
The following illustration may help:
I recently reviewed two cases in my authority. In the first case, a service user had been denied an assessment because there were no resources available to meet their likely needs. In the second case, an assessment had not been carried out properly. In both cases the service users complained and my role was to review the complaints. In the first instance, Mrs J, who is 85, asked for some additional help at home but was refused an assessment because she already had three grown up daughters who provided almost around the clock care. It was clear to me that the threshold to trigger an assessment under the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 was fairly low, and there would be few instances where a denial of an assessment would be appropriate. The fact that Mrs J already had family help at home would be insufficient grounds to deny an assessment since the authority could not know beforehand what her needs would be. Case law has set the precedent in terms of the right to an assessment (R v Bristol CC ex parte Penfold, 1 CCLR 315, 23 January 1998, QBD). I therefore suggested that the authority carry out an assessment and I have briefed the care managers to ensure everyone is clear about their obligations. In the second instance, Mr P, who has Alzheimer's disease, was not properly consulted during the assessment, although his carer had been. Mr P should have been consulted even though his dementia would not make the process easy. It would be up to the care manager to explore ways in which he could be consulted.