Community Care
Choosing a Care Home
Choosing Your Care Home is an Important Decision
With the cost of care rapidly rising and fees for some care homes in excess of £1,000 per week, choosing your care home is an important decision. Current guidance in the social care and health care arena is much in favour of the choice of the individual and giving people more autonomy. A care home can be a home for life and it is important that a person is happy with their new care home and knows their options and their rights.
Cost of Care
Cost is often the determinative factor in choosing a care home. For those who will be self-funders local authorities may warn ahead of time that they will not be willing to pick up the bill when the person is no longer self-funding and so the individual may have to move to a different care home that is approved by the local authority. This can be extremely disruptive and distressing to people who have made a home at the care home of their choice and do not want to move. There may be others who are told they cannot live at a particular care home that is close to friends or family or has particular services that the individual wants because it will cost the Local Authority too much money. Many local authorities often give cost as the only factor in deciding which care home is right for a person.
Specific directions have been given that set out how important a person’s choice is when a local authority decides whether or not to approve funding for a particular care home. It may be news to many that cost is not the only factor to be considered. In the list of priorities, although cost may be near the top for a local authority, the most important factor is what is in the ‘best interests’ of the person. This means for those where a move will be so disruptive that it might affect their health, cost may have to come further down the list of priorities and the local authority may have to approve funding for the person to stay where they are, even when it is more than they would usually pay. Factors such as distance from friends and family, particular services, relationships with people within a care home and the type of care offered should also be put into the melting pot when a decision is made about whether a local authority will approve funding for a particular care home.
Family are often asked to pay top-ups where care home fees are too expensive. If no other care home is available then this is not always appropriate and the local authority may have to pick up the additional cost of the care home fees. If a person is assessed as needing the care that is provided in a particular home and it would not be in their best interests to move them to a cheaper home, then a local authority may still have to fund the additional cost, without the family contributing.
It is also important to note that in some areas of the country, 75% of the available care homes do not offer care at the rate recommended by the local authority. It therefore may not be lawful for a local authority to insist on only paying a set amount for a person’s care in a care home, as this may leave the person with no other options.
In summary, cost is not the most important factor when deciding where a person should live and their choice and many other issues should be taken into account. If you are in a situation where you are in dispute about choosing a care home or you would like some expert legal advice about your options before going into residential care, then you are very welcome to contact specialist lawyers at Fisher Jones Greenwood LLP.
Fisher Jones Greenwood LLP has a specialist team of community care lawyers who are experienced in all areas of advice relating to care and charging, from advice about a person’s options to litigation with the local authority at all levels, including in the High Court and above. You can reach the team which is headed by Hannah Graves, Solicitor at our Charter Court office at Newcomen Way, Severalls Business Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 9YA. You can call Hannah on 01206 835270.