Assess the individual in a health and social care setting
Compare and contrast the range and purpose of different forms of assessment
Outcome 1
1.1
There are many aspects of an assessment to consider when assessing an individual in a care setting. As an assessor you must consider all of the individual’s circumstances.
According to the Whittington report (2007), the main objectives of the assessment is to make sure the needs of the individual are connected with the resources that are available to them. You also need to take into account the risks that there are and how urgent the situation is.

Need

Resources

Whittington identified five main areas of assessment:
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2.
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5.

To protect the person concerned and the general public.
To find out what the service user and carer needs are.
To be a representative of the service user or carer.
To adhere to a care settings policies.
To enlist the help of other agencies or professionals.

There are different policies for different care settings and agencies. For example:
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They could be in place to protect vulnerable adults and children.
To assist and support socially excluded people back into mainstream society.
To help an individual maintain their independence.
To assist people back into the workplace after long periods of being out of work.

Again it all depends on the assessment of their needs and the resources available to them.
You also have to make sure that the assessment is using a legal framework, like for instance the human rights legislation.
There is a law in England (National service framework for older people), which paved the way for a single assessment process (Department of Health, 2001).

You have to consider the limitations in your care setting whilst making an assessment and using all the other information that is available to you.
There are many different forms of assessment that you can use to create a bigger picture:

1.Resource led assessment

5. Risk assessment 2. Needs assessment Forms of assessment 4. Single assessment or overview single assessment

3. Self assessment or user led assessment Resource led assessment
This particular assessment is the least acceptable, as it means that the service users’ needs aren’t always met. It relies more on what resources are available to them and sometimes disguises the fact that some resources aren’t available at all.
Needs led assessment
This assessment is carried out by understanding the situation that a service user is in, then meeting the needs and level of support that they require. Needs led assessments look at the ability of the service user and what they can do for themselves?
User led assessment
This assessment is the person centred approach,