Needs-Led Assessment

Abstract

Good quality assessment is the cornerstone of effective social work practice, whatever the setting; this was true prior to the coming into force of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990, and it is even more true today. For social workers, the major impact of the 1990 Act is to place assessment for community care services on a statutory basis, so that what social workers may legitimately claim to be doing when they are carrying out an assessment now is statutory work; work which demands the highest priority and the greatest degree of expertise. One consequence of doing statutory work is of course that it is the legal interpretation of the assessment process which is all important; it is more compelling than departmental policy and procedures, which are at best interpretations of legal powers and duties. Assessments may not only be of individual needs, but also of organisational systems (Coulshed and Orme, 1998). ‘Work in accordance with statutory, and legal requirements’ is thus necessarily a practice requirement within the core competence ‘assess and plan’.