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NHS Continuing Healthcare guides
Find the right answer for your stage of the CHC process
These guides explain NHS Continuing Healthcare in plain English, with separate pages for eligibility, screening, full assessment, appeals, retrospective claims, care-home fees and related NHS funding. Start with the question closest to your situation rather than reading the site from beginning to end.
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Core NHS Continuing Healthcare guides
What is NHS Continuing Healthcare?The complete overview of CHC funding, eligibility, assessment and appeals.Who qualifies for NHS CHC?Primary health need, nature, intensity, complexity and unpredictability.How does a CHC assessment work?Checklist, MDT, Decision Support Tool and the ICB decision.What is a Primary Health Need?The legal boundary between NHS responsibility and social care.
Assessment tools
Checklist, DST and evidence
NHS CHC ChecklistWhat a positive or negative screening result means.Decision Support Tool & 12 domainsHow needs are recorded and how the MDT reaches a recommendation.Well-managed needsWhy successful care can still evidence a significant underlying need.CHC evidence & numbers 2026Current official figures, source dates and methodology.
Appeals
If CHC has been refused or withdrawn
How to appeal a CHC decisionEvidence, disputed reasoning and the route from local resolution to NHS England.Local ResolutionWhat the ICB should review at the first appeal stage.Independent Review PanelWhat NHS England independent review examines and how to prepare.CHC funding withdrawnWhat to check after reassessment and how well-managed needs matter.Why do CHC appeals take so long?Records, local resolution, evidence and independent review delays explained.CHC appeal solicitorsWhen you want solicitor-led review or representation.
Past care fees
Retrospective claims and care-fee recovery
Can you reclaim care home fees?The different routes depending on whether the period was assessed or unassessed.Retrospective CHC & PUPoCPreviously unassessed periods of care and the evidence needed.Claiming after deathHow an executor or administrator can investigate a relevant care period.Care home fees calculatorEstimate the financial scale of a care period using the actual weekly fee.Care home fee recovery solicitorsSolicitor-led review of the correct retrospective route.Estate care-fee claimsLegal review for executors and administrators.
Specific situations
Conditions and alternative NHS funding routes
Dementia and CHCHow cognition, behaviour and interacting needs may be relevant.NHS-funded Nursing CareWhat FNC is and how it differs from full CHC.Fast Track CHCUrgent funding for a rapidly deteriorating condition and possible terminal phase.Common CHC mythsSavings, dementia, care settings, appeals and well-managed needs.NHS Continuing Healthcare in WalesA separate guide because the Welsh framework and appeal routes differ.Insights & commentaryCurrent analysis, evidence briefings and news commentary.
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Start with the document you already have
If you have a Checklist, DST, decision letter, local-resolution outcome or records from a past care period, tell us what stage you are at and we can identify the appropriate route.
More care-funding and condition guides
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