ABSTRACT
Assessment is often considered in relation to particular resources, such as assessment of the need for residential care. In this chapter a different approach is adopted in that the focus is on several aspects of assessment as a task routinely undertaken by staff in social services departments. The organisational response to referrals on elderly people and the assessments that follow raise a number of important issues. Some of these are common to other client groups, for example, consideration of how practice should be influenced by knowledge of the client group concerned and of the theory and ethics of social work. Other points, whilst not unique to referrals on elderly people, have a particular relevance. An example here is the part played by non-social work staff (notably home help organisers and occupational therapists) or the relationship between social work and another profession such as health visiting.
