Your Health and Social Care Trust (HSC Trust) can help you to work out what you need, and might be able to help to arrange the support. You might have to pay for some of the support. 

Needs assessments

Your Health and Social Care (HSC) Trust must do a needs assessment if you appear to need care and support. Even if they think you are unlikely to get support services, you are still entitled to an assessment. 

You could use our letter template to ask your HSC Trust for a needs assessment.

If you haven’t had a reply within six weeks, contact your HSC Trust to find out what is happening. 

A social worker or other professional will usually visit you at home to do the assessment. You can have a family member, friend, carer or advocate with you during the assessment, if you want to. The professional will talk to you about what matters most to you and what help you need to do those things. The questions might include how you manage everyday tasks such as washing, shopping, dressing and cooking, or how well you do certain things.

The assessment should include needs you may have in the future. It should consider whether your wellbeing is likely to get worse in the near future if support is not put in place, and you should give as much detail as you can. This includes all the small things you might struggle with on your own. The assessor should listen to what outcomes you would like to achieve. This is called being person-centred. 
 

Eligibility 

Not everyone who has a needs assessment will be entitled to get support. 

Your HSC Trust will work out whether your needs meet the Department of Health’s eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria are designed to work out how vulnerable you are, what risks you face now and in the future, and to ensure that those at greatest risk are given the highest priority. 

If your needs don’t meet the eligibility criteria, you won’t get care and support services. Your HSC Trust must write to you and let you know that you aren’t eligible, and why. It should also tell you about where else you might get help, and about its complaints procedure. 

Find local support groups and projects in our Autism Services Directory. 

Planning your support 

If you are eligible for support, your HSC Trust should develop a care plan. This should include: 

• what your needs, likes and dislikes are 
• how your needs will be met 
• a plan in case of emergency 
• any care your carers are willing and able to provide 
• a date to review the plan. 

You might have to wait a short time for your support to start. You have a right to complain if you have to wait a long time (for example more than six weeks) without getting any services. 
 

Reviewing your support 

Your HSC Trust should regularly review your support to make sure that it still meets your needs. It should also be reviewed if you tell the HSC Trust that there has been an important change, for example your carer wants to go back to work.