It’s only natural that you have questions

Some lifetime health insurance policies can provide financial support towards the cost of home care, however, this varies according to the specific policy and the provider.

If it is important to you that your health insurance policy makes provision for your later care needs, it may be worth contacting your insurance provider to confirm in what circumstances your policy would pay out, should you need it to.

Non-medical home care is a package of support for those who need a little extra help to remain safe and independent in their own home, regardless of any medical conditions which they may or may not live with. Examples of non-medical home care include support for vulnerable adults, companionship for the elderly, household help for families with children or relief for family carers.

All Somerset Care home care services are open to anyone who needs them, regardless of age or medical conditions.

Hospice home care is specialist care for those nearing the end of their life, and wishing to remain in their own home.

All of the care we provide is person-centred and tailored to your individual needs and wishes. We know that time spent with loved ones in familiar surroundings is precious, and our home care teams are dedicated to providing high-quality, reliable, consistent, and compassionate end-of-life care.

Regardless of how your care will be funded, you will need a care assessment to apply for home care.

The purpose of the assessment is to understand your individual care and support needs, as well as get to know you as a person. This enables your home care team to understand what is important to you, and what you are hoping that your care package will enable you to achieve.

Your care assessment will provide the blueprint for the home care services you need, ensure that your chosen home care provider can meet your needs, and is the first step to arranging a care package that will enable you to thrive in your own home.

The way you access home care packages may depend upon who will pay for the care and support you need.

If you are a self-funder and are covering the full cost of your home care, you have complete freedom to choose the home care provider and home care package which suits you. It can be overwhelming to try and narrow down the range of apparently similar home care services on offer, but thankfully there are several independent resources which you can turn to for an unbiased perspective on the care on offer.

For the assurance that your chosen home care provider has been assessed as delivering safe and high-quality care, look to industry regulators the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC regularly and routinely assesses all regulated home care providers to ensure that they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led, rating them as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate, and publish their results online.

For independently verified reviews from home care customers and their families, it is worth checking out homecare.co.uk. All CQC-registered home care providers are listed on the site, with customers rating aspects of the home care they receive, and sharing their feedback. Home Care reviews can be a good source of information about the customer experience from both the care recipient’s perspective and that of their loved ones.

Your Local Authority will also have a number of paper and online resources to support your search for local home care providers who can meet your individual care and support needs. If your home care is partly or entirely funded by your Local Authority, the Adult Social Care team will discuss their recommendations with you and those involved in making decisions about your care.

Whilst there isn’t a ‘home care grant’ as such, there are several specific funding schemes which you can apply to for financial support with your home care, subject to eligibility. These schemes are not means-tested and could help to offset the cost of your home care if you do not qualify for Local Authority funding, there. These include:

• Attendance Allowance – For those over state pension age living with an illness or disability, who need extra help to live at home.
• Personal Independence Payment – Support for eligible individuals under state pension age who live with a long-term illness or disability.
• NHS Fast-Track CHC scheme – For those whose health is declining rapidly, and need immediate support with end-of-life care, to enable them to remain in their own home.

When searching for care at home which meets your needs, it is first helpful to understand how home care packages are funded.

There are three main routes through which home care services can be funded:

• Self-funded – This is where you are responsible for covering the full cost of your home care.
• Local Authority funded – Depending upon your financial circumstances, your Local Authority may make a contribution towards, or cover, the cost of the home care services you receive.
• Specific funding schemes – Funding to support specific care requirements which meet the scheme’s eligibility criteria.

To find out if you are eligible for financial support towards the cost of your home care, it is best to start by speaking with the Adult Social Care Team at your Local Authority. They will compare your financial circumstances against criteria set by the Government, and advise whether you qualify for full or part funding for your home care.

Whilst the funding criteria is subject to change, you will generally be considered eligible for some financial support from your Local Authority if you have less than £23,250 in savings and assets. The lower the value of your financial savings and assets, the more support you will be entitled to receive.

If your Local Authority is providing financial support for your home care, they will either source your care package for you, or provide you with direct payments from which you can fund your own care. If you are in receipt of direct payments, you will need to evidence how and where this money has been spent, and how this has supported care requirements.

