Continuing Healthcare

As part of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some adults have been receiving temporary government-funded care. Further details of this can be found here. 

On 31 July 2020, a letter was published by the NHS with the following wording: ‘The Government has (further) decided that CCGs must resume NHS Continuing Healthcare assessments from 1 September 2020 and work with local authorities using the trusted assessor model. Any patients discharged from hospital between 19 March 2020 and 31 August 2020, whose discharge support package has been paid for by the NHS, will need to be assessed and moved to core NHS, social care, or self-funding arrangements’. This is also in reference to admission avoidance and step down care that also commenced funding between 19 March 2020 and 31 August 2020.

NHS Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group are working closely with both Norfolk and Suffolk County Council to assess individuals who currently receive NHS COVID-19 funding in order to change funding to core NHS, social care or self-funding arrangements. An NHS Continuing Healthcare practitioner or a Social Worker will contact COVID-19 funded adults or their representative before 31 March 2021. Both organisations are committed to working with adults and their representatives focusing on a patient centered experience that ‘gets it right first time’ in relation to progressing care funding arrangements after COVID-19 funding ends.

If you would like to discuss COVID-19 funding or make inquiries as to your individual circumstances, please contact:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or telephone 01603 257243

Further up to date information that replaces the 19 March 2020 guidance can be found here.

NHS continuing healthcare (CHC) is the name given to a package of services which is arranged and funded by the NHS for people outside hospital with ongoing health needs. You can get continuing healthcare in any setting, including your own home or in a care home.

NHS continuing healthcare is free, unlike help from social services for which a charge may be made depending on your income and savings. If you do not qualify for NHS Continuing healthcare you will still receive mainstream services free of charge i.e. GP, District Nursing Services, Specialist therapy – this is not to say that if you are awarded CHC you are still not entitled to NHS services free at the point of delivery. If NHS continuing healthcare is provided in a care home, it will cover the care home fees, including the cost of accommodation, personal care and healthcare costs.

Anyone assessed as requiring a certain level of care need, can get NHS continuing healthcare. It is not dependent on a particular disease, diagnosis or condition, or on who provides the care or where that care is provided. The circumstances can include:

• Older people with chronic illness or disabilities
• Older people suffering from mental illness or dementia
• People suffering from mental illness
• Physically disabled adults
• People with learning disabilities
• People who are terminally ill

If your overall care needs show that your primary need is a health one, you should qualify for continuing healthcare. The primary health needs should be assessed by looking at all your care needs and relating them to four key indicators.

• Nature – the type of condition or treatment required (quality and quantity)
• Complexity – symptoms that interact, therefore difficult to manage or control
• Intensity – one or more health needs, so severe they require regular intervention
• Unpredictability- unexpected changes in condition that are difficult to manage and present a risk to you or others.

Some people who are eligible for CHC choose to have a personal health budget so they can organise and manage their care themselves. Find out more on this page.

If you do not qualify for NHS continuing healthcare then you may have to pay for some or all of your care, although the NHS will still provide for your medical needs. You may have to take a local authority means test to decide how much you should pay towards your personal care and accommodation if you are in a care home.

If following assessment for NHS continuing healthcare you remain unsatisfied with the outcome you can appeal the decision by contacting the Retrospective and Appeals Team on 01603 257064 or writing to them at NHS Norfolk and Waveney CCG, Lakeside 400, Old Chapel Way, Broadland Business Park, Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich, NR7 0WG

Department of Health guidance can be consulted for a fuller account of the rules and duties of NHS bodies to provide NHS continuing healthcare.

• National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care: October 2018 (Revised) (published in March 2018): This is the version of the National Framework which will be in operation from October 2018.
• NHS Continuing healthcare: checklist from October 2018, (published March 2018)
• NHS Continuing Healthcare Decision Support Tool from October 2018 (published March 2018)
• Fast Track Pathway Tool for NHS Continuing Healthcare from October 2018, (published March 2018)
• NHS-funded nursing care best practice guidance (revised) (July 2013)
• National Framework for Children and Young Peoples Continuing Healthcare
• Delayed discharges directions (continuing care) directions (November 2013)
• Department of Health Public Information Leaflet: NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS Funded Nursing Care (April 2013)
• NHS website: NHS Continuing Healthcare
• Beacon, Independent advice on the CHC process
• Age UK, Factsheet 20, NHS continuing healthcare and NHS-funded nursing care (October 2018)
• Alzheimer’s Society, When does the NHS pay for care? Guidance on eligibility for NHS continuing healthcare funding in England, (revised October 2017)

NHS Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group NHS Continuing Healthcare Team are available by calling           01603 257243 or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Norfolk County Council or call 0344 800 8020 

Suffolk County Council or call 0800 917 1109 /