An Assessment of Need helps identify your or your child's:
- health needs
- disability supports and services needs
You can apply for an Assessment of Need if you want a legal statement that you or your child has a disability.
You do not have to get an Assessment of Need to access health services.
An Assessment of Need is a separate legal process. It is set out in the Disability Act 2005.
Disability Act 2005 - irishstatutebook.ie
Applying for an Assessment of Need
You can apply for an Assessment of Need if you are born on or after 1 June 2002.
An application can be made by:
- a parent
- a legal guardian
- a personal advocate - this is someone who represents the person applying for an Assessment of Need
- yourself, if you are age 16 or older
How to apply
Download the application form.
Complete the form and post or email it to your local assessment officer.
Assessment of Need application form (PDF, 1,178 KB, 6 pages).
What happens next
When the assessment officer gets your application, they will contact you within 2 weeks to confirm they got it.
They may ask you for more information that will help to show the nature and difficulty of the disability.
The assessment officer decides if you or your child is eligible for an Assessment of Need. They do this under the terms of the Disability Act 2005.
The assessment officer arranges a referral for an Assessment of Need within 3 months of getting your application.
The assessment and an assessment report are usually completed within a further 3 months. Sometimes there are delays in this process. The assessment officer will tell you if a delay is expected and give you a new date for completion.
Who carries out the assessment
The assessment officer decides if the Assessment of Need will be carried out by a team or by a single healthcare professional.
The team or healthcare professional does the assessment using the Standards for the Assessment of Need.
Standards for the Assessment of Need (PDF, 279 KB, 26 pages)
The assessment officer will give you a report after the Assessment of Need is completed.
The report will state whether or not you or your child has a disability.
If you have a disability
If the report states that you or your child has a disability, the assessment report is given to a liaison officer. The liaison officer will send you a service statement.
Service statement
You will get a service statement within 1 month of the Assessment of Need. The statement lists the services and support that we will provide.
You will get the service statement and the assessment report at the same time.