Centre for Policy on Ageing



Community care in South Thames (West) Region — is needs assessment working?
Author(s)	M C Leicester, A M Pollock
Journal title	Public Health, vol 110, 1996
Pages	pp 109-113
Keywords	Community care ; Social Services Departments ; Needs [elderly] ; Evaluation ; Social surveys ; London.
Annotation	On the evidence of this study, national guidance is required on definitions of need and eligibility criteria for community care. An audit of the assessment process, definitions and measurement of need against Department of Health (DoH) guidance was undertaken across the eight social services departments (SSDs) in the South Thames (West) Region. Results indicate no standard approach to assessing needs: none of the SSDs use standardised measures of dependency, and scales which have been developed are not comparable between authorities. Only one authority had attempted to quantify population needs and service provision in advance of setting up its eligibility criteria. Information collected on individuals cannot be aggregated for use in population based planning, nor for monitoring purposes in any of these local authorities.
Accession Number	CPA-970402002 A
Classmark	PA: PF: IK: 4C: 3F: 82L *
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.