If anyone should have been able to find a place in a care home for a loved one urgently, it was Will Flint.
After all, he’d worked in social care in the public and private sector and for the NHS.
But even Will was overwhelmed when it came to suddenly needing a care home for his father, John.
A doctor turned dairy farmer in Totnes, Devon, John went to hospital in June 2020 suffering from severe back pain, and that October was diagnosed with cancer.
‘Naturally we were all in shock,’ says Will. ‘Initially we were told that the prognosis was measurable in years, but this quickly reduced the more tests that were completed.
‘During this period there was a Covid outbreak on the ward, and we got Dad home as soon as we could, thinking we could support him there with help from a home care service.
‘I took it upon myself to find the necessary care. I was an NHS and social care manager for 12 years and had run my own home care business, so I thought I was quite the expert.
‘From start to finish, the experience was truly stressful. It was so difficult, even with all my knowledge of navigating the social care system.
‘We wasted hours trying to speak with providers who it turned out didn’t even have the care capacity to help my father.
‘Twice a day I contacted at least ten companies in the local area, hoping they would answer, or that the person with the correct knowledge would help with my enquiry.’
Despite having worked in social care, Will Flint was overwhelmed when it came to suddenly needing a care home for his father, John, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2020
In the end, John died at the age of 88, before outside help could be arranged, leaving behind four children and eight grandchildren.
If Will, with his expertise, struggled with the system, what hope is there for the rest of us?
The experience inspired him to set up Pairly, a website that matches people searching for a care place with homes that show vacancies in real time – eliminating pointless enquiries to homes that are full. The site covers 86 per cent of UK postcodes.
‘Too many families are forced to make life-changing decisions with limited information and under enormous pressure,’ says 48-year-old Will, who lives near Kingsbridge in Devon with his wife Sara and their two children. He now runs Pairly full-time.
He says: ‘Our mission is to make finding care simple and transparent, giving families confidence and choice, while helping providers connect with the people who need them most.’
The cost of care and means-testing
Finding a suitable care home is only half the battle – it still leaves the question of funding.
Typical fees for a place in a residential care home are around £1,100 a week, and £1,450 a week for a nursing home, according to Age UK.
The actual amount charged can vary significantly from these averages, depending on factors such as the level of care needed, the facilities provided and where the care home is located. London is the most expensive area, with an average £1,759 weekly cost for a nursing care home place.
There is no ceiling on what you might end up paying. A Government plan to introduce a lifetime cap on fees in England of £86,000 was scrapped in 2024. New Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pulled forward a consultation on how to replace it.
Finding out how to get help with funding is daunting, according to Saq Hussain, who founded UK Care Guide and more recently financialeducation.co.uk, a website dedicated to improving financial literacy.
‘Most families come to this cold, usually in a crisis, with no idea where to begin,’ says Hussain, 49, a former pensions executive at accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.
‘I’m constantly talking to people about how they’ll fund their retirement, but care almost always gets left out of the conversation.’
If you find yourself needing a care home place, start with your local authority.
He says: ‘The single most useful thing anyone can do is contact their council and ask for a care needs assessment.
‘It’s free, it’s the legal starting point, and it triggers everything else, including the financial assessment that determines what the council will pay towards.
‘People often skip it because they assume they’ll be self-funding, but that’s a mistake. The assessment establishes the level of need and it’s how you find out whether you qualify for support.’
Local authority funding is means-tested and depends on your assets being below £23,250 in England, £50,000 in Wales and £36,750 in Scotland, though you might still have to contribute to care fees from income such as your pension even if you qualify for funding.
Some assets are exempt from inclusion in the assets calculation. This normally applies to personal items such as jewellery, the capital value of occupational pensions and your home if your spouse is still living in it.
Where to get help with funding care
Contact your council’s social services department for an assessment, which will cover such areas as how mobile you are and how you cope with daily tasks such as washing and cooking.
The assessment is necessary before the council will recommend anything from a walking frame up to more expensive help, such as home alterations like walk-in showers or moving to a care home.
In the fragmented funding system, there’s potential help meeting care bills from the NHS, the Department for Work and Pensions as well as your local authority.
The NHS can provide funding through Continuing Healthcare, which is restricted to people who need help with health rather than social needs and is notoriously difficult to obtain.
Your nursing home should be able to advise on how to begin the application process, which starts with a screening checklist completed by a nurse, social worker or other suitable professional and which, if passed, leads to a full assessment.
