‘Tick this,Tick that’

Abstract

Community care assessments and individual service reviews are intended to empower people with learning disabilities. The research study reported in this paper investigated the effects of the Carers Act on families that include people with a learning disability, and sought the views of 51 carers and the people they cared for. This paper focuses on the views of the people with learning disabilities themselves, who reported that their assessments were often hard to understand, disempowering and inaccessible. In addition, less than half of the services discussed at the assessment were provided one year later. However, carrying out a separate assessment of the carer’s needs was generally empowering, both to the carer and to the cared-for person. The paper concludes with some recommendations to improve practice in this area.