Looking after someone 2017, Northern Ireland

Carer’s assessment If you are a carer who provides or intends to provide ‘regular and substantial’ care for someone you should be offered a carers assessment by the social services department at their local trust. No definition of ‘substantial’ is given, so if you feel the care you provide will impact on your life, work or family, and you will be caring regularly, you are entitled to a carer’s assessment. You can have a carer’s assessment even if the person you look after has not had an assessment themselves. Social services should tell you about your right to a carer’s assessment, but you will still need to ask them to carry out an assessment for you. Your carer’s assessment should cover: your caring role and how it affects your life ; your feelings and choices about caring; your health; work, study, training, leisure; relationships, social activities; housing; and planning for emergencies. Following the assessment social services will decide if you are eligible for support to be provided either to you or to the person you are looking after to reduce the impact of caring on you. Support could be provided directly by social services or in the form of a direct payment. Some examples of the kind of support you could get include driving lessons, taxi fares, a laptop, help with housework or gardening or a gym membership. In Northern Ireland the Carers and Direct Payments Act allows for charges to be made for services to carers following a carer’s assessments. However, to date this is not common practice. If help is provided for the person you are looking after through a community care assessment, they can be charged separately for this help. Find out more at carersuk.org/ ni/assessment Note: Carer’s assessments are for people aged 16 years and over, caring for someone who is 18 years and over. If you are looking after a child under 18 or are a carer who is under 16, visit carersuk.org/assessments-under-18 to find out more. Looking after someone carersni.org 13

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