Annette Brooke – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Annette Brooke on 2014-05-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to social care assessments for people with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome.

Norman Lamb

The Care Bill will require local authorities to provide information and advice on how to access care and support in their area including assessments.

The Bill will place local authorities under a duty to assess any adult who appears to have needs for care and support, whatever their level of need. The assessment will look at the person’s needs and outcomes they want to achieve, and the person must be involved throughout the process. Authorities will have to ensure that anyone who is undertaking an assessment is appropriately trained to do so, and that where the assessor is not experienced in the condition of the person they are assessing, they must consult someone who is.

These measures will ensure that the person needing care has an effective assessment carried out by an appropriately trained assessor.