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Assessments are forms you fill in about a person, such as a needs assessment or a risk assessment. You build each form once as a template, then start it for anyone you support. Completing an assessment locks a dated copy, and a review date keeps it current. Who can do this: starting, filling in, completing and reviewing assessments needs Assessments. By default that is Organisation Owners, Service Provider Admins, Care Managers, Care Coordinators, Team Leads and Carers. Read Only Auditors can view them. Building templates and removing an assessment needs Manage assessment templates: by default Organisation Owners, Service Provider Admins, Care Managers and Care Coordinators. Your organisation can change this in Settings > Permissions. Your organisation may use different words for some things, such as “Service users” instead of “Support recipients”. Elate shows your organisation’s words everywhere, so follow what you see.
Elate Free includes 5 assessments a month. Assessments already started carry on as normal. See Plans and pricing.

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Where assessments live

  • Operations > Assessments has two tabs. Library holds your templates and the Elate example templates. Tracker lists every assessment across everyone you support.
  • Each person’s profile has an Assessments tab with their own assessments.
Carers cannot open Operations, so they work from the person’s profile.

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Set up a template

The quickest start is an example. In Operations > Assessments > Library, find Elate example templates and select Use this template. It is copied into your library and published as version 1. The examples include needs assessments from Elate 1.0, Person onboarding and a Risk assessment starter. To build your own:
1

Start a template

Select New template, then Blank template. The template builder opens.
2

Name it

In the panel on the right, fill in Name, Description and Kind (Needs assessment, Risk assessment or Custom).
3

Add sections and questions

Select Add section, then pick a question type from Add a question, or select Add question in a section. Select any question to set its Label, Type, Help text and whether it is Required.
4

Show questions only when they apply

Use Show this question only if… to show a question only after a certain answer to an earlier choice or yes/no question.
5

Check and publish

Select Preview to see the form as it will be filled in, then Publish version 1. Only published templates can be started.
The builder saves as you type. Question types are Short text, Long text, Number, Email, Phone, Date, Time, Single choice, Multiple choice, Dropdown, Yes / no, Scale, Rating, File upload, Signature, Section text, Page break and Risk matrix. A risk matrix is scored before and after control measures on the HSE 5 by 5 matrix. Publishing again creates a new version for new assessments. Assessments already started stay on the version they began with. Version history lets you copy an older version back into the draft with Restore as draft. Each template’s menu in the library offers Edit, Duplicate, Archive (or Restore) and Remove. A template in use cannot be removed.

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Start and complete an assessment

1

Open the person

Open the person’s profile and select the Assessments tab.
2

Start it

Select Start assessment. Choose the Template, the Owner (the person reminded about reviews) and how often to Review it, then select Start.
3

Fill it in

The form opens straight away and saves as you go. The list of sections on the left shows how many questions in each are answered.
4

Complete it

Select Complete. Check the Next review date and select Complete again. Required questions must be answered first.
Completing locks a dated copy of the answers. It appears under History, where View opens it. Select Download PDF for a copy of one assessment, or Download all as PDF on the Assessments tab for every completed one.

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Reviews

A completed assessment shows Review due from 14 days before its review date, and Overdue once the date has passed. Its owner gets a notification 14 days before and again if it goes overdue. Nobody is reminded if it has no owner or no review date. To review, open the assessment and select Start review. The answers open again for you to update. Select Complete review to lock a new dated copy. Earlier copies stay in History. You can change the owner and the review frequency at any time from the menus under the assessment’s title.

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The tracker

Operations > Assessments > Tracker lists every assessment with its owner, next review and status. Filter by status (Not started, In progress, In review, Completed, Review due, Overdue), by owner or by template, or search by person or assessment. Download CSV exports what you see.

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Remove an assessment

Open the assessment, select the three-dot menu (More actions) and choose Remove assessment. Add a Reason and select Remove. It leaves the active list and the tracker, but is kept for the record: people with Manage assessment templates can still see it under Removed on the person’s Assessments tab.

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Let AI help

This needs the AI features module. If you cannot see it, ask your organisation owner. The Elate team turns the module on for your organisation. Your organisation owner can switch AI features off in Settings > AI.
  • Fill a form from a conversation. On an assessment, select Record to record the conversation, or Upload audio to use a recording. Elate drafts answers marked AI draft, each with the words it came from. Select Accept or Clear on each one, or Clear all drafts. Answers someone has already given are left alone.
  • Turn a paper form into a template. In the library, select New template, then From a form. Choose a PDF (up to 20 MB and 100 pages), up to 10 photographed pages, or a .txt form, and select Read the form. When it is ready, select Open in the builder and check the questions before you publish.