February 2017

6. Quick Reference Guide
Accessing and Completing an Assessment

Assessors can conduct assessments using the National Screening and Assessment Form (NSAF) via:

  • The assessor portal
  • The myAssessor app, and upload information onto the assessor portal when the assessor next has internet connectivity
  • A printed or blank copy of the NSAF, and enter information onto the assessor portal after the assessment has been undertaken.

This document describes the steps forusing the NSAF via the assessor portal. If you are using the myAssessor App, refer to the myAssessor App User Guide available on the Department’s website.

For more information about the completing as assessment in My Aged Care, see the National Screening and Assessment Form User Guideor National Screening and Assessment Form fact sheet, available on the Department’s website.

Accessing assessments

To access an assessment follow the steps below.

  1. Select ‘Assessments’ on the homepage.

  1. From the Assessments page, Assessors will be able to see the clients assigned to them in ‘Current work’.

The ‘Current work’ tab contains assessments which

  • Have not been started
  • Are in progress
  • Are completed but not yet finalised
  • Are awaiting delegate decision (for comprehensive assessments)
  • Have had a Delegate decision completed(for comprehensive assessments), but not finalised

The ‘Current work’ tab also contains support plan reviews which

  • Have not started
  • Are in progress

The ‘Recent work’ tab contains assessments, which have been finalised, cancelled, or closed.It also contains completed and cancelled support plan reviews.

Further information about using the sort and advanced filter functions can be found in the Quick Reference Guide 3 - Managing referrals for assessment and reviews, available on the Department’s website.

Completing an assessment through the portal

If you are using the myAssessor app, see detailed instructions in the myAssessor App User Guide available on the Department’s website.
  1. To start an assessment, select the arrow on the top right hand corner ofthe ‘Client card’. A summary of client information will be displayed on the right hand side of the page.

To view more information, including previous screening and assessment information, select ‘View full client record’.


  1. When you are ready to start the assessment, select ‘Start assessment with consent’.


You will be prompted to review and update information from the client’s record. Confirm information from the client’s profile is correct and once the required information is entered,select ‘Continue to assessment’.

  1. The assessmentis displayed. You can view the client’s AC ID and navigate to the client record by selecting the client nameat the top left hand corner of the screen within the assessment. The form may populate client information from the latest screening or assessment event.


The NSAF is an official record of your assessment conducted with the client. It is your responsibility to ensure that the information recorded on the form is accurate. If the NSAF is prepopulated with information from a previous screening or assessment, you can change or delete this information when conducting the assessment.
A record of any previous screenings or assessments will be accessible through the Plans tab of the client record under ‘Assessment history’.
  1. You can clear entered information from each page of the assessment by selecting ‘Clear entered information’, as well as from some individual questions (radio buttons) by selecting ‘Unselect this button’.

There are visual cues to assist assessors to complete the form. When mandatory questions have not been answered, a red triangle appears in the top right corner of the field. When the mandatory questions are answered, this triangle turns green.

Reminder messages also appear to signify required fields that need to be populated.

A mandatory confirmation box must be completed at the bottom of each section.

In addition, a green tickwill appear on the navigation panel on the left-hand side when all mandatory questions(marked with an asterisk)and confirmation boxes are completed for that section.

When reading a comprehensive assessment, sections will be condensed on the navigation menu under the domain headings (as seen in the screenshot). You will need to select the heading to access sections related to that domain. When all sections are completed, a tick will be displayed next to the main domain name.


You can enter healthconditions by name or code, or by category and related
health condition.

Viewing/adding carers

You can view/add information about carers from the NSAF, without having to navigate back to the client record.

  1. Select View/add carers.
  1. A pop-up box will display. Any carers associated with the client will be displayed. If you want to add a carer, select ‘Add a carer’.
  1. Enter the first and last name of the person, and select ‘Search’. You can search with more details by selecting ‘Show more search fields’ and populating the appropriate fields.
  1. a) If there are matching results, they will be displayed. By selecting the radio button next to the person, it will open up further fields including both client and carer consent, and the relationship of the user to the client. Select ‘Add’.You will receive a confirmation message on screen, notifying that you have successfully added a carer. Select ‘Save’ to save changes.

b)If there are no results, or you want to add a different person, select ‘Add a person’, and select ‘Search’.

  1. Enter mandatory information about the person, including consent for the relationship from both the client and the carer. Select ‘Save’.
  1. You will receive a confirmation message on screen, notifying that you have successfully added a carer.

Navigating Supplementary Assessment Tools

A number of Supplementary Assessment Tools are provided in the NSAF. The tools are available in the relevant domains. For example, the Kessler-10 available the Psychosocial section.

If you useSupplementary Assessment Tools that are not included in the NSAF, or use paperbased versions, you can upload the completed tools as attachments to the client record.

To access the tools through the portal, follow the steps below. The Kessler-10 is used in the following example.

  1. Select ’Psychosocial’ section, and scroll to the bottom of the page. The available Supplementary Assessment Tools will be listed.
  1. Select which tool you would like to complete.
  1. The tool will automatically appear under ’Psychosocial’ in the side bar. To open the tool, select the name from the side bar.
  1. The tool will open, and you can complete the fields.


  1. To generate the score, you will need to select the name of the tool in the side bar again. A score will then populate. You may wish to enter an outcome in the ‘Outcome’ box.

Once the mandatory confirmation box at the bottom of the section has been completed, a tick will appear in the side bar.

The outcome of the Supplementary Assessment Tool will be displayed when you navigate away from and back to the tool.

The outcome of all Supplementary Assessment Tools will be displayed in the Summary of Needs tab in the clients support plan.

Finishing the assessment

From the ‘Summary of Needs’ and ‘Assessment Outcomes’ pages, assessors are able to:

  • Select which identified needs, recommendations and actions will appear in a client’s support plan
  • View the outcomes of only the Supplementary Assessment Tools that have been used (Summary of Needs page only).
  • Navigate to the first question in the assessment that triggers each displayed need, recommendation or action. For the full list of questions that triggers each need, recommendation or action please refer to theNSAF User Guide

You can continue completing the NSAF for the client, whose record will then appear under the ‘In progress’ assessments in your ‘Current work’ tab.

If you have not finished completing the NSAF and want to complete it at a later time, you can select ‘Save Assessment’.


Once you have completed the NSAF, you can select ‘Finish questionnaire and continue to support plan.

If you have not completed all the mandatory questions, a message will appear when completing the support plan requesting a reason for not completing the assessment.

Cancelling an assessment

If you need to cancel an assessment for a client, you can do so within the assessment. You might also consider adding a note or an interaction to the client record explaining the reason for cancelling the assessment.

In order to cancel an assessment follow the steps outlined below.

  1. Select ‘Cancel assessment- no further action required’ in the NSAF.
  1. Record the reason for cancelling the assessment, add a comment and then select ‘Cancel assessment’.
  1. A confirmation message will be displayed on screen that the assessment has been cancelled.


After cancelling an assessment the client information will appear in the assessor’s recent work tab. Assessors will also be able to search for the client using the ‘Find a client’ functionality.

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