ask the person completing your assessment with you for a full explanation of the Ordinary Residence provision.

If you are not Ordinarily Resident in Solihull, you will be supported by the Adult Social Care Support team while we contact the appropriate Local Authority.

Save a copy of the assessment

You can download and open a file or document of the care and support assessment to your own computer. Selecting the links below will automatically start the download from the Solihull Council website. Some of these files are very large.

Once the file opens you can save or print it. Please remember some of these files are very large and may require a lot of paper and black and coloured ink to print successfully.
You can choose to:

After the assessment

Once your assessment has taken place you will be sent a copy of it. If you are eligible you will be sent an estimate of your personal budget.

Your actual care and support budget will be confirmed once your personal plan has been put together. This allows the costs and care availability in your local area to be better understood.

Whether you can receive care and support from Solihull Council will be based on the results of your assessment against the outcomes in the national eligibility criteria.

Your care and support plan will be reviewed by Solihull Adult Social Care services within 6 to 8 weeks.

Further reviews will take place a minimum of once every 12 months.

What if I do not agree with the assessment?

You will always have an opportunity to give feedback about your assessment and, if you disagree with the findings, you can ask for this to be looked at again.

If you do not meet the national eligibility criteria we will:

  • provide you with information and advice on what community care and support is available
  • discuss services which you can pay to receive
  • explore ways that you might find funding to pay for them
  • explain how the Solihull Directory can help you find what you need