The delivery of appropriate and equitable care is a challenge facing many areas of health care, including palliative care. This chapter discusses the concept of needs assessment, which is inherent in the World Health Organization definition of palliative care, and considers strategies for assessing people’s needs and experiences, with a focus on the tools developed specifically for this purpose (including generic needs assessment tools for patients with any chronic disease, and needs assessment tools for patients with advanced cancer, dementia, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or HIV/AIDS. It reiterates the importance of needs assessment tools being implemented as part of routine care to facilitate the right care being offered to people at the time they most need it, by the people or service which is most appropriate to meet identified needs.