Residential care home fees, would I be unreasonable to ask how much they are ?

[frumpety]

I have tried to find out online, but the average figures quoted seem a lot lower than the rates at local residential care homes ? Also there doesn't seem to be any info on prices on any of the home websites ? why is this ?

My mother in nursing care in a local charity run home, it's about £1,000/week with the FNC contribution. We are very happy with the place and the care she receives. Hampshire (south Coast). She has dementia.

Wales here -2680 per month for my MIL

I absolutely agree with those who have said that the best homes are not necessarily the most expensive. In my experience of relatives in Gloucestershire and East Sussex, the best (by which I mean most caring, not those with the most modern facilities) were those run by individuals or local charities rather than either national charities or big companies. However, they were by no means the most expensive in the area.

I think my mother in law is paying something over £800 a week which is more than £200 more than the rate the LA pays in that area.

And I can confirm that this is nothing new. My grandmother and her sister had to sell their homes in the 1980s to pay for residential care.

Olly, even in Norway there's a threshold where you don't pay towards your care if you fall beneath it :) But I agree, I live here and it's a much better method of doing things. The way healthcare professionals are treated is frankly shocking, these are the people who look after our nearest and dearest when we cannot, they are angels and should be appreciated!

Tippexy I don't think there are many local authority run long term care homes left, in my area there are two residential units, both combined only have less than 70 beds in total. I also know that not all of these beds are used for long stay, so someone moving in and staying for the rest of their life, some are used for respite and some as rehab beds. Another such place closed down not long ago, so the number of beds has decreased from over a 100. I don't know of any local authority nursing homes.

From what I have gathered locally residential care is between £1000 and £1800, not sure of the rates for nursing care.

I am not currently looking for a home for a relative, although my parents are in their 70's, so do have half an eye on the future. I am one of the people employed by the NHS to go in and give nursing care to people living in private or local authority residential settings, so injections including daily insulin, assessing and providing pressure relieving equipment and mobility aids, assessing for continence products and providing catheter care, wound care, end of life care.
Essentially anything we would provide for a person living in their own home we also provide for someone who has moved into a residential home.
Once someone is assessed as needing a nursing care placement then that care will be taken over by qualified nursing staff in a dual registered home or a person will be moved to a nursing setting, although we often provide last weeks/days end of life support in residential settings.

This thread stems from many conversations with people my age and younger who are unaware and shocked at the price of residential care, several have assumed the costs are monthly and not weekly.
I also had a conversation with a relative in a residential setting who assumed I was employed by the home, who was surprised that I worked for the NHS ( I was wearing all my ID ) and tried to tell me that all the things we were doing for their relative were included in the price they were paying, as they had nurses in the home.

They thought the home had provided the pressure cushion, zimmer frame, toilet frame and incontinence pads for their relative.

I have now seen a number of elderly relatives in care homes and it has changed my mind about the benefits of self-paying. The relative who was council funded had little choice and visiting her home was bleak. She didn’t have any savings at all for top-ups. The relative that was self paying and was in a more luxury setting had a far nicer experience. My granny was in a nursing home and hers was NHS funded. She seemed to actually have more choice but the primary decision was good clinical care (not surroundings) as we knew she was going there to die. Where it seems unfair (and complicated) though is my granny was fully Nhs funded (cancer), one was LA funded (dementia) and the other self funded. It’s a bit of a lottery depending on what makes you need care.

Have just checked with my husband and actually my mother in law is paying only £620 a week for much the nicest care home we saw in the area. It's in East Sussex and is run by a local charity.

She is very lucky, especially as she when she originally moved there she qualified for LA funding (but now pays, as she inherited money from a sibling)

My father was in two homes - one was a care home in Devon and the fees were around £650 a week. The other was a full nursing home and the fees were £1200 a week though he got attendance allowance and an NHS subsidy which brought it down to £1000 a week. That home was in Hampshire. This was in 2016 so add on at least £100 a week to those fees.

@frumpety I am aware that district nurse goes into the home where my mum lives every day, they do dressings etc and sort out referrals for things like incontinence pads, walking frames. My dad needed a specialist wheelchair and they measured him up and out in referral but the waiting time was around 10 months - a time he didn't have so we self funded.

When dad was in a respite nursing home (short term funded) there were nurses employed by the home there.

I was advised by the SW to find a nursing placement for my dad but his actual care was provided by the care assistants as although he was bed bound with advanced dementia he did not have physical illness. District nurse would see him frequently and advise around pressure areas etc

The home advertises that they do all kinds of care including nursing, end of life so I assume if someone needed higher level of nursing time and the home had to employ dedicated nurse this would be reflected in the care costs for that resident.

In my experience the homes where residents and their families are really ripped off in respect of costs are some of the smaller privately owned homes - penny pinching around food etc is terrible. I suspect carers are paid minimum wage (or slightly above) in most homes but the ratio of carers and whether or not they are actually caring seems to differ.

@Userzzzzz agree with what you say.

I had to find somewhere that offered nursing care for my dad (although not clinical) and his surroundings wouldn't have made much difference to him. Mum on the other hand, although she has dementia, could have gone into a home which only offered residential. However we all wanted my parents to be able to spend their final time in the same setting and the 'posh hotel look' was necessary to persuade my mum to move happily, rather than under duress!

Scotland here £764 gran council run, £1089 aunt private, both self funding

My OHs mom self funded Braintree Essex fabulous home and they really did look after her till she died £7000 a month she was there two years