Local authority practitioner capacity should be deployed as effectively as possible, especially where demand for assessments is high and assessor time is limited, ensuring that social worker and occupational therapist time focuses on supporting people with more complex needs and circumstances. Ensuring the optimum ratio of qualified staff to other social care staff who are undertaking assessments, care and support planning and reviews will be essential in responding in a timely way to people needing care and support. Social care support staff and social work apprentices, as well as those staff involved as ‘trusted’ assessors from third parties, should have access to supervision from regulated professionals who can ensure assessments are of good quality and comply with the Care Act. A meaningful assessment of a person’s needs should always be underpinned by the duty of the local authority to promote wellbeing, with a strong commitment to anti-racist, anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practice and human rights. This applies equally to assessment with a person who has care and support needs, with someone who is a carer, or when the local authority has formally delegated their assessment duty - for example, to an organisation supporting carers, or to an NHS provider trust. The purpose of the needs assessment is to identify personal, desired outcomes, existing needs and the impact of those needs on the person’s individual wellbeing. It is fundamental in the upholding of a person’s human rights, and in maintaining or improving their quality of life. Building a relationship with a person, their family and networks, assessors will gather and share information to co-produce a holistic picture of the person’s strengths, hopes, feelings and needs. The assessment should enable consideration, judgement and planning around risk and crisis. You should get consent from people in need of care and support by discussing the sharing of information at the start of conversations. When booking an assessment or review, it is good practice to ask the person in need of care and support who they would like to be present, and if they’re happy to discuss their needs in their presence. Assessment can be a therapeutic intervention and ‘should not just be seen as a gateway to care and support but should be a critical intervention in its own right’ (the CASS guidance, 2023, 6.2). If there is an appearance of need for care and support, a needs assessment must be carried out[footnote 2], regardless of the individual’s financial means. Chapter 6.6 of the CASS guidance states: ‘the assessment and eligibility process provides a framework to identify any level of need for care and support so that local authorities can consider how to provide a proportionate response at the right time, based on the individual’s needs’. The Social Care Institute for Excellence has also highlighted several relevant considerations for ensuring good, purposeful assessments (see Assessment of needs under the Care Act 2014).