Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of assessing (a) social care and (b) nursing care through NHS Continuing Healthcare on a need’s basis rather than financial basis.

NHS Continuing Healthcare (NHS CHC) supports those with the highest levels of complex, intense and unpredictable needs, arising as a result of disability, accident or illness, who have been assessed as having a ‘primary health need’. A package of ongoing care is then arranged and funded solely by the National Health Service for those who have been assessed as eligible.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone who may be eligible is assessed as quickly as possible to make sure they receive an appropriate package of care to meet their assessed health and care needs. Eligibility is assessed on a case-by-case basis by health and social care professionals, taking into account the totality of an individual’s needs including ways in which these interact with one another. Eligibility for NHS CHC is not determined by age, clinical condition or financial means.

In all cases individuals should be considered for eligibility for NHS CHC before a decision is reached about the need for NHS-funded Nursing Care (FNC). FNC is provided to care homes with nursing, to support the provision of nursing care by a registered nurse for those assessed as eligible for FNC.