The NHS can also pay for the nursing component of care fees through Funded Nursing Care payments. To see if you qualify you should contact your local NHS integrated care board.
Attendance Allowance is a Department for Work and Pensions benefit that can provide funding towards care help if you suffer from a severe disability and are over the state pension age.
Depending on your needs, it pays a lower rate of £76.70 per week or higher rate of £114.60. Applications can be made through gov.uk/attendance-allowance.
Nadra Ahmed of the National Care Association, which represents small and medium-sized care home firms, describes the funding system as bewildering. ‘There’s a statistic showing something like 72 per cent of people when they went looking for care thought it would be free at point of access, like the NHS,’ she says. ‘That’s because they’ve never had anything to do with social care before.’
She advises contacting a charity or other organisation that specialises in helping people with the condition that your loved one suffers from. If they have Parkinson’s disease, for instance, go to Parkinson’s UK – they are likely to be more approachable than your cash-strapped council.
How to choose the right care home
When it comes to choosing a care home, Ahmed says it’s important to visit ones you are considering.
Checking inspection reports published by the Care Quality Commission is useful but these can be years out of date.
‘I was recently talking to a care provider who hasn’t seen an inspector for ten years,’ she says.
‘Things can change. If you had an outstanding inspection report ten years ago it may not be valid now. On a recent visit to a home I saw a lady with a cold pudding in front of her. The custard had crusted over, it was 2.30pm, she was falling asleep and nobody had come to support her – and that home was rated outstanding. If a service was rated as requiring improvement it’s still worth going to see. Find out what they failed in, ask questions – you may be pleasantly surprised.’
Another useful port of call is Age UK, which has a free advice line. ‘Many families only start thinking about care home options when a loved one becomes unwell or can no longer live safely at home, and having to make important decisions at a time of stress can feel overwhelming,’ says Age UK director Caroline Abrahams.
‘Finding the right care home involves much more than simply finding a vacancy. You need to understand the different types of care available, assess quality, consider location and navigate complex systems and processes concerning funding and fees.
‘Unfortunately, many people find themselves having to learn all of this very quickly when a loved one urgently needs support.’
How to find the right financial advice
Another useful source of help is an expert from the Society Of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA).
One of its members is 53-year-old Nick Hutchings, host of the Retirement Lounge podcast and a chartered financial planner who works for Rockwealth Reading in Berkshire. ‘I chose to invest in becoming a SOLLA-accredited adviser following my own experience and bewilderment – despite being a financial planner – when my grandmother needed to go into a care home,’ he says.
‘Naturally my family turned to me for support and help, which was when I discovered the complexities and nuances that families are faced with when seeking financial security.’
He cautioned against desperately trying to get local authority funding if you might be able to afford your own care. ‘A lot of people do everything they can to avoid being a self-funder and lean into the state,’ he says.
‘But often the level of care determined appropriate by the local authority is a mile away from the level of care wanted by the family.
‘If you’re not going to self-fund, you’re not going to get the choice of care you receive.’
He also recommends considering the suitability of your loved one receiving care in their own home, though a live-in carer can prove as costly as a care home. NHS figures show live-in carer costs beginning at around £800 a week, rising to as much as £1,600.
Fees for a carer to visit your home without living there begin at around £20 an hour.
There’s potential help from the Carer’s Allowance, which can pay carers £86.45 a week if they’re working at least 35 hours weekly. Applications are made through gov.uk/carers-allowance.
Budgeting for care fees is so difficult because of a key uncertainty – how long you or a loved one might need care.
That can make a lifetime care package that pays a guaranteed annual annuity an attractive option, though they have disadvantages. If your loved one dies soon after the policy is taken out, the payments received could be far less than the premium paid.
‘It’s a protection against living too long and running out of money,’ says Hutchings. ‘At the time you buy an annuity there’s no way you can know if it’s a good financial decision, because you don’t know how long you’ll live.
‘If you die after six months, it’s a bad decision with the benefit of hindsight, but if you pass away after ten years it was a good one.’
Care fee annuities can only be bought through a financial adviser. The amount they pay out varies according to personal circumstances, but as a rough guide a Legal & General policy for an 80-year-old with profound health issues could get an annuity paying £48,000 a year for a one-off cost of around £185,500.
Finally, think about helping your children by planning for your own potential care needs, starting with registering powers of attorney for your finances and health and welfare.
The necessary forms are available from the gov.uk website and should be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian.