Finding the Perfect Care Home
Created: 7/23/2024
Help! my family member needs to find a care home
As we or our loved ones age, it is sometimes necessary to have a little help with the everyday tasks we once took for granted. This can range from a visit from a helper once a week to purchase groceries, to a carer moving into our homes because we need care and support 24-hours-a-day. Sometimes, it is not possible or practical to have a carer move into our homes and we make the decision that the time has arrived to move into a care home. It is a difficult decision at the best of times, sometimes it is made more difficult because the person cannot make the decision themselves. In such cases the donee of a Lasting Power of Attorney or Deputy may make the decision in the person's best interests. If we are making the decision for someone else, we want to make sure that we choose the right care home; somewhere our loved ones will be happy and still be able to pursue the interests they wish to.
Why do people pay their own care home fees?
Paying care home fees is a difficult conversation to broach with our loved ones, and you may have lots of questions about care home fees. Who pays them? Why are they so much? Why does the NHS or council sometimes pay care home fees? Why, when the local authority pays, does the person still have to pay towards it? Everyone who appears to have a need for care and support is entitled to a care assessment from the local authority regardless of their financial circumstances. After which, the local authority will make decisions about the type of care that the person needs and whether the local authority is responsible for paying. They will initially explore whether the person can stay at home with care from paid carers, or whether the person requires a care or nursing home. The deciding factor is often whether the person requires care overnight; it can be very difficult to find carers who work overnight unless they are live-in carers. Finally, the local authority will determine who should pay for the care home. If the person has over £23250 in capital (and that includes their home unless eligible people are still living in it) they will be required to pay for their own care until their capital reaches the upper limit of £23250. If the person has capital below the lower limit of £14250, the local authority will pay, and anything in between is a sliding scale contribution towards the care fees. The closer to £23250 the person has, the closer to 100% of their care fees they pay. Sometimes, the NHS will pay 100% of a person's care or nursing home fees through Continuing Healthcare (CHC) funding, if they meet a certain criteria.
Should I pay my own care home fees?
Many people just do not have the spare resources to pay care home fees which can range from around £800 to well over £2000 per week, and rely on the local authority arranging the placement. If they do, the choices will be limited because local authorities do not have the resources to pay for the most expensive care homes. However, if you do have the means to pay your own care home fees, you can make the arrangements significantly quicker than if you were to wait for an assessment from the local authority (which can be several months if they know that you will be paying your own care home fees), and choose a care home within your budget, not theirs. You can also arrange for a private social work assessment to provide to prospective care homes.
What is the perfect care home?
The right care home for you or your loved ones may not be the perfect care home for your friend or next door neighbour. Whilst most of us do not want to think about having to move into a care home (let alone actively seeking for the best one for us), finding the right care home can be challenging; and when you do, they may not have any vacancies. Your perfect care home might be a small cosy building in the middle of the countryside, whereas another person's perfect care home might be a large bustling care home on the seafront overlooking the sea. How about a care home in the centre of London? Not everyone's cup of tea, but perfect for others. Is your perfect care home one with 10 residents or 110? There are lots of resources that can be used to find care homes in a particular area. Most care homes have their own websites and are usually happy to answer any questions about vacancies or weekly fees. They can also arrange for you to have a look around to decide whether it is somewhere you or your loved one wish to live. The Care Quality Commission inspect registered care homes and they have a search function on their website where you can look at inspection reports and find care home contact details. Carehome.co.uk is another useful resource to find care homes in a particular area. All care homes are privately owned, local authority care homes (on the scale they once did) no longer exist, so the care homes that you can pay for yourself are the same care homes that the local authority use. However, be warned that you are likely to pay more as a private resident than the local authority would. Because local authorities purchase care home places in large quantities, they have the buying power that just is not available to others. You can, for a fee, ask the local authority to make the arrangements for you, and you can often take advantage of lower fees, but you may be waiting a significant amount of time to use the service.