What Happens When You Apply for an Assessment of Need?

How is my application dealt with? When you apply for an assessment of your child’s needs an Assessment Officer in your Local Health Office will check that your application form is complete and send you a written acknowledgement within two weeks.
After that, the Assessment Officer will contact you to collect information and any existing reports to help show the nature and level of difficulty experienced by your child. The Assessment Officer will also decide which assessments are needed and who should carry them out. The assessments may be carried out by staff already known to you and providing services for your child.
The Assessment Officer will arrange for the relevant assessments to be carried out. Assessments should start within 3 months of the Assessment Officer receiving your completed application form, unless there are acceptable reasons for a delay, for example if your child is ill or if there are clinical reasons for the delay.

Is the system the same for the whole country?

Certain standards have to be followed by the people doing the assessments. This is to help make sure that, wherever you live, you can expect the same service. You can ask the Assessment Officer for a copy of these standards. If you wish, the Assessment Officer will also explain them to you. The assessments should be about all of the needs your child has because of his or her disability, not just the ones that it is possible to provide services for immediately.

How long will the process take?

Once the assessments have started, they should be completed and a full Assessment Report written within three months, unless there are acceptable reasons for a delay. Assessment reports may be delayed for clinical reasons or due to family illness or bereavement. The completed Assessment Report will contain details of the needs that have been identified for your child and the services that are required to meet those needs. Your child’s needs may change and therefore, the Assessment Report has to be reviewed at least every year. It may be reviewed more frequently than that, if necessary.

What happens to the Assessment Report?

The completed Assessment Report is sent to the Case Manager. The Case Manager’s job is to arrange for as many of the needs identified in the Assessment Report to be met as possible. They will write a Service Statement which will list the services that it is possible to provide. Having received the Assessment Report, the Case Managers are given one month to write the Service Statement. The Service Statement and Assessment Report will be sent to you at the same time.

Will all my child’s needs be met?

The HSE, and the other service providers, will do all they can to provide any services that your child needs as a result of their disability. These services are varied, and are provided by a mix of HSE and voluntary sector agencies. From time to time, these services may have a waiting time or may be operating at capacity. In this situation, the Case Manager will keep in touch with the service providers to check where your child is on the waiting list and to check what resources are available. The aim will be to meet as many of the needs as possible, as soon as possible. You will be informed about the level of service you can expect and about which needs can or cannot be met at that time. The Case Manager will also be aware that your child’s circumstances may change. You will be kept informed of the situation and the service statement will be changed if necessary.

What happens if I am not satisfied?

The Disability Act 2005 provides for special complaints and appeals procedures and also sets out the grounds on which you can make a complaint. The Assessment Officer will provide you with information on this. Apart from this special complaints process, you do, of course, have access to the normal HSE complaints processes.