NHS Funded Nursing Care is paid at one consistent rate across England, regardless of the individual’s geographical location or specific nursing care needs. This amount is set by the NHS and subject to change, but currently stands at £209.19 per week. This funding is paid directly to the nursing care home, and deducted from your total nursing care fees.

Please check the NHS website for the current FNC rate.

An assessment is used to determine who is eligible for NHS Funded Nursing Care. This is usually carried out by a registered nurse and carried out by the relevant Local Authority or NHS Integrated Care Board (the new name for a Clinical Commissioning Group).

In general terms, nursing home residents who have been assessed as needing support from a registered nurse, but who do not qualify for the CHC (Continuing Healthcare) scheme, may be eligible for NHS Funded Nursing Care.

Often referred to by the abbreviation FNC, Funded Nursing Care is funding provided by the NHS towards the cost of nursing care provided within nursing homes, by registered nurses, for eligible individuals.

To find out if you qualify for financial support from your Local Authority, your local adult social care team will complete a financial assessment to consider the value of your income and assets. This figure takes into account any income, savings and property you hold solely in your own name, as well as an equally divided share of any assets you may hold jointly.

The value of your assets will place you into one of three bands, and determine the level of financial support you can expect from your Local Authority:

• If your assets exceed the ‘upper capital limit’ set by the government (currently £23,250), you will be deemed a ‘self-funder’ and required to meet the full cost of your care.
• If your capital is between £14,250 and the upper capital limit of £23,250, then you will be expected to contribute a certain amount towards the cost of your care, with the remainder covered by your Local Authority.
• If your assets are less than £14,250, you may still be required to contribute towards the cost of your care, but the majority of your care fees will be covered by your Local Authority.

Please visit the government website to check the current upper capital limit amount.

Depending upon your individual circumstances and care needs, you may be eligible for financial support towards the cost of your respite care.

Respite care may be fully or partly funded by your Local Authority if you meet specific criteria in terms of your finances, or medical needs. Some Local Authorities will provide eligible individuals with a respite ‘allowance’ of a set number of days of respite care per year or will pay up to a certain value of respite care fees, which you might be asked to top up.

To find out if you qualify for respite care funding, the best place to start is by contacting the Adult Social Care team at your Local Authority, who will be able to advise if you are eligible.

If you are looking to get the maximum value from your respite stay, we also run seasonal respite care offers for selected Somerset Care residential homes throughout the year, so it’s always speaking with our enquiries team to check if there are any offers running when you book.

We always recommend that you make contact with your local Adult Social Care department in your local authority who will be able to organise a care needs and financial assessment, to determine if you are entitled to any support.

As a general rule, if you have over £23,250 in savings or assets, you are classed as self-funding.  If you have below this amount, you may be entitled to some support or fully funded care.

We recommend you contact the adult social care team regardless as there are a number of benefits that you may be entitled too, which can support you funding your care needs.

Your Local Authority (LA) can assess your financial status and advise if you are entitled to financial support to cover some or all of your care home costs. Please note that LA funding may need to be supplemented (either by yourself or a third party, as appropriate) to meet your full accommodation and care costs.

If you have been diagnosed with certain long-term complex health needs, you may qualify for NHS funding towards your care costs via the Continuing Healthcare (CHC) scheme. Your GP or other medical professional will be able to advise if you may be eligble. Our nursing homes are able to accept CHC funded clients.

The NHS pay a contribution to care homes that provide nursing care, called Funded Nursing Care (FNC). If applicable, the FNC contribution can cover part of your weekly care home fees. If FNC arrangements are not in place at the time of your admission, you will be charged the full weekly fee until this is in place. Once the backdated FNC has been received, the equivalent refund will be credited to your account.

We take meal times very seriously in our homes and understand how important the meal time experience is for all of us. We have daily menus available in our homes, with locally and responsibly sourced produce with our trusted suppliers. Our menu is seasonal, and we have a variety of themed days, where we experience lots of different styles of foods. If you fancy something a little different, just speak to our passionate kitchen teams who will cater to your needs. 

