Question 37
What is the Funded Nursing Care payment?
Funded Nursing Care is a weekly payment made by the NHS to a nursing home to contribute towards the cost of registered nursing. The current rate is £235.88 per week. It applies to anyone in a nursing home who has been assessed as needing nursing care — it is not means tested. If someone is self-funding, this payment should still be made to the home and reduce the weekly fee accordingly. It is separate from NHS Continuing Healthcare, which covers all care costs. Many families do not know this payment exists, and some homes do not apply it automatically to self-funded residents.
If someone is self-funding in a nursing home, ask the home directly whether the Funded Nursing Care payment is being applied to their fees — not all homes make this clear unprompted.
What changes the answer
- Whether the person is in a nursing home rather than a residential home
- Whether a nursing care assessment has been completed
- Whether the payment is being correctly applied to the weekly fee