No.
The s9 Care Act duty to assess arises “Where it appears to a local authority that an adult may have needs for care and support”. This can occur in a range of ways.
It is particularly important to understand that an assessment does not require consent (although this is always preferable of course). What is being assessed is whether the local authority is under a statutory duty to meet an individual’s needs! If an adult refuses to be assessed this does not prevent the local authority from assessing them. Such a refusal may relieve the local authority of the duty to carry out an assessment but only if:
The adult refusing has capacity to do so and the adult is not experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect. (s.11 Care Act)
Therefore, the assessment process should continue until the authority has gathered sufficient information to assure itself both of the adult’s capacity and the lack of safeguarding issues. Until then the local authority remains under a duty to assess.
An assessment is something that can sometimes, exceptionally, have to be done from a distance and without any input from a client – if the person is completely mentally incapacitated, and their carer is barring access to visit them, then there is no way the person in question can be said to be consenting to an assessment. Yet it is that very situation of access being prevented and prior knowledge of the person’s frailty or vulnerability by reason of their mental incapacity which is easily enough to trigger a duty to assess.
See questions on Powers of Entry
In general therefore, there is no legal need for the consent of the person concerned to the process called assessment. It will obviously be less than ideal, if done without someone’s co-operation, but the situation itself, and the apparent unwillingness or inability of those closest to the prospective client to do anything to change that situation, requires that an assessment be done.
In practice, however, most local authorities wait until a person or the carer or relative in closest contact has made an approach to social services, before they assume a responsibility for offering an assessment. If a neighbour or other unrelated person raises concerns about the conditions in which someone is living, then a physical visit might be offered in order to get a better idea of what is going on and whether it is unawareness of the help that could be made available, rather than hostility to the very notion of social services’ involvement.
However the Care Act advice and information duty (s4) and prevention duty (particularly s2(2)(b)&(c) on having regard to the importance of identifying adults with needs and carers) would seem to have strengthened the degree to which local authorities have a duty to actively seek out adults and carers in need of social care. In our view a strategic level approach which depends entirely on individuals to approach the authority is unlikely to be sufficient to meet these duties. A challenging situation given the resource constraints currently facing the sector.