Care home advice needed

away-with-the-fairies

Can anyone help ?

My dad needs to go into a home and I am his only relative but live in a neighbouring authority. He owns his own house which is worth about 60k so know he will have to pay. His social worker told me he can only go into a home in his own authority. As he has to pay it makes sense to have one where I live? I work full time in another authority and if he goes to one in his own authority I will prob only be able to see him once a week otherwise going across the city at 5.30 pm is going to take forever.

Does anyone know before I approach my own authority to ask if it's possible

Alter_ego

If he is paying it's his choice where he lives - same as all of us!

elsien

I have worked with people who have moved local authorities to be nearer to family.
LA don't like out of county placements because when dads money drops and they start paying it can cost them more, but that's their problem
Not yours. If he has capacity or you have power of attorney then it's up to you. If it's a best interests decision ask them to justify the reasons. It may be that staying in a familiar area where he has local contacts and activities and friends who can visit outweighs other factors. It depends on the individual circumstances. But you need to ask them to explain their reasoning in order to challenge it.

What does dad want to do? His wishes would outweigh your convenience. Presumably you have the same issues with visiting him now, so in that respect nothing will change.


https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/268685/Factsheet_9_update.pdf

Tabbytabitha

away-with-the-fairies wrote: »

Can anyone help ?

My dad needs to go into a home and I am his only relative but live in a neighbouring authority. He owns his own house which is worth about 60k so know he will have to pay. His social worker told me he can only go into a home in his own authority. As he has to pay it makes sense to have one where I live? I work full time in another authority and if he goes to one in his own authority I will prob only be able to see him once a week otherwise going across the city at 5.30 pm is going to take forever.

Does anyone know before I approach my own authority to ask if it's possible

With a house worth only £60k , he won't be a self funder for long. If he starts off living outside his LA and the LA won't fund it, he's quite likely to find himself having to move after a fairly short period, which is unlikely to be a good idea.

Couldn't you visit him later in the evening after the traffic dies down rather than straight after work?

Keep_pedalling

Alter_ego wrote: »

If he is paying it's his choice where he lives - same as all of us!

The main issue I see is that unless he or the OP have some liquid assets that can pay for care until the house is sold, they can’t just arrange self funded care, as unlike a LA a private care home is not going to except deferred payments.

Do you have power of attorney in place? If not get that sorted without delay.

elsien

Also to add, if the new area is more expensive, when dads money runs out you may need to pay a third party top up to enable the move. Is that affordable for you?

Rambosmum

It's his choice where he moves to, but funding is an issue - if he can't self fund immediately then the LA will have to pay. The social worker cannot say he must remain in his current authority, even if they are paying.


You would be best finding out what the 'local authority rate' is for care homes in your dads current authority and then your authority - you can do this by asking the social worker for your dad and then ringing adult social care in your authority - it isn't a secret.


Once you have that figure (as a guide, my North West LA pays ~£450 per week) you can then look at homes - ask them the cost if funded by local authority - some homes will have one price for self funders and one price for the LA, for some home, the LA price is their rate (e.g. where I am, £450) but or others its LA price plus a 'top up' which needs to be funded by someone other than the local authority, this will not be paid by the local authority ever.


You want to find a home that will charge the local authority rate, or the LA rate plus very small top up that you can afford to pay once your dads money runs out.


Once your dads money runs out, who pays the fees is determined by your fathers "ordinary residence" which is where he 'technically resides' (not necessarily where he actually resides. It's complicated and how a local works out ordinary residence is not set in stone, but that is for the two authorities to fight it out themselves!

away-with-the-fairies

Thanks for the quick replies. I do have power of attorney but my dads memory is completely shot and he can't remember any new info. I also don't have any money to pay for his care until his house is sold and that process hasnt even been talked about . It's all been a quick rush and I am being told what is going to happen. Like yesterday I was told he is to be moved today from the hospital where he is at to a care home and social worker said I will need to label all his clothes before he goes there today

I will get a bit more info from my authority and try to get info from his social worker but I have lost confidence in her already due to various things.

pollypenny

Does he have a pension? He will also be able to claim attendance allowance, probably at the higher level.

This may help him pay for longer.

WillowCat

When my gran went into care her local authority were happy to place her into a care home in the neighbouring authorities area, in order to be close to myself. Although she was a self funder, the bills were in fact sent to her original authority and we then paid them back. There was quite a delay (about 3 months) before we could pay the bills as we were awaiting on getting POA organised, and this didn't seem to be a problem. It must have helped that the care home we chose were happy to charge the amount the original authority allows for funded care, and were therefore prepared to take it over when her money ran out. In the event she died six days after her money went down to the threshold.