Councils funded for self-assessment trial

Eleven councils are receiving government funding to allow people with long-term conditions to assess their own care needs, in line with the health and social care white paper’s proposals.

The councils, including Barnet, Hull and Nottinghamshire, will receive a total of £850,000 to run self-assessment pilots from October 2006 to September 2007.

The projects will look at how people can assess their support needs ranging from equipment and home care to housing adaptations.

The white paper, Our Health, Our Care, Our Say, published in January, said self-assessment should be developed as part of a new common assessment framework for adult care.

Care services minister Ivan Lewis said: “Self-assessment has the potential to give patients and service users much greater control over their care and faster, easier, access to services.”