Social care assessments

We are here to help you and your family. On this page are some of the assessments our teams may complete with you so you can get the right advice and support.

Early Help is about giving information, advice and guidance to families as soon as there is a worry in a child's life. This is for children aged 0-17. Find out more about the service and the Early Help assessment by visiting  Early Help .

A children and family assessment is for children aged 0-17. It looks at the child's needs and what support may be needed. You might have heard it called a 'social work assessment'. Each assessment is different, because it's important that our social care teams understand what's happening for your child and your family and so they can do their best to meet your needs.

There are lots of ways we can help you if you have an assessment. We can give you advice and guidance, and point you to services and organisations that can help you and your family. Or the assessment may decide that your child should have social care support from children's services.

The professional carrying out the assessment will want to know what you think you need extra support with. It can help to think about these three questions:

• What are we worried about
• What's working well
• What needs to happen

To request a children and family assessment you will need to contact the Children and Families Duty Service (CADS) on 0344 800 8020 - follow the options for children's social care. CADS will decide how the assessment should take place. 

Who can have a children and family assessment

All disabled children and young people who meet the Children Act 1989 and the Equality Act 2010 definition are entitled to a social care assessment as 'children in need'. However, not all families will need to have a social care assessment as you can access some services like Short Breaks directly.

If you are a parent caring for you child or young person who has disabilities, additional needs or a long-term health condition (including mental health difficulties), you can have a Parent Carer Needs Assessment. This will look at what support might help make your life easier.

The assessment will focus on your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. You might be looking for practical help or someone to talk to. You may have money concerns, need help with education issues, be looking to make friendships with other parents or you're not sure who to contact. It may be that you have a quick question you want to ask or need time to talk to someone about what's happening.

Carers Matter Norfolk, Young Carers & Families are the first point of contact for you to get advice and support. You can ask them about having an assessment and one of their team of support workers will help you explore this.

You will be able to have one to one support with a support worker to help you unpick what's working well, not working so well and possible changes that can be made to help. The assessment will look at things like your wellbeing, whether you can do things away from being a carer and other worries you may have. It is not an assessment of your abilities as a parent carer.

As part of the support provided you may want to access a group. Carers Matter Norfolk, Young Carers & Families can support you to come to either one of their groups or to a group provided by another organisation.

To learn more about the service and ask for an assessment please visit the Carers Matter Norfolk website.

If you are already being supported by Children's Services or have been recently, you will need to contact your child's named worker to request an assessment.

All young carers (someone who is under 18 and looks after someone who is disabled, ill or has an addiction) have the right to have a  young carers' needs assessment .

When a young person turns 18 their needs are assessed under the Care Act 2014. The eligibility criteria are different to the those in the Children Act 1989 which covers children aged 0-17.

The young person's needs assessment looks in detail at the social care needs of a young person aged 16-25. It is used to decide if the young person meets the  eligibility criteria for help from adult social care services  when they turn 18.

If your young person is eligible they can get support with areas such as:

• Getting out of bed, getting dressed or washed
• Eating or cooking meals
• Seeing friends and family
• Caring for others

The assessment is carried out by the preparing for adult life (PfAL) service team.

The team will:

• Complete a financial declaration form
• Check the young person is receiving all the state benefits they are entitled to, and they can help them to claim these - the Welfare Rights Unit  can also help
• Explain the charging policy of adult social care services 
• Answer any questions

To request a young person's needs assessment contact our social care team.