Common Assessment Framework (CAF)

The White Paper, 'Our Health, Our Care, Our Say' (January 2006) proposes a Common Assessment Framework for Adults to be developed primarily from the experience to date from implementing the Single Assessment Process for Older People, the Care Programme Approach for Mental Health, and Person Centred Planning for People with Learning Disabilities. It states in particular that 'SAP provides a generic framework that could be applied more widely'.

The Common Assessment Framework retains the core features and properties of SAP:

• supporting seamless delivery of services across health and social care
• avoiding duplication of information collection and procedures
• a proportionate assessment according to an individual's level of need
• a person-centred assessment of needs feeding into a personalised care plan to support people.