Free personal care

The Scottish Executive allocated funding to each local authority in Scotland in order to finance free personal and nursing care from 1 July 2002.

This information deals with free personal care for people 65 or over and/or free nursing care for people any age living in or considering moving into a care home.

The following are examples of personal care services:

• personal hygiene
• help with eating
• continence management
• help with medication
• help getting in/out of bed
• help with dressing.

To qualify for free personal care, you must:

• fund your care placement from your own finances – this means you cannot be in receipt of Income Support or any direct funding from your local authority
• be willing to undergo an assessment by the Health and Social Care Department - without an assessment you will not qualify for any payments;  and
• be 65 or over

To qualify for free nursing care you must live in a care home that provides nursing care and

• fund your care placement from your own finances – this means you cannot be in receipt of Income Support or any direct funding from your local authority
• be willing to undergo an assessment by the Health and Social Care Department - without an assessment you will not qualify for any payments.

There is no age restriction for nursing care

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If I qualify for free personal care how much will I receive?

• £149.00 per week

If I qualify for free nursing care how much will I receive?

• £67.00 per week if you are under 65
• £216.00 per week if you are 65 or over (this includes free personal care)

If I qualify for free personal care and/or free nursing care what will happen to my Attendance Allowance or Disability Living Allowance (care component)?

• If you are 65 or over you must inform the Disability Benefits Unit in Blackpool and these benefits should stop four weeks after free personal care payments start.
• If you are under 65 your Disability Living Allowance (care component) should continue to be paid.

The Scottish Executive has fixed the amount you can qualify for in care homes at the rates shown above - they agreed the rates by looking at the amount of personal care you would receive. The payments do not take into account:

• any care you receive that is of a non-personal nature
• any charges that are made for your accommodation
• any additional services that the care home normally charges you for
• any activity organised by or on behalf of the care home.

If you do qualify for free personal and/or nursing care, the payments will be made directly to the care home provider. This means that you must continue to pay the charges additional to the free care that your care home provides.

If you would like any further information on free personal and/or nursing care services in a care home please contact your social worker.

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Hospital admissions from care home placement

Placement must continue to be paid for

Residents who are admitted on a short-term basis to hospital and who have had their bed kept for them, awaiting their return to the care home, are expected to continue to meet their assessed charge. Charges will not be reduced when the resident is in hospital. Until such time as the placement is formally ended the resident will be expected to meet their full-assessed charge.

Free personal and/or nursing care stops after 14 days

Free personal and/or nursing care payments, (private and homes) will stop after two weeks in hospital -14 days.

From the third week - day 15

Residents are expected to meet the full cost of their placement or what they have originally been assessed to pay. Entitlement to free personal and/or nursing care will start again when the resident returns to live at the care home.

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Our commitment to you

When approaching the City of Edinburgh Council Health and

Social Care Department for advice, assistance or assessment in relation to free personal and/or nursing care in care homes you can expect:

Confidentiality

We will as far as possible respect your confidentiality, and you have legal rights under the Data Protection Act.

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Equality

We are committed to ensuring that:

• our services are equally open to all
• we will not accept discrimination or harassment on any grounds by either our staff or people using our services
• we gather statistics about our services to ensure standards are being met and to plan for future service provision – you may be asked to provide information to assist us in this
• we publish reports regularly on our performance in meeting these standards.

Welfare rights advice

You can be provided with welfare rights advice to make sure that you receive all the benefits to which you are entitled.

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Involving you in the service

We will involve you as much as possible in discussion and

decisions affecting your situation and in planning the services you receive.

Would you like to comment on the service you get?

If you would like to make a suggestion, comment or complaint

about the service you have received from us please speak to your social worker or a member of staff. Any comments we receive help us plan our future services. You can also ask for a leaflet called Health and Social Care Department Advice and Complaints Service - How to make the best use of this service which explains how to comment in writing or by phone.

The financial information mentioned in this leaflet was correct at the time of going to print but should always be checked with your social worker or Social Care Direct as it is subject to revision by central government.

Further information

For first time contact with adult social care services in Edinburgh please contact

0131 200 2324.

Further information about free personal care is available on request.

Details can also be found on the Scottish Executive website.

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