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Continuing NHS Healthcare

What is Continuing NHS Healthcare?

Continuing NHS Healthcare (also known as CHC) is a package of care which is arranged and funded solely by the NHS for adult individuals who have been assessed as having a primary health need. You can receive continuing healthcare in any setting, including your own home or a care home that can safely and sustainably meet your assessed needs. Continuing NHS Healthcare is free for your assessed needs, unlike help from social services for which a financial charge may be made depending on your income and savings.

Who is eligible for Continuing NHS Healthcare?

Anyone assessed as having a certain level of care need may receive CHC. It is not dependent on a particular disease, diagnosis or condition, or on who provides the care or where that care is provided. If your overall care needs show that your primary care need is a health need, you may be eligible for CHC. Once eligible for CHC, your care will be funded by the NHS however this is subject to review and should your care needs change the funding arrangements may also change.

Information about Continuing NHS Healthcare

The Welsh Government have developed leaflets designed to help and guide staff, the person and family members through the CHC process used to determine eligibility.

Easy Read booklets

The Welsh Government’s national Framework for CHC, sets out their policy for eligibility for CHC, the responsibilities of NHS organisations and local authorities under the Framework and related matters. It sets out a process for the NHS, working together with local authority partners, to assess health needs, decide on eligibility for CHC and provide appropriate care. The purpose of the Framework is to provide a consistent foundation for assessing, commissioning and providing CHC for adults across Wales. The national Framework can be found here.

The archived 2014 CHC Framework can be found here.

If you have any queries concerning Continuing NHS Healthcare, please contact the appropriate Continuing Healthcare Team on:

Wrexham and Flintshire 

Email Address:
BCU.CHCSPOAEast@wales.nhs.uk
BCU.CHCOPMHEast@wales.nhs.uk

Telephone: 
03000858762

Conwy and Denbighshire

Email Address: 
BCU.chcspoacentral@wales.nhs.uk

Telephone: 
03000 855 568
03000 856 392

Gwynedd and Anglesey

Email Address: 
BCU.CHCApplicationsWest@wales.nhs.uk

Telephone: 
03000 851 761
03000 852 681

Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Division

Email Address: 
bcu.mhldchc@wales.nhs.uk

Telephone:
03000 852 675
03000 852 676

Children and Young Peoples’ Continuing Care

A small number of children and young people may have very complex health needs. These may be the result of congenital conditions, long-term or life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, disability, or the after-effects of serious illness or injury. They may have technology-dependence requiring nursing input. Some children and young people will have complex mental health or a learning disability requiring specialist therapeutic input or placement provision.

Most needs can be met by the care which is routinely provided by LHBs, or in some cases, Welsh Health Specialised Services (WHSSC) - an example would be Specialist Tier 4 services for Mental Health. However, for a small number of children, their needs are such that they cannot be met by these existing universal or specialist services by a case management approach. An additional package of support may be needed. This package of additional support has come to be known as continuing care. This framework supports LHBs in determining if a child’s needs are such that they require a package of continuing care.

It is important to recognise, and reflect in practice, that children and young people’s continuing care covers young people up to their eighteenth birthday. Thereafter, young people with very complex needs may be eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care, for which there is a National Framework for Adult Continuing Healthcare and supporting guidance and tools.

If a child or young person is found to be eligible for children and young people’s continuing care (CYP CC) agencies such as health, education and social care must work together to ensure that there are no gaps in meeting those assessed needs. A LHB and a LA may therefore jointly fund care to meet a child or young person’s needs as part of a joint health and social care package. The NHS Continuing Healthcare framework should not be used with children and young people (except when anticipating the needs of a young person approaching their eighteenth birthday).

If you have any queries about children and young people’s Continuing Care, please contact: bcu.chcchildrenscontinuingcare@wales.nhs.uk.

Older people’s rights in care homes

The Older People’s Commissioner for Wales has launched a guide for older people, which provides crucial information about their rights when moving into and living in a care home.

This guide helps older people and their families to better understand the rights they have, what they can do if they are concerned that their rights are not being upheld, and details of organisations that can provide help and support, including the Commissioner’s own advice and assistance team.

Further information can be found on the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales website.

NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) Assessment for Eligibility Process Survey

This survey asks questions about your experience of the NHS Continuing Healthcare (NHS CHC) assessment for eligibility process. Give your feedback by completing our survey.