Care home costs in and outside the M25

[thefamilyofthings]

At some point in the coming year we are probably going to need a care home for my mother, who has dementia. So I'm starting to take a look at potential places. But we need to think hard about where.

I have a brother and sister in London, while I'm further west and find it easiest to travel. But within London will be extortionate, so where do you think we should look, roughly, for it to be affordable? Within the M25, outside? Further out? I have no idea. Or are they all just as expensive?

Any experience and thoughts would be really helpful.

You just have to accept that care homes are expensive. My aunt is currently in a care home in Berkshire and is currently paying £1250 per week. This is for residential care.

It won't make much difference price wise to go any further out of London. If she is near to both your siblings, it will be easier for her to have more frequent visits from both of them.

@maslinpan I am coming round to your point of view; I think she will have a better quality of life in London (more frequent, shorter visits) and that needs to be costed in.

But currently SW London is coming in at £500 a week more expensive than the eastern fringes of Hampshire or Surrey. Some of them are more than double what you are paying @Parky04 and we'd need to see what we could afford.

Is she going to be self-funding? Does she have a property with any equity?

Yes, she's got a reasonable pension and some equity, but whether that extra cost is affordable I can't say as no one has valued the house.

Get the house valued asap and then you know what she can afford. There's not much point looking at homes until you have this information.

If she has a reasonable pension that may cover more than you think.

Also remember that the average stay in a care home is 18 months. Some people last years but not many.

Is she self funding? If so, you need to resign yourself as soon as possible to the reality that the care home will cost all of her money. The only issue up for debate is how quickly that happens.

My mum paid £1850 a week in a very nice care home in West London. Once all her money was gone (it didn't take long) she became council funded.

I would go for somewhere that is easy to pop in for daily/every other day visits. Remember that she'll probably need your support for hospital visits, GP check ups and emergencies (if she has a fall, gets a fever, etc). So the closer you are to her, the easier those will be to manage.

DM was cared for by lovely staff in a quite basic (clean and oder free were the criterion we used) home on the Northants/Cambs border

It still cost very close to double the annual fees at Eton College.

I am in East of England, my friends mother has dementia and is a care home catering for her specific needs. The cost is £1750 per week. Depending on what level care is needed will reflect the cost.

London (east/Essex border)
£8000 pcm
It's nice but not luxury.

Don’t forget you can claim Attendance Allowance for you mum
I’d also look at the smaller nursing home’s
rather than the larger run ones

£7,600 per month for my DM’s nursing home, in Surrey. It’s a nice home, good staff to residents ratio, and they have been patient with Mums “difficult” dementia symptom.
Watch out for homes (like those run by Care UK) that charge by the day rather than the month, as they will give you quotes based on a 28 day month, (February basically) and then basically charge you about £750 more than quoted most months.