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SRA-regulated solicitors · NHS Continuing Healthcare
Yes — in some cases. If your relative is eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare because they have a primary health need, the NHS can fund the assessed package of care, including care-home accommodation. Eligibility is based on care needs, not savings or property.
60-second eligibility check
Answer four quick questions. This is not a legal or clinical decision; it tells us whether the case is worth a closer specialist review.
Where is, or was, the care provided?
Which best describes the situation?
How complex are the care needs?
Choose the closest fit. You do not need to know the medical terminology.
What has the NHS done so far?
Your answers raise issues that justify a closer look at NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility or a past decision. We cannot promise an outcome from four questions, but there is enough here to review it properly.
Request my free review →Your answers will be attached to the enquiry so you do not have to repeat everything.
In Wales? Read the Wales-specific CHC guide →
Free eligibility check · No obligation
Leave your details and a member of the solicitor-led team can contact you for a free, confidential initial review. We will ask about the care needs, what has been paid and whether NHS Continuing Healthcare was assessed. No medical records are needed to start, and there is no obligation to proceed.
Thank you — your enquiry has been received. Our solicitor-led team will review the information and contact you using the details provided.
Care home cost claims · quick answer
Care home cost claims usually concern care fees paid privately that may have been the NHS’s responsibility under NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC). In England, CHC is an ongoing package of care arranged and funded solely by the NHS for adults assessed as having a primary health need. Where the assessed package is delivered in a care home, it can include accommodation as well as health and personal care.
A previously unassessed period of care (PUPoC) can be reviewed where there is evidence the person should have been considered for CHC but was not. Current Department of Health and Social Care guidance addresses PUPoC requests for periods from 1 April 2012.
If an eligibility decision was already made for the period, the issue is normally a review or appeal of that decision rather than treating the same period as previously unassessed.
CHC eligibility is based on assessed health need, not savings, income or property. The key test is whether the person has a primary health need.
The National Framework looks at the totality of needs, including their nature, intensity, complexity and unpredictability. No diagnosis automatically qualifies a person for CHC.
Reviewed by Paris Theodorou, Solicitor & Principal at Theodorous. SRA 809508. Updated 17 September 2026.
Solicitor-led review
Solicitor since 2012. Principal at Theodorous and named professional reviewer of our NHS Continuing Healthcare guidance. Your review is solicitor-led from the outset.
Questions families ask first
Short answers to the questions families most often ask before they know the NHS Continuing Healthcare terminology.
Yes, in some cases. If a person is eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare because their main need is a health need, the NHS can arrange and fund the assessed care package, including care-home accommodation. Eligibility is based on needs, not wealth.
See who qualifies for NHS Continuing Healthcare →There is no diagnosis that qualifies automatically. The decision is whether the person has a primary health need, considering the nature, intensity, complexity and unpredictability of their needs and the evidence across the care domains.
Understand the Decision Support Tool and 12 care domains →Dementia can be part of a successful CHC case, but the diagnosis alone is not enough. Cognition, behaviour, mobility, continence, nutrition, medication, risks and how needs interact can all matter.
Read the dementia and CHC guide →Potentially. Where care should have been NHS-funded, a retrospective NHS Continuing Healthcare claim may allow past care fees to be recovered. The evidence, dates and previous NHS decisions all matter.
Read about reclaiming care home fees →A refusal can be challenged. The route may involve local resolution and, where appropriate, an Independent Review Panel. A useful starting point is comparing the written scoring and reasons with the care records and the needs seen day to day.
Read the CHC appeal guide →NHS Continuing Healthcare is not means-tested, so savings, income and property do not determine CHC eligibility. If a person is not eligible for CHC, different local-authority and care-funding rules may apply and those can involve financial assessment.
Check the difference between health funding and means-tested care →Useful tool
Use our care-home fees calculator with the real weekly fee from the invoice. It estimates spend only; it does not tell you whether the NHS was responsible for that care.
Original research · NHS England Q1 2026/27
Our analysis of the latest NHS England data found 2,229 incomplete standard NHS Continuing Healthcare referrals were over 28 days at the end of June 2026, compared with 1,076 a year earlier — an increase of about 107%.
The figures describe referral timing, not individual eligibility, fault or the reason for delay.
The numbers
Three things have moved at once, and together they explain why so many people are paying for care the NHS may have been responsible for.
£67,496
The average annual cost of residential care for a self-funder. Nursing care averages £79,820 a year. London and South East England are above the UK average; actual fees vary by home, location and individual needs.
10%
How much self-funder fees rose in a single year, December 2024 to December 2025, as homes absorbed National Insurance and wage increases.
£23,250
England’s upper capital limit for means-tested local-authority social care in 2026/27. It does not determine NHS Continuing Healthcare eligibility, which is not means-tested.
Sources: carehome.co.uk 2026 care-home fees guide — UK self-funder averages of £1,298/week residential (£67,496/year) and £1,535/week nursing (£79,820/year), based on fee data dated 9 September 2025; Caring Britain 2026 — self-funded care-home fees rose around 10% on average between December 2024 and December 2025; DHSC 2026/27 charging circular — England’s upper capital limit remains £23,250. Market averages are indicative; individual fees vary.
NHS England publishes quarterly activity data on Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care, including eligibility and assessment measures. Those figures are useful for understanding the system, but national aggregates do not tell you whether an individual person qualifies. Eligibility still turns on that person’s assessed needs and the primary health need test.
See our 2026 evidence briefing for current NHS/DHSC figures, source dates and methodology.
Families are often introduced to care-home invoices and council means-testing before anyone explains NHS Continuing Healthcare. That is why it is worth asking, early, whether a CHC assessment should take place and whether health needs rather than finances should determine who funds the care.
The legal test
NHS Continuing Healthcare is a fully funded package of care for adults whose main need is a health need, rather than a social care need. Unlike council-funded care it is not means-tested — savings, property and pension do not come into it. What matters is the nature, intensity, complexity and unpredictability of the person's care needs.
It is a legal test, not a diagnosis. No condition qualifies automatically. Someone with a modest-sounding diagnosis can qualify; someone with a serious-sounding one may not. Many families are never properly assessed, or are assessed and turned down incorrectly.
16.65%
of applicants assessed for standard NHS Continuing Healthcare were found eligible in January–March 2026, compared with 31.25% in April–June 2017.
Source: NHS England Continuing Healthcare statistics, analysed by The King's Fund.
Worth a second look
None of these on its own proves an incorrect decision. Any of them is a reason to have the paperwork checked properly.
01
If a relative moved into a care home and no one mentioned CHC, or a Checklist was never completed, the process may simply never have started.
02
The framework requires assessors to look properly at needs that are controlled only because care is being provided. A need can remain relevant to CHC even when skilled care or monitoring is successfully managing it. This is a common source of dispute in CHC assessments.
03
A full assessment needs a multidisciplinary team of at least two professionals from different backgrounds. One nurse assessor working alone is a procedural problem.
04
The person and their representative should be invited to take part. Families see the difficult nights that a visiting professional does not, and that evidence should be in the record.
05
The multidisciplinary team recommends; the Integrated Care Board decides. Where the Board departs from the recommendation it should give clear reasons.
06
Where someone is deteriorating quickly and may be entering a terminal phase, a Fast Track Pathway Tool should put funding in place urgently. Fees paid during a delay are worth reviewing.
Start with the question closest to your situation. Each guide explains the NHS Continuing Healthcare rules, evidence and next steps in plain English.