NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) is fully NHS-funded care for adults with a 'primary health need'. It is not means-tested, it can be delivered at home, and it is widely misunderstood — including by people who tell families they do not qualify without an assessment.
CHC is not a benefit and not a care-home scheme. It is NHS funding for the whole care package where someone's needs are primarily health needs rather than social care needs. If awarded, it can pay for care in your own home as well as in a care home.
Crucially, eligibility is about the nature, intensity, complexity and unpredictability of needs — not the diagnosis and not your savings.
First a Checklist screening, usually done by a nurse, social worker or GP. It is deliberately a low bar and is only there to decide whether a full assessment happens. If the Checklist is positive, a multidisciplinary team completes the Decision Support Tool across twelve care domains.
Where someone has a rapidly deteriorating condition and may be entering a terminal phase, a clinician can complete a Fast Track Pathway Tool. This bypasses the full assessment and should be actioned quickly. If end-of-life care is being discussed, ask directly whether fast-track applies.
Families who do well at CHC assessment usually do three things: they keep contemporaneous records of night-time need and incidents, they attend the assessment meeting rather than leaving it to professionals, and they describe a bad day honestly instead of a good one.
If the outcome is negative, there is a local resolution process followed by an independent review. Deadlines apply, so put an appeal in writing promptly.
No. Eligibility is based on assessed health needs, not income, savings or property.
Yes. Where a home package is safe and appropriate, CHC can fund care in your own home rather than a care home.
Ask the GP, hospital discharge team, district nurse or social worker for a CHC Checklist. You do not have to wait to be offered one.
We work with families whose care is funded privately, through local authority direct payments, or through NHS routes. Call 01784 740078 to discuss your arrangement.
Request the Decision Support Tool documentation, ask for local resolution in writing, and escalate to independent review if needed. Keep to the stated time limits.
Assessments take time — we can start support now and adjust later. Call 01784 740078.
Assessments take time — we can start support now and adjust later. Call 01784 740078.
