Independent · no commission from any care provider · fees published
Professionals
Our editorial and accuracy policy
Care funding is one of the few subjects where being slightly out of date can cost a family tens of thousands of pounds. This page explains exactly how everything on this site is written, checked, dated and corrected — and who is accountable for it.
Who writes and reviews this content
Everything on this website is written in-house. We do not buy content, we do not commission agencies to write about care funding, and we do not publish sponsored articles.
Francis writes and clinically reviews the guidance. Francis trained in mental health nursing, maintains his nursing registration, and has 36 years of experience across care homes, hospital wards, home care and care consultancy — including assembling care packages, working with commissioners and social workers, and preparing NHS Continuing Healthcare funding applications.
Samantha reviews for accuracy, structure and plain English. Samantha’s background is in practice and operations management across clinical psychology and care consultancy, which is where a great deal of the procedural detail on this site comes from.
You can read more about both of us on our story page.
No AI-generated advice
We may use software to help with drafting, formatting and checking readability. We do not publish anything that has not been read, checked and approved by a human being who is accountable for it, and we never let a tool decide what the funding rules are.
- Who wrote it
- That it has been clinically reviewed
- The date it was last reviewed
- The GOV.UK or NHS source behind the figures
Our sources, in order of preference
When we quote a threshold, an allowance or a rate, it comes from the highest source available, in this order.
Legislation and statutory guidance
The Care Act 2014 and the Care and Support Statutory Guidance, the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS-funded Nursing Care, and the relevant regulations.
GOV.UK and NHS England
Published rates, capital limits, allowances and benefit figures. If GOV.UK and a newspaper disagree, we use GOV.UK.
The local authority or ICB itself
Where a rule is decided locally — such as a council’s usual rate or an ICB’s dispute process — we go to that body’s own published policy.
Regulators
The Care Quality Commission for provider ratings and inspection reports; the Nursing and Midwifery Council for registration matters.
Our own casework
Where we describe what usually happens in practice, we say so explicitly and we do not dress it up as a rule. Practice is not law.
Never
Aggregator sites, provider marketing, unattributed statistics or figures we cannot trace back to a primary source.
Things you will not find on this site
We do not publish an average care home fee. Averages are the single most misleading number in this sector. They mix nursing and residential care, self-funders and council-funded placements, London and the North East. A family who plans around an average will almost always be wrong, and usually wrong in the expensive direction. Our fees calculator uses the fee you have actually been quoted, not a national average.
We do not promise funding outcomes. Nobody can guarantee that someone will be found eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare, and anyone who does is selling something. We explain how eligibility is decided and how to evidence a case properly.
We do not give regulated financial advice. We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. We will explain how the means test works; we will not advise you on care fee annuities, equity release or investments.
We do not carry out reserved legal activities. We will tell you when you need a solicitor.
We take no commission from care providers. Not from care homes, not from home care agencies, not from brokers. Nothing on this site is influenced by where somebody ends up receiving care.
- Upper capital limit £23,250
- Lower capital limit £14,250
- Tariff income £1 per week per £250 between the limits
- Personal Expenses Allowance £31.80 per week
- Attendance Allowance £76.70 / £114.60 per week
- NHS-funded Nursing Care £267.68 / £368.24 per week from 1 April 2026
Our review cycle
Every guide and tool carries a last-reviewed date. We review content on a fixed cycle and, separately, whenever something changes.
Scheduled reviews
All money pages — anything quoting a capital limit, an allowance, a benefit rate or an NHS-funded Nursing Care rate — are reviewed every April, when the new financial year’s figures take effect, and again in the autumn. All other guidance is reviewed at least once a year.
Triggered reviews
We also review immediately when the National Framework for NHS Continuing Healthcare is updated, when the Care and Support Statutory Guidance changes, when a Budget or Spending Review alters a rate, or when a court decision or Ombudsman report changes how a rule is applied in practice.
What a review actually involves
Someone opens the primary source, checks every figure on the page against it, checks that every outbound link still resolves to the right place, and re-reads the page for anything that has quietly become misleading. Then the date is changed. We do not change the date without doing the work.
Corrections
We would much rather be corrected than be wrong. If you think something on this site is inaccurate, out of date, unclear or misleading, please tell us.
Email [email protected] with the page and what you think is wrong. We aim to acknowledge within two working days and to correct or explain within five.
Where we correct something material — a figure, an eligibility rule, a timescale — we change the content, update the review date, and note the correction on the page. We do not quietly edit and pretend it was always that way.
If your concern is about the service you received rather than the website, please use our complaints procedure.
- The page address
- The sentence or figure you think is wrong
- What you believe the correct position is
- A source, if you have one
Questions about how we write this site
Are the figures on this site definitely current
They were correct at the review date shown on each page, checked against GOV.UK or NHS sources. Rates usually change each April. Always check the review date, and if you are making a decision that turns on a specific figure, check the GOV.UK page too — we link to it.
Why do you not publish an average care home fee
Because it is the number most likely to make a family plan badly. Fees vary enormously by region, by type of care and by whether the placement is council-funded or self-funded. We would rather work from the actual figure you have been quoted.
Do you accept advertising or sponsored content
No. No care provider, broker, insurer or financial firm pays us to appear on this site, and none ever will. Our income comes from the families and professionals who use our services.
Do you use affiliate links
No. Outbound links to GOV.UK, the NHS and the CQC are ordinary links and earn us nothing.
Can I rely on this site instead of getting advice
For general understanding, yes. For a decision about a specific person, no website can do that — including this one. Individual circumstances change the answer. That is what the free 20-minute call is for.
Who is legally responsible for this website
MCB-HUB Ltd, trading as My Care Direction, company number 13962703, registered in England and Wales. Full details are in the footer of every page.
Found something that looks wrong?
Tell us and we will check it against the source.
We would rather be corrected than be wrong.