Fully funded local authority care home

[Tarydew]

My 93yr old mum has carers 3 times a day & I cover all the other jobs,cleaning, shopping, medications , Gp home visits & so on. She has meals delivered from the local pub as there are no alternatives in our area. I am who lifeline calls if mum presses her button..
mum is now feeling very anxious being on her own & so a care home is being sought by her social worker via brokerage. I due to my own health problems & being totally worn out from my care role cannot continue.
i have visited 10 care homes recently & found only two that met mums needs as all the other homes provide care for people with advanced dementia & so mum would have no company & know this would be detrimental to her wellbeing.
i spoke with her social worker today & was told the homes even though they have vacancies are to expensive as they will only fund £1020 & mums part payments of £194 a week. These homes are asking £1300 a week as are all the others . I did find one that charges £895 but it was old & dinghy & no way a place I am happy to put my mum.
what am I supposed to do if there are are no care homes in the local authorities price range. Strangely all the care homes I visited said they accept fully funded local authority residence & have residents living there already.
I don’t like the thought of mum going into a home but needs be. Today I am at the end of my tether with it all.
mums home care company are finishing on the 9th June & no alternative has been put into place either.
i am not having mum shoved into a home that is not suitable for her & so my only alternative is a new home care company but they are also going to take over all the jobs I do presently & it’s not going to ease mums anxiety.
i want to say to the social worker here’s mum I’m not doing anything anymore but I’m terrified they will shove her into a unsuitable place.
sorry I’ve rambled on & repeated myself but the stress of this is going to cause me a nervous breakdown.
all advice would be so greatly appreciated

How frustrating, has mum had a care needs assessment and a financial assessment, who is paying fir her carers at the moment, could she pay the extra costs. Does mum want to move into a carehome.

Has she actually been assessed as needing 24 hour care? Here you cannot be placed in a home funded by the council unless you have been assessed as needing that level of care.

She's obviously been assessed as needing a lower level of care, I went through just this process and sometimes you have to look past dated wallpaper or old fashioned lighting and get a feel for the people working there. Modern expensive set ups look great but it doesn't mean better care

Unfortunately most fully funded care is for people with dementia, so if your mum doesn’t have dementia you’re going to struggle to find a home with other residents like her (my mum had a similar problem and she was self funding).

What is the real problem here? Your mum’s anxiety when alone, or your burnout? Could you manage with more care visits plus some befriending/a home help/cleaner?

I know several families go top up the fees. Is that something you can afford? Does your mum have any savings?

I was given a bit of advice by a live in very experienced care worker recently. The lady told me she wouldn't put a dog in some of the fancy branded homes. That the best care homes were usually council run. It's all about having a good workforce that actually cares. I was quite shocked as it wasn't what I expected her to say at all.

Ask her social worker what other homes brokerage has found, that is literallty their job. If they only come up with the cheap one you don't like, ask for other choices. They have to find one that meets her needs not necessarily the cheapest. But you need reasons why you don't want her there, e.g too far for you to visit. If the homes you like have said they take council funded people then she should be able to go there.

All our council run homes have closed and only privately run one's left. But I agree you can't go just by surface appearance, some look posh but care not as good.

I agree, my friend sounds similar to your mum. He ended up in a care home after reaching crisis point, and was discharged there from hospital. It's not the poshest home, and the CQC rating is bad. It needs a full refurb. But I absolutely can't fault the care he gets. The staff are kind and caring. All the staff know who I am. The managers are completely approachable.

Does she own the house she currently lives in? If so selling that will cover the short fall for quite a while I imagine.

If she’s been assessed for £194 a week, then that’s she’s been deemed to be able to afford, and “top-ups” have to be paid by family, not by the person - I presume because if the person had been considered able to pay a higher amount, they’d have been asked to pay a higher contribution. At least, that’s the only way I’ve been able to make sense of the system.

If she could sell the house she currently lives in, the Council wouldn’t be offering to pay any of it, she’d be fully self funding till the money ran out.

Absolutely this! Please don’t be influenced by ‘smart’ decor - it may well mean nothing. Cosy and homely, even if a bit shabby around the edges, with cheerful staff, are so much more important.

I say this as someone who looked at masses of care homes before choosing for FiL and later, for DM. And by far the ‘smartest’ I saw, as regards the public downstairs rooms, was the one that was perfectly willing to offer DM a small and totally unsuitable room, down a maze of narrow corridors (converted hotel). The room still had a 70s avocado washbasin - it had barely been touched since its hotel-room days.

You can ask the homes with the third party top up fees if they would waiver it?
I've known some home managers/owners do it if they have a few rooms empty at the time or the person has fairly easy care needs, worth an ask.

This I agree with

My mum is in a home and yes it does look a bit dated and could do with a bit of paint job to freshen up.
That aside my mum is really being cared for by the lovely staff and the management is really really good
Good luck OP Hopefully your mum settles in a a good caring environment and she settles down nicely .

Agree.
Ex district nurse in and out of care homes for many years.

Mum has had a needs & financial assessment. Local authority & mum is paying a small amount from her benefits for her present carers.
mum has no savings at all & lives in a rented property.
yes mum wants to move into a care home as she is now very anxious living on her own

Does she need nursing or residential care, residential is cheaper if she has no complex needs. If that's the council's final decision you could try and negotiate a reduction with the carehome, some do accept a reduction.

If she managed we'll with carers would she be happy in extra care housing which is rented

Are you in England?
https://www.cqc.org.uk/

(I’m in Wales) this was my experience, dementia diagnosed, social worker assigned, needs assessed, placed into a nursing home that I chose, it was old fashioned but had the best reviews, lovely food, they seemed to care and it was clean. My aunt loved it there. My aunt claimed pension credit, so they took her savings, took her pensions etc and left her with the basic £20? for hair dressing / toiletries. We bought her clothes etc.

what am I supposed to do if there are are no care homes in the local authorities price range

You carry on as you are with her at home, or you accept one that is in your mum's price range, or you or someone else (not your mum) pays the difference as a 3rd party top up between what the LA will pay and what is being charged *

The ones you have spoken to that accept LA rates may have people who meet the criteria for 'higher rate' residential. If your mum has been managing with 3 visits a day at home then she probably doesn't meet the higher rate which is why there is a short fall between what will be paid by the LA and what is charged.

Not in anyway suggesting that this is the case for you and your mum OP but when people come on here looking for ways to avoid paying care home fees they should realise that your situation is the reality of not having assets or savings at the end of your life - your choice mostly gets taken away and you are at the mercy of what the council will pay for!

As a social worker I can safely say that some of my favourite care homes are the shabby ones, often they don't have the best CQC inspections either because they prioritise resident ans staff wellbeing over shiny surroundings and excessive paperwork.

• if you and your mum are pleasant many care homes will often waive or reduce the 3rd party top up if you ask nicely.

Agree with @hatgirl
Those are the choices

The home my mum is in us in the middle of a refurb having recently been taken over by a new company but it is desperately needed.

However the staff and the care they give can not be faulted.

When I was looking at homes the CHC ratings were much of a muchness but when I asked friends about their experiences and their relatives it was a very different story.

There are several residents with dementia but also many that don't. When mum moved in (2021) she was capable of holding a conversation and expressing herself and she got on well with others with the same abilities. Now she has very little language, in a world of her own and she doesn't know me half the time. Also the make up of the residents changes month by month as people deteriorated/die/move in