Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Better access to NHS funded continuing care

June 2007

The Government has set out new plans to eliminate a postcode lottery over funding for NHS continuing care and for NHS registered nursing care - that is, health care provided at home or registered nurse care provided in a residential care setting. Until now, paying for NHS care and particularly for registered nursing care has often been means-tested and depended on where someone lives.

From 1 October 2007 anyone who believes they need routine nursing care either at home or in a residential care setting should be eligible for a multidisciplinary assessment of their care needs by the Primary Care Trust (part of the NHS). This assessment will consider behaviour, cognition, communication, psychological/emotional needs, mobility, nutrition (food and drink), continence, skin - including tissue viability, breathing, symptom control and altered states of consciousness. Individuals will be rated on a scale from No need to Priority for each of these domains, and the level of social and/or nursing care required assessed as a result.

These new rules do not allow for automatic backdating of reimbursements, simply that some people will be entitled to some elements of free care for which they previous had to pay.

There will continue to be a complex area around how Local Authority provided social care (social services) and nursing care overlap, particularly where there are joint assessments. In this situation, neither the PCT or local authority is allowed to withdraw unilaterally from a funding arrangement without a joint assessment of the individual being cared for. Where joint assessments do not exist, potentially individuals will continue to be assessed more than once, by the PCT and by the local authority.

A full copy of the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS funded Nursing Care is available from the Department of Health website