Free guidance
Information centre
Practical answers for anyone arranging care at home in England, for themselves or for someone else. Start with what you need to do.
Looking for care rather than a guide?
Arranging care now
When care is needed, suddenly or over time: the first steps, the kinds of care at home, assessments and how to choose a provider.
- First steps when someone needs care: a start-here guide
- Arranging care urgently: what to do when care is needed now
- Types of care at home: live-in, visiting, night and respite care
- What is live-in care? A complete guide for families in England
- Live-in care or 24-hour care: which does your family need?
- How to choose a care provider: checklist and questions to ask
- Care assessments and care plans: what to expect
- When a care home may be the right choice: an honest guide
Our care: how our live-in care works day to day.
Leaving hospital
What happens before discharge, the free short-term help that may be offered, and what to do if the plan does not feel safe.
- Leaving hospital: what to expect and how to prepare
- Questions to ask before hospital discharge: a checklist
- Discharge to Assess (D2A) explained for families
- Reablement and intermediate care: free help to recover
- What to do if a hospital discharge feels unsafe
- Care after surgery at home: hip, knee and other operations
- Benefits during a hospital stay: the 28-day rules explained
Our care: care after a hospital stay.
Paying for care
Council funding and the means test, benefits that can help, and the legitimate ways to reduce what you pay.
- How to reduce the cost of care: a guide for families in England
- How to pay for live-in care: every funding route in England
- Council funding for care: assessments, means test and charges
- Financial assessment for care at home: the means test explained
- Attendance Allowance: rates, who qualifies and how to claim
- Pension Credit: rates, how to claim and what it unlocks
- Benefits and help for older people: the 2026/27 checklist
- Paying for care from savings and property: a family guide
Our care: our prices and what they include.
NHS funding
When the NHS pays for care: NHS Continuing Healthcare, how to challenge a decision, claims for past care and other NHS help.
- NHS Continuing Healthcare: a guide for families
- Challenging an NHS Continuing Healthcare decision
- Retrospective NHS Continuing Healthcare claims for past care
- Personal health budgets: how they work with NHS care at home
- Section 117 aftercare: free care after a mental health detention
- Help with NHS health costs: prescriptions, dental, eyes, travel
Caring for someone
For partners, relatives and friends who help care: your own assessment, money and work, breaks, and planning for emergencies.
- Carer's assessment: your rights and how to prepare
- Looking after yourself as a carer: rest, support and breaks
- Respite care options: how to plan a break from caring
- Carer's Allowance: who can claim and how it affects other benefits
- Working while caring: your rights at work and your money
- Caring from a distance: staying close when you live far away
- Emergency plan for carers: what happens if you are suddenly ill
- Can family be paid to care? Direct payments, benefits and the rules
Our care: respite care at home.
Health conditions
Care at home for common conditions in later life, and what to watch for as needs change.
- Dementia care at home: a practical guide for families
- Dementia stages: how care needs change and what help fits
- Parkinson's care at home: a guide for families
- Stroke recovery at home: the first weeks and beyond
- Heart failure and COPD at home: a guide for families
- MS and MND care at home: a guide for families
- Frailty in later life: what it is and how to slow it
- Sudden confusion and delirium in older people: what to do
Our care: dementia care at home.
Living safely at home
Reducing risks at home: falls, equipment and adaptations, alarms, medicines, the weather and scams.
- Home safety checklist for older people: room by room
- Falls prevention for older people: a practical guide
- Equipment and home adaptations: what is free and how to get it
- Technology and telecare: alarms, sensors and smart help at home
- Managing medication at home: a guide for families and carers
- Staying well in hot and cold weather: a guide for older people
- Safeguarding and scams: protecting older people
Planning ahead
Legal powers, decisions about care and treatment, the end of life, and what to do if something goes wrong.
- Lasting Power of Attorney: a guide for families
- Advance care planning: making your wishes known
- Mental capacity and best interests: a guide for families
- Deputyship: when there is no Lasting Power of Attorney
- Planning end of life care at home: a gentle guide
- How to complain about care: providers, councils, NHS and CQC
- What to do when someone dies: a practical guide for families
Our care: end-of-life care at home.
Tools and letters
Work something out or put a request into words. The results are a guide, not a decision: the council, the NHS or the DWP decides.
Funding and cost checker
A few questions to see which help could reduce the cost of care. Eligibility depends on your circumstances.
Check what help may applyHome care charge calculator
Estimate the most a council can charge each week for care at home, with the working shown.
Work out the chargeNHS Continuing Healthcare self-check
The 11 areas of the official Checklist in plain English, to see whether it is worth asking for one.
