Welcome to this video about the Care Act
duties on assessment of needs please note that we have other videos about this topic on the SCIE
website along with other resources and a handout with key messages and reflective questions to
support and embed the learning my name is Paula and with me today is June hi June hello Paula so
in previous videos we've explored the importance of the starting point of an assessment being
the need to gather an understanding of what the individual wishes to achieve in their day-to-day
life so you know their personal and their desired outcomes so this may have been previously recorded
by another social care practitioner before you begin your conversation and your relationship
with the individual and so it's not necessary for you to get the individual to retell that part of
their story but it is important that the social care practitioner checks in with the individual
and makes sure that the desired and personal outcomes that are recorded are still relevant
so when we've established or at least begun to understand what the individual's personal and
desired outcomes are we can begin to explore how they are currently trying to achieve it so this
has taken a strengths-based approach without even referring to it as being one so we're beginning
to look first at what a person can do to enable them to achieve the things that are important
to them so June you previously mentioned that you feel that a good day for you is when you're
empowered when you feel that you can make a difference and contribute to the world that's
around you so what kind of things do you need to happen on a on a day by day basis so that
you can go to bed at night feeling empowered and that you're able to make a difference
and contribute to the world that's around you okay thank you it's a big question I need to
feel confident I think confidence that matters a lot to how I've
I contribute to various things and for me confidence is and empowerment are very close
you know they're part of the one part of the other and it's to do with self-esteem so I know that I
cease functioning so well if I start doubting my abilities so my esteem is affected then I actually
don't have that good day so what I think is I need for me to be to have the opportunities to
to gain my self-esteem to gain my confidence to do things that are important to me and but to my
world as it were to my whole world so family various you know community people and things
like that and so I think that doing this for example is one of the things that is building
on my confidence so I'm doing this recording as a resource and I hope that that will then
support the learning of social work practitioners social care practitioners
and I just think if I'm doing which now a lot happens I assume if I'm actually developing the
learning of students which I do as a practice educator which I trained as I just feel that
that is making a contribution and that will mean that my self-esteem will go up a lot and I shall
feel yeah what did I achieve today so that would be important I just I think it's that
making sure that you could facilitate or enable me in the way of giving me getting opportunities
to demonstrate to myself that I can do things that I actually am not you know which I used to
think at one time was that I just couldn't do anything I didn't have the confidence
so I'm just thinking aloud about the opportunities that are given in my daily day-to-day life that
give me that catch give me that opportunity that catch me doing things well
rather than not doing things well which can actually impact completely the other way
absolutely thank you and so when we're having a conversation around how an individual is
currently trying to achieve their desired and their personal outcomes difficulties will begin
to emerge as a natural part of that conversation and so as the social care practitioner had been
noting down using the person's own words what those difficulties are that are beginning to
emerge so I'm still actively listening to the individual and enabling them to have that time
to share with me and you know what's what's important what the difficulties are and then
I would revisit those at an appropriate point of the conversation so June's mentioned that
empowerment and contribution is important to her but that can start to to be ebbed away when she's
doubting herself so she's doubting her abilities so when you do start to feel that you're doubting
yourself June what do you do to try and overcome that well I need to place this in the context of
my world through my values that all of that now I've changed significantly my particular my belief
system if you like so I will not if I'm tempted to think negatively about what a person did something
that happened and because if I think negatively I will absorb it as it'd be my fault yeah I actually
now go the other way and think positively and not just about that situation but actually
feeling okay so that happened but all a giving gratitude for that learning opportunity something
happened that actually may set us you know seem negative and uncomfortable but it I then express
gratitude to myself by actually learning something from it and that's worked quite remarkably well
in relationships in and all sorts of things which actually keeps me then from feeling
a failure yeah fantastic so one of your biggest strengths there then June is that you develop
that ability to have insight for yourself and to that you know to give yourself that space and
opportunity to sit and reflect and think okay what can I learn from this situation might not
have been pleasant going through it but I will have been able to learn something through it so
that's yeah absolutely fantastic thank you so when we're having a conversation with an individual
through an assessment whether we're looking at what a person's outcomes desired outcomes personal
outcomes are or whether we're starting to explore some of the difficulties that an individual may
be having towards reaching those outcomes it'll help both myself and the individual to understand
the extent and the severity of the individual needs or requirements as is June's preferred
reference to it and so this will help me as the social care practitioner to begin to think about
what may be an appropriate and proportionate way to support the individual to achieve their
personal and desired outcomes so the whole assessment conversation provides the social
care practitioner with an opportunity to ask the individual you know what they think might
be important to them what they think might be an opportunity or a solution to the difficulty that
they're facing the social care practitioner can reflect on their own previous experience
and knowledge of perhaps working with individuals where circumstances may be similar and what worked
for them so the assessment conversation provides the social care practitioner with the opportunity
to provide again these words appropriate and proportionate information okay complementing
this with advice that's been borne out of social cares practitioners understanding of
the individual that we're working with it provides us with an opportunity to share any resources that
might be available in the community which the individual could access independently or with
support and which may take them on their journey towards the change that they're hoping to achieve
the assessment process is a two-way conversation okay and in having that two-way conversation the
sharing of information the sharing of ideas it also might trigger something further in the
individual's own mind as a potential opportunity or solution that can then be had added to the mix
of potential you know decisions that we can make moving forward so that we've got a good array of
opportunities that then the individual can make a decision as to what would be the best fit for them
thank you for listening remember to check further resources and other videos on this
and other themes at the SCIE website thank you so much for your time June