Care Homes

Before considering moving into a care home, it may be worth exploring if there is any support at home available to help you continue to live at home.

You or your relative may be thinking about a care home because you are finding it more difficult to manage at home, or because an illness or an accident has affected your ability to live independently. 

There are two types of Care Homes:

Residential care homes - offer services such as laundry and meals and help with personal care. Some homes offer short-term stays but normally they provide more long-term or permanent care.

Nursing care homes - if your illness or disability means you need regular nursing care and this cannot be given in your own home, nursing care homes have nursing staff who will be available to meet those needs 24 hours a day.  Some homes offer short-term stays but normally they provide more long-term or permanent care.

Moving to a care home is a very important decision in your life.  A discussion with a social worker will help you work out what is right for you, they will be able to carry out an assessment of your care needs and work out whether residential or nursing care is right for you.

Request an assessment

Once your care and support needs have been determined, the social worker will advise you on the most appropriate care homes available. 

If you or your loved one are assessed by the council as needing a care home placement to meet your long-term care needs, then the council has an obligation to:

• Offer a choice of two suitable care home placements (unless the care home is provided under Section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983) which have availability to meet your assessed needs.
• To arrange for you to go to the care home of your choice (unless the care home is provided under Section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983), even if that is not one of the two suitable care home placements identified by the council, provided that the care home you choose can meet your needs and will enter into a contract with the local authority. Please note that an Additional Cost may be due from you, or a third party if the care home you choose is not one of the homes identified by the council. 

You may want to arrange your own care home placement, especially if you have sufficient funds to pay for your placement – this would be a private arrangement between you and the care home.  However, you can contact the Council for support if the arrangement is no longer possible, or if you wish the council to make the arrangements for you.  More information can be found on our privately arranged care page.