We offer legal services for private client and court of protection lawyers in relation to NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding Services.

As a Private Client or Court of Protection lawyer, your work brings you into contact with vulnerable elderly people and their attorneys or deputies. You, or other solicitors in your firm, may also be appointed as professional attorneys or deputies.

In either case, questions often arise about the availability of public funding for care and support.

The most common questions we hear are:

• When should an application for funding be made?
• Should a funding decision by public body be challenged?

Care funding is a complex, specialist area of law. A holistic approach, alongside the provision of essential Private Client Services, ensures that an individual, attorney or deputy receives the best possible advice. This maximises their chances of obtaining the right funding for their care and medical support.

The families of individuals who need care and support will feel a sense of responsibility to preserve their assets. However, they will also want to ensure that they are paying the right contribution, if any, for their care and support.

The duties of Attorneys and Deputies are fiduciary - placing the onus on them to ensure the donor’s money is spent appropriately. There is a responsibility to establish that the care and support provided represents value for money.

Similarly, if you are a solicitor who is acting as a professional Attorney or Deputy, you will want to ensure you are taking specialist advice. Particularly in respect of anything which falls outside of your specialism.

Our legal services for private client and court of protection lawyers can give you key advice in relation to NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding Services.

NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding should be made available to any individual who is assessed as having a Primary Health Need. Decisions about eligibility are complex. Without the necessary experience, it can be difficult to know when to apply, or whether to appeal against a decision an NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) has made regarding it.

Over the years, the NHS has had to refund millions of pounds worth of care home fees which should not have been paid. In some cases, the NHS did not assess the individual concerned when it should have. In others, it decided wrongly that the individual was not eligible and that decision has been overturned on appeal.

As NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding is not means-tested, it is extremely important for private client and court of protection lawyers to identify potential opportunities and secure this funding for their clients. This should then be referred to a suitable expert to provide the client with advice.

If you’d like us to speak to your client, you can either advise your client to contact us, or you can reach out to us directly. We are always happy to work with Private Client and Court of Protection Lawyers to ensure their clients get the best possible service. Fill out our enquiry form and we will get straight back to you.

Private client and court of protection lawyers will most frequently encounter these important issues in the following ways:

• When drawing up Lasting Powers of Attorney, or making an application to the Court of Protection on behalf of an individual who may need care and support either now or in the not-too-distant future.
• When the spouse, partner or child of an individual contacts you for specific advice about preserving assets.
• When receiving instructions to sever a joint tenancy in respect of a property held as joint tenants.
• When administering an estate in respect of an individual who paid for their care and support before they died. Such as a resident in a nursing home.
• When you as a professional attorney or deputy, or your client acting as an attorney or deputy, needs to access someone’s funds to pay care fee invoices.
• When you as a professional attorney or deputy, or your client acting as an attorney or deputy, receive correspondence from a public body about a decision on someone’s care funding. For example, the NHS ICB may invite you to a Continuing Healthcare eligibility assessment or inform you of a decision about eligibility.

Private client and court of protection lawyers should be aware that an ICB’s decision about an individual’s eligibility carries a right of appeal. This should be promptly exercised within 6 months of the decision letter, if an appeal is to be pursued.

In these cases, it’s important for the lawyer to signpost their client to seek specialist advice about the merits of an appeal.

This will safeguard against:

• The risk that funds are expended on a challenge which has no reasonable prospects of success; and
• The risks associated with a missed opportunity to appeal a decision which might have had a reasonable prospect of success.

We are happy to discuss any aspect of NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding with you. Our continuing healthcare funding services for Private client and court of protection lawyers is comprehensive.

If you’d like us to meet our key solicitor, James Urquhart-Burton for an informal chat or to provide you or your team with informal training, then please let us know.

"They are clearly very experienced solicitors and somewhat of a “go to” for anything care home fee related. Their enthusiasm for this complex area of law always shows, and I wouldn’t hesitate to leave my client in his hands" - Private Client Solicitor

“I’m a Court of Protection Solicitor and I contacted them at their previous firm to prepare a written appeal argument for a lady whose finances I am responsible to manage. The appeal was successful, and my client is now receiving NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding. It’s good to know that I’ve done my job well and saved this client such a vast amount of money, and I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up the phone to them, who are always very friendly, knowledgeable, and approachable.” – Court of Protection Solicitor, a large Leeds-based firm