Press & media
We act for families across England challenging Continuing Healthcare decisions and reclaiming care home fees. If you are reporting on care funding, we can provide accurate background, verified figures and on-the-record comment from a practising solicitor.
Care funding rarely gets sustained national attention. When it does, families discover questions they did not know to ask.
Morning Live
Tuesday 8 September 2026
BBC Morning Live examined when families may have paid care fees that should have been NHS-funded, why so many are never assessed for NHS Continuing Healthcare, and the fact that fees already paid can sometimes be recovered. The discussion begins around 26 minutes in.
Watch on BBC iPlayer →A link to independent BBC coverage of care funding as a subject. It is not an endorsement of, or a feature about, this firm. BBC iPlayer requires a UK TV Licence and availability is limited to the UK.
Every figure below is drawn from a primary source you can cite directly. Please attribute to the original source rather than to this firm.
£67,496
Average annual cost of residential care for a self-funder in the UK. Nursing care averages £79,820.
LaingBuisson / carehome.co.uk, 2026
£23,250
Upper capital threshold in England above which a person pays for their own care. Unchanged since 2010.
DHSC social care charging circular
~17%
Proportion of those formally assessed who are found eligible for CHC, down from around 31% in 2017/18.
NHS England CHC statistics
~60,000
People in England receiving NHS Continuing Healthcare at any one time.
NHS England CHC statistics
£267.68
Weekly NHS-funded Nursing Care rate in England from 1 April 2026. Not the same as full CHC.
DHSC announcement
1 Apr 2012
Earliest date a retrospective CHC claim can cover in England. Earlier periods were closed down.
DHSC guidance on previously unassessed periods
On the record, attributable to Paris Theodorou, Solicitor and Principal, Christodoulos Ltd (SRA 809508).
How eligibility is actually decided, why no diagnosis qualifies automatically, and the four characteristics assessors are required to weigh.
The Decision Support Tool, the twelve care domains, and where assessments most commonly understate what is happening day to day.
Why “she's settled” is routinely recorded as low need when the framework requires the opposite reading. The single most common reason families lose funding.
Local resolution, Independent Review Panels, and why cases take years. The six-month appeal deadline that families most often miss.
The 1 April 2012 cut-off, how claims brought by an estate work after a death, and the disclosure problems that stall them.
Falling eligibility rates against an unchanged legal framework, the frozen capital threshold, and the pressure on self-funders.
We understand deadlines and will tell you quickly if we cannot help. We do not discuss individual client matters, and we will not comment on live cases we are not instructed in.
Telephone
0843 636 7687Spokesperson
Paris Theodorou, Solicitor & PrincipalRegulated by
SRA 809508 · Christodoulos Ltd