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Guidance on the single assessment process

Localities were required to be ready to implement the single assessment process (SAP) by April 2004 by conducting assessments with older people according to the January 2002 guidance.

The implementation guidance asks professionals to be ready to have person-centred conversations with older people and to exercise their professional judgement. Local assessment systems should incorporate four types of assessment– core, overview, specialist and comprehensive. When overviews of assessments are carried out, all of the assessment domains of Annex F of the 2002 guidance should be covered.

The central responsibility for implementation rests with localities that should identify and address the implementation issues that are most important to them. In many respects, the guidance on SAP simply formalises good assessment and care planning practice, which to a large extent should have already been everyday practice.