NHS Continuing Care funding

[2old2beamum]

Has anyone had any experience of this? DS has been assessed for this, what difference will this make to his care?

Sorry don't know too much about this but am assuming that your DS is either 18 or coming up to 18. If that is the case then this is the assessment which decides whether his care package will be funded by the NHS or Social Care. If you get Health funded care package then as far as I am aware they cannot ask you/him to pay towards his care. If however he doesn't get a continuing carepachage then SS can means test and take contribution from your DS benefits/income. Thats how I understand it anyway.

WIll be watching for other replies as DD is almost 17 and will have to have one of these assessments in coming year before we move over to adult health services/social care.

Afaik, we have an element of this (DD1 is 7). It's very confusing as there is so much jargon around services at the moment that it's hard to tell what is really coming from which bucket.

I get the impression Social Services have been missing a trick for a while, whereby there are kids who have mixed health and care needs, but because they are physically small enough that the family can do a lot of the caring at home, social services see them as a "respite" need not a "health" need - even if the care you need respite from giving from is primarily medical in nature. So in the current climate, social services are wising up a bit and assessing kids who might have medical needs, to try to get NHS to do their bit in supporting them.

The difference I think with adult services is that continuing care (which seems to be jargon for medical care outside of a hospital, as opposed to personal care eg dressing & feeding) for kids is more co-ordinated with other services because with adults it is often about constant nursing care for the elderly, whereas kids have school and leisure and family lives all operating at the same time. Of course adults will have more to their lives than their medical needs, but the system for adults tends to be more stand-alone whereas the kids' system is deliberately integrated. So your kid may end up with respite which is part-funded by NHS, or is staffed by Social Care and managed by NHS because the person giving the respite needs some basic medical training.

Net result for your kid: well the threshold for receiving continuing care is high. So not an easy assessment to pass. The up side is it's separate budget from Social Care so it may mean more support overall.

Thanks to both, DS is 12years. He is said to have complex health needs. He gets no social care. As a point of interest he has no social worker and despite being deafblind S.Services have not done a section 7 for him. Look forward to any more info. please.

DS is 15 years has complex medical needs and as a result of assessment for NHs continuing care we now have someone to watch over him at night. It means that the care provided is subject to the NHS Acts 2006 and not under social services statutes. Go onto the council for disabled children website (google it as I cant do the link) and under their online publication Disabled Children a Legal Handbook section 5.54 and onwards it explains what continuing care is for children, how agencies work together and how the assessment and decision is made.

why no section 7 assessment ? demand one - if he is classed as deafblind they cant refuse. But it depends why you want one. we used it for respite that i really needed and its now funded half and half via SS and Health. We don't have a social worker but a case worker who reports to a social worker - are you looking for more help ? do you have any contact with SENSE - you can ring them and ask for help.

Thankyou for your replies zebra since posting I have heard his respite has been increased and also our DD is also going to panel for continuing care. This weekend they are both in respite so have managed to finally finished decorating the lounge!!
twilight section 7 has being going on for 4 years SENSE have been brilliant but SS have always got an excuse it was supposed to be in the post for the last 2 years! SENSE in this area has gone through a massive reorganisation so things have gone a bit tits up. Fortunately the NHS and LEA have been excellent. Have recently heard due to cutbacks S.S sensory support has had severe cut backs so lets ignore children with complex needs. Sorry to sound cynical but sometimes I get weary sometimes of fighting.