Advice

Can I get my local authority to provide more dementia homecare?

Question:

‘I’ve ended up providing more personal care for my mum than I can cope with. But the local authority won’t increase her homecare. What can I do?’

Answer:

Ask the local authority for a review of your mum’s care and support plan (in Northern Ireland you’d need to ask the trust). 

If her needs have increased, the authority may have a duty to provide the additional help that she needs.

Perhaps her needs haven’t changed, but the current care package isn’t meeting all of them. In that case, tell the authority exactly which needs it isn’t meeting. Include why and how she would like to be supported.

Assessing care needs

The local authority must consider your mum’s wellbeing when it’s planning her care.

See our information about assessment for care and support in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This details which needs are classed as ‘eligible care needs’ – the needs the authority may have a duty to meet.

If the authority believes your mum’s needs are being met, it could decide not to increase her care package. It does have the power to offer more than this, but many won’t provide more than they legally have to.

Carer’s assessment

The local authority doesn’t have to meet needs that you’re already covering as a ‘willing and able’ carer.

It’s important to tell the authority clearly if you’re no longer able and willing to meet her needs yourself. It may increase its care package if these are ‘eligible care needs’.

Set realistic boundaries about what care you can provide. 

It’s especially important to say what personal care you don’t feel comfortable providing. 

This can be an emotional decision, but you need to act in your own best interests as well as your mother’s.

It could help to ask the authority for a carer’s assessment. This can highlight any ways your needs are not being met – for example, activities or work you can no longer do. The authority might be able to help meet your needs by providing replacement or respite care.

Making a complaint

The local authority might insist that your mum already gets the most homecare that it will fund. Or it might say she’d need to move into a care home to get more support. You could make a complaint to challenge this.

The local authority can’t impose a blanket policy or arbitrary limit that forces a person to go into a care home when they don’t want to. It must consider the individual circumstances in each case.

If your complaint to the local authority doesn’t succeed, you may want to take it further. 

This would be to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in England, Public Services Ombudsman Wales or the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman.

The ombudsman can check that the local authority followed the law when it made its decisions.