4.1 Applicants who may be eligible under further assessment criteria will have a desktop assessment by a member of Staffordshire County Councils Blue Badge team. A successful desk-based assessment relies heavily on the questions in the Blue Badge application form delivering the right level of information about the applicant, their disability, any medical conditions they experience and their ability to walk during the course of a journey.
4.2 The Council’s desk based assessment tool has been developed with expert insight and feedback from Access Independent and other councils as part of our benchmarking membership.
4.3 As well as considering the information provided in the application, the Council may cross check local authority records as a means of providing further detail about the likely nature of the applicant condition.
4.4 The purpose of the desk-based assessment is to determine if an applicant is eligible for a Blue Badge. Where it is not clear, the applicant may be contacted to provide further information, or they may be referred to an expert assessor for a further assessment. See Annex 1 for a copy of the Expert Assessor form.