Adults

Assessment of a disabled person’s needs

Local authorities have a legal duty to arrange social care support and services (Social care includes accommodation, day centres, communicator guides, personal care, etc) for someone with a disability where they think this is necessary. They cannot make this decision without a proper assessment of what support the person needs.

The Supreme Court has confirmed that at the assessment stage the authority should identify a person’s ‘presenting needs’ in full, without any regard to their own financial resources, what services they can afford to provide, etc.

There is no timescale for carrying out the assessment, but it should take place within three to six months of the person’s need for assessment being known to the authority.

Guidance on assessment

The Secretary of State for Health in England has issued statutory guidance on the assessment and support of deafblind people (Social Care for Deafblind Children and Adults (2009) (PDF) on the
Department of Health website). This guidance is given under section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. The Welsh Assembly has its own guidance (Social Care for Deafblind Children & Adults) which was issued in 2001. It is on the Welsh Assembly website), also under section 7.

An authority is legally required to follow section 7 guidance unless it can justify not doing so. It would therefore be unlawful for an authority simply to ignore either guidance.

For more information, see our page about the Deafblind Guidance.

There is no equivalent deafblind guidance in Northern Ireland.

Support and services decision

Once the local authority has assessed the person's needs, they must decide whether it is necessary for them to arrange social care support and services for that person. This decision is largely at the local authority’s discretion, and at this stage will take account of factors such as the authority’s own finances and who else could provide the support.

At the moment, local authorities in England and Wales operate eligibility criteria based on four bands – critical, substantial, moderate and low. Each local authority can decide which bands it will fund and most fund only critical and substantial. Detailed information about the eligibility criteria in England can be found on the Department of Health website.

There is no duty to provide all of the support and services the person might think they need. However, the decision must be justifiable and consistent. A decision not to provide services which seriously impacts upon the person's ability to engage with the world around them might be open to legal challenge.  

It would also be unlawful to provide a service to some people with disabilities but not make similar provision for deafblind people.

Withdrawing or reducing a service

Once an authority has accepted that it has a duty to arrange a service for someone, or to provide direct payments for them to purchase the service, they cannot withdraw or reduce the service (or the corresponding payments) unless they have reassessed the person's needs and have concluded, on reasonable evidence, that they no longer need the service concerned. Withdrawing or reducing a service which a person still needs, simply on cost grounds, is unlawful.

Personal budgets and direct payments

Deafblind people (and others with disabilities) are usually allocated a sum of money to cover the cost of their support, known as their personal budget.

This budget can either be held by the local authority or paid directly to the person so that they can purchase their own support and services.

These direct payments give the deafblind person greater control over how the services they need are provided, such as deciding who they hire to help them. However, it does mean that the person has to accept responsibility for finding out who can provide the service they need, agreeing a price, or even employing a personal care assistant or communicator guide.

The deafblind person can refuse direct payments and ask the local authority to arrange their services.

Authorities sometimes calculate someone’s personal budget using a computerised system known as a resource allocation system (RAS).

The use of a RAS is lawful, provided it is used simply to work out how much money to provide and not to decide which services the authority will pay for.

The authority does not have to pay enough money to enable the person to buy a service from a specific provider. However, the sum must be enough to purchase a service of an adequate standard from some provider, or it would be unlawful.

Children and young people

Assessing and meeting social care needs

Local authorities have the same duty to provide services to disabled children and young people as they do to adults with disabilities. So if a young person with a disability comes to the attention of a local authority in England or Wales or a health and social care trust in Northern Ireland, they must assess the young person’s needs for support and services.

In addition, section 17 of the Children Act 1989 (England and Wales) requires local authorities to safeguard the welfare of any 'child in need' in their area by providing a range of services to meet their needs. The expression 'child in need' includes any child with a disability. The same duty applies in Northern Ireland- see Article 18 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.

The authority can provide a range of support services, including cash payments. They can also make direct payments to the parent of a disabled child, or directly to a 16 or 17 year-old.

Section 17 generally gives local authorities discretion over whether or not to provide services to children.

However, they are required to provide services for disabled children which are designed to ‘minimise the effects of their disabilities’ and to give them ‘the opportunity to live lives which are as normal as possible’.