You are welcome to invite your family to eat alongside you, especially on special occasions. We love nothing more than a party and look for any reason to have a celebration – food will always play a central part to these events.

Our talented teams are able to cater to all dietary requirements and soft diet requirements.

We would love for you to bring your own furniture and creature comforts, to make your new home feel as comfortable and familiar as possible. Our rooms are decorated to a high standard but our in-house maintenance team are also on hand to support with any reasonable requests that you have.

We always recommend that you take the time to view the homes you are interested in. Feel free to visit any of our homes, or call us to book an appointment. A tour allows you to experience the home first hand, understanding the layout of the home, view some bedrooms and communal areas and ask any questions that you may have. Our teams are on hand to show you around and make you feel at ease. Why not join us for a cup of tea and a chat, and we will be sure you leave with all the information you need to make the right decision.

Yes, we can certainly connect your smart speaker to the free wifi in your care home so that you can use this in a way that suits you. This could be to control other smart devices, use it to check the time or the weather, or listen to music, for example.

Most smart speakers need to be connected to a personal device such as a mobile phone or tablet, as well as the home’s wifi network. Some may also require an online account to be set up to give you full access to all of the smart speaker’s functions. We are more than happy to arrange a visit from our Care Technologist, who will be able to help you set up and start using your smart speaker.

Yes, we support people living with dementia to enjoy technology of all sorts, from music to videos, and also to complete video calls. We also understand that what works for one person, may not work for another, so our care teams are on hand to provide you with as much or as little support as you need to stay connected, whether on your own device or using the computer and tablets already in the care home.

Yes, of course. Your care team will be able to support you to get the tablet set up, connected to our free wifi network, and help you to make and receive video calls. If you would like us to, we can also make a note in your care plan to check that your tablet is regularly charged up, and is near you whenever you are expecting a call.

Of course! All of our care homes have access to on-demand TV packages, so that you can keep up-to-speed with the programmes which matter to you. You can even bring your Smart TV with you if you like, and we will help you to get this set up in your room and connected to our wifi network.

If you are experiencing an issue with a particular device, such as a mobile phone or smart speaker, we have a three-stage technology support process to help you.

1. Care home support – the team in your care home will be able to carry out initial checks for you, for instance making sure that the device is successfully connected to wifi and the appropriate settings are in place.
2. Care Technologist support – if your care home team are unable to resolve the issue for you, then they will engage our dedicated Care Technologists to investigate the matter for you.
3. IT support – if for any reason our Care Technologists are unable to fix the problem, our centrally-located IT team will carry out further checks to determine the best solution.

If the problem with the device cannot be resolved, it may be necessary to replace it. If the item belongs to the care home, then we will replace it at no cost to you. If the item is your own personal property, for example your mobile phone, then the responsibility to replace it will fall to yourself or your loved ones. Whilst we cannot make specific recommendations on particular makes and models, we can support you with general advice on the purchasing of a new device, if you would like us to.

We all need a bit of technical support sometimes, whether it is troubleshooting a mobile phone, connecting to wifi, setting up a smart speaker, or getting to grips with on-demand TV. Our dedicated Care Technologists are on hand to support you with the set up and use of technology that supports your wellbeing, helps you to stay connected with loved ones, and makes you feel at home.

Residents in our care homes are welcome to connect their tablet or smartphone to our free, managed wifi network. Each device is limited to 5MB, which is more than fast enough to watch videos and make video calls, whilst still ensuring fair usage and making sure all of our residents can access the internet as and when they wish to.

Nothing. We believe that technology is a natural part of everyday life, and that when you move into a care home you should still have all the same creature comforts as you would in your own home. All of our care homes include free wifi as standard, which you will be able to access from all areas of the home, including communal areas and your own personal space.

Absolutely. All of our care homes have free wifi access throughout, covering not just indoor and outdoor communal areas, but also the private rooms of our residents. Once you have connected your tablet or smartphone to the free wifi network, you will be able to make video calls and access the internet from any area of the home.