News Articles

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) today released a report Continuing Healthcare: Getting it right first time based on their findings from Continuing Healthcare1 (CHC) cases brought to them and resolved in the last three years. In response to the report, Dan Harbour, Managing Director of Beacon CHC, said: “Over the past few years, we’ve heard from more and more families with loved ones whose Continuing Healthcare package is not sufficiently funded nor properly planned to meet their care needs. We welcome this report from the PHSO, which we hope will begin to turn the tide …read more

With the support of a professional legal team, retired Rear Admiral Philip Mathias is preparing to launch a judicial review of the Government and NHS England, over the Continuing Healthcare system. On his crowdfunding page he says: “I am now taking legal action against the Government and NHS England to expose the scandal [of CHC] and to hold them to account.” Rear Admiral Mathias’ actions follow his experiences of CHC, while seeking healthcare funding for his late mother. His campaign has attracted financial and moral support from people who’ve had similar experiences. Dan Harbour, Managing Director …read more

Callers to our helpline this week have told us that a Continuing Healthcare firm is claiming guaranteed success in CHC appeal casework. This is shamefully misleading and we urge people to think very carefully before proceeding with any firm that makes such claims, while asking for fees upfront. We understand some people will be very tempted by such guarantees because of the additional hardship caused by delays to CHC appeals during the COVID-19 emergency. However, we’ve been working in this area for nearly two decades, and can say with confidence that it is never possible to …read more

The impact of coronavirus on NHS Continuing Healthcare During this worrying and unprecedented time, all of us at Beacon are doing our utmost to carry on supporting, informing and advising our callers and clients as they go through the Continuing Healthcare system. The nature of COVID-19 (coronavirus) makes it particularly concerning for people already in poor health, and their families, who we work with everyday. The Coronavirus Act 2020 – emergency legislation that included measures to protect and support the NHS frontline – enacted significant changes to the way that new or enhanced care packages are …read more

It has been confirmed that people in England are entitled to six months to decide to appeal an eligibility decision for NHS Continuing Healthcare. The Department of Health and Social Care have today confirmed that this is the national guidance that every Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) should adhere to. The six-month timescale has been reinstated for the first stage of the appeal process (Local Resolution) and remains the case for the second stage (Independent Review). Department responds to challenge The update comes just a few months after the worrying news that CCGs were being allowed to …read more

Evolving Communities CIC in collaboration with Beacon have an exciting opportunity for individuals to improve the quality and accessibility of NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) information. We want to hear from you if you are an individual or their representative and have gone through the CHC assessment process (Checklist and/or full assessment). We’re interested in how you accessed information about CHC throughout the entire process. This work is being commissioned by NHS England (NHSE) and will help them develop a national CHC information resource. The project has two stages, an online survey and a series of focus …read more

In May, Beacon’s Dan Harbour was invited to appear on Radio 4’s personal finance phone-in, Money Box Live. Dan was answering listeners’ questions in an episode dedicated to NHS Continuing Healthcare. You can listen to the 30 minute programme via the BBC website, at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b39v3z About us Beacon CHC is a leading UK-wide social enterprise with profits donated to charity to fund vital older peoples’ services. Our specialist caseworkers provide a comprehensive and ethical advocacy and support service for individuals trying to navigate the maze of NHS CHC funding. We also run an independent helpline – funded by the NHS – …read more

If you registered a Power of Attorney between 1st April 2013 and 31st March 2017 you may have been asked by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) to pay too much as an administration fee and be due a partial refund. The miscalculation of fees happened because the OPG became more efficient at processing the registrations but didn’t reduce the fee at the time – fees were only lowered from 1st April 2017. To check if you are due a refund take a look here: www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney-refund Or ring the Office of the Public Guardian on 0300 456 0300 …read more

NHS-funded Nursing Care (FNC) is the Department of Health’s contribution towards care homes’ costs for people who are in receipt of nursing care from a registered nurse. In 2016 we reported that the standard FNC rate was rising to £156.25 per week (from £112). We hoped that care homes would reflect this rate rise in their fees, passing on a welcome reduction in nursing costs to residents who may otherwise be funding some of the costs of this from their own pocket. However, we’ve been aware that this is frequently not the case, with murky explanations …read more