Start the self-checkTemplate letters
Letters to copy and send for assessments, appeals, complaints and grants, each with the law behind it.
See the lettersFigures we use for 2026/27
Every official rate and limit in one place, with its source and the date it was checked.
See the figuresAll guides, A to Z
No guides match that yet. Please call us on 01865 715780; we are glad to help.
- A day with a live-in carer: what live-in care looks like
- Advance care planning: making your wishes known
- Arranging care urgently: what to do when care is needed now
- Attendance Allowance: rates, who qualifies and how to claim
- Benefits and help for older people: the 2026/27 checklist
- Benefits during a hospital stay: the 28-day rules explained
- Can family be paid to care? Direct payments, benefits and the rules
- Care after surgery at home: hip, knee and other operations
- Care assessments and care plans: what to expect
- Care contracts: what to check before you sign
- Care glossary: UK care terms explained in plain English
- Carer's Allowance: who can claim and how it affects other benefits
- Carer's assessment: your rights and how to prepare
- Caring from a distance: staying close when you live far away
- Challenging an NHS Continuing Healthcare decision
- Continence care with dignity: a guide for families
- Council funding for care: assessments, means test and charges
- Council Tax discounts for dementia, disability and carers
- CQC ratings explained: how to read a care provider's report
- Dementia care at home: a practical guide for families
- Dementia stages: how care needs change and what help fits
- Deprivation of assets and gifting: the real rules on care fees
- Deprivation of liberty at home: what families should know
- Deputyship: when there is no Lasting Power of Attorney
- Direct payments and personal budgets: a guide for families
- Disability-related expenditure (DRE): lowering your care charge
- Discharge to Assess (D2A) explained for families
- Emergency plan for carers: what happens if you are suddenly ill
- Equipment and home adaptations: what is free and how to get it
- Falls prevention for older people: a practical guide
- Financial assessment for care at home: the means test explained
- First steps when someone needs care: a start-here guide
- Frailty in later life: what it is and how to slow it
- Heart failure and COPD at home: a guide for families
- Help with heating and energy costs in 2026/27
- Help with NHS health costs: prescriptions, dental, eyes, travel
- Home safety checklist for older people: room by room
- How to choose a care provider: checklist and questions to ask
- How to complain about care: providers, councils, NHS and CQC
- How to pay for live-in care: every funding route in England
- How to reduce the cost of care: a guide for families in England
- Lasting Power of Attorney: a guide for families
- Leaving hospital: what to expect and how to prepare
- Live-in care or 24-hour care: which does your family need?
- Live-in carer breaks, rotas and handovers explained
- Living well with a live-in carer: house rules, privacy and trust
- Loneliness and wellbeing in later life: a guide for families
- Looking after yourself as a carer: rest, support and breaks
- Managed or introductory live-in care: what is the difference?
- Managing medication at home: a guide for families and carers
- Mental capacity and best interests: a guide for families
- MS and MND care at home: a guide for families
- NHS Continuing Healthcare: a guide for families
- Nutrition and hydration in later life: a guide for families
- Parkinson's care at home: a guide for families
- Paying for care from savings and property: a family guide
- Pension Credit: rates, how to claim and what it unlocks
- Personal health budgets: how they work with NHS care at home
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP): a guide for families
- Planning end of life care at home: a gentle guide
- Preparing your home for a live-in carer: a practical checklist
- Preventing pressure ulcers at home: a guide for families
- Questions to ask before hospital discharge: a checklist
- Reablement and intermediate care: free help to recover
- Respite care options: how to plan a break from caring
- Retrospective NHS Continuing Healthcare claims for past care
- Safeguarding and scams: protecting older people
- Section 117 aftercare: free care after a mental health detention
- Sight and hearing loss in later life: a guide for families
- Signs an older person needs more help, and what to do about each
- Staying well in hot and cold weather: a guide for older people
- Stroke recovery at home: the first weeks and beyond
- Sudden confusion and delirium in older people: what to do
- Sundowning: evening agitation in dementia and how to help
- Talking to a parent about care: how to start and what to say
- Technology and telecare: alarms, sensors and smart help at home
- Types of care at home: live-in, visiting, night and respite care
- What a live-in carer can and cannot do: a clear guide
- What is live-in care? A complete guide for families in England
- What to do if a hospital discharge feels unsafe
- What to do when someone dies: a practical guide for families
- When a care home may be the right choice: an honest guide
- When savings run low: moving from self-funding to council help
- When someone with dementia refuses care: a guide for families
- Working while caring: your rights at work and your money
Let’s talk about what you need
You don’t need to have all the answers.
Tell us what is happening at home. Our care team will listen, explain the options and help you decide on the next step.