Purpose and principles
Map the person's relationships, care work, housing, access and safeguarding context accurately enough to build a lawful, feasible plan that supports autonomy without assuming family availability or overlooking risk.
Take the social history as clinical evidence, not a placement form. Ask the person first about home, relationships, culture, occupation, finances affecting care and what support they accept. Use interpreters and sensory aids. Describe the household and chosen network without presuming spouse, child or next of kin is the preferred confidant.
Create a task map: who obtains food, cooks, cleans, manages medicines and money, provides transport, assists washing and transfers, checks overnight and responds to emergencies. Hidden set-up and supervision can make an apparently independent person wholly dependent on one exhausted carer.
Assess the physical home against current function: entry steps, internal stairs, toilet location, bathroom, chair and bed height, lighting, heating, clutter, smoke alarms, telephone and key access. OT home assessment or trusted photographs can clarify, but verify consent and do not substitute assumptions about a property type.
Speak to carers about willingness, competence, sleep, employment, health and competing responsibilities. Explain new tasks practically and offer a carers assessment and support. Family disagreement may reflect different observations or burden; it does not grant any relative decision-making authority over a capacitous adult.