Why we created My Care Direction
For years we helped care businesses navigate the complexities of care. Then we turned that experience towards the people who matter most — individuals and families trying to make sense of the system and find the right direction.
Decades of the care system, from the inside
My Care Direction grew out of Francis’s 36 years in nursing and care services and Samantha’s 20 years across health, occupational therapy services, psychology and social care. Between us that has meant managing an established clinical psychology practice — working with reports, insurers and claims — and running operations inside a care consultancy that supported care homes, care services and brand new providers finding their feet.
It also meant sitting on the other side of a lot of difficult conversations. When you spend years advising the organisations that deliver care, you learn exactly where the pressure points are: which assessments get skipped, which funding routes get quietly forgotten, which questions a family is never told to ask.
Our understanding of care is personal too
Living in a multigenerational family has given us direct experience of very different stages of later life — from relatives who remain fiercely independent, to relatives who now need care and support every day. We have had the conversations about driving, about moving, about money, about what happens next. We know how they feel when it is your family and not your caseload.
The realisation
Through our professional work, and through conversations with friends and families trying to navigate the same system, we kept noticing the same thing. Care businesses have access to a body of knowledge that families simply do not. Providers know what a good assessment looks like. They know how NHS Continuing Healthcare is really decided, how the means test works and where the disregards sit. Families are expected to work it out under pressure, usually in a hospital corridor, usually in a week.
That imbalance became the idea behind My Care Direction. After years of helping care businesses navigate the complexities of care, we decided to turn that experience towards the people who matter most.
- Families being told what is available instead of what they are entitled to
- Funding routes never mentioned because nobody is paid to mention them
- Decisions made in a week that should have been made in a month
- Advice that quietly depends on where somebody ends up living
- Jargon used as a substitute for an explanation
Francis
Francis trained in mental health nursing and continues to maintain his nursing registration. Over 36 years he has worked across most of the places care actually happens: NHS wards and private hospitals, care homes and nursing homes, and care delivered in people’s own homes.
That has included six years managing care homes and managing on the wards, across care of the elderly, young people’s services, learning disability, challenging behaviour and forensic services. He has owned and run his own care home and his own care agency, and has advised care homes, care agencies and start-up providers on setting up and running services properly.
Alongside that he has worked as a trainer — delivering mandatory training and qualifying as a physical interventions trainer — and has recruited healthcare professionals into services across the country.
Day to day, the work that matters most here is the work he has done putting care packages together: assessing what somebody actually needs, working with commissioners and social workers, and building and evidencing NHS Continuing Healthcare funding applications.
Designing environments, not just services
One thread runs through all of it: the belief that the environment somebody lives in is part of their care. Francis has worked on design briefs for challenging behaviour and for later life, working directly with architects and builders to create buildings that are genuinely fit for purpose — places that reduce distress rather than add to it, and that let people keep doing things for themselves for longer.
Samantha
Samantha’s background is in the operational side: managing an established clinical psychology practice, handling reports, insurers and claims, and then managing operations within a care consultancy supporting care homes, care services and new providers.
If Francis knows what good care looks like clinically, Samantha knows what has to happen behind it for a service to actually run — the paperwork, the timescales, the chasing, the evidence trail. A great deal of what goes wrong for families is not clinical at all. It is administrative. Letters that were never sent. Assessments that were never written up. Reviews that were never booked.
What thirty-six years actually changes
Experience is only worth something if it changes what happens to you. Here is what ours is for.
We know what the assessment should look like
Because we have carried them out, commissioned them and challenged them. If an assessment has been rushed, or a domain has been scored generously in the NHS’s favour, we can usually tell you where and why.
We know how providers think
Having run a care home and a care agency, and advised many more, we know what a home is really telling you on a viewing, what a fee increase clause means, and which questions a manager will not enjoy being asked.
We know who to ask, and in what order
Care systems reward people who ask the right body at the right time. We can tell you whether the next call is to the ICB, the local authority, the discharge team or the provider.
We know what a good environment looks like
From design briefs and building work through to a single doorway width. Whether you are adapting a home or choosing one, the building matters more than most people are told.
We have been the family too
Multigenerational living has meant having these conversations at our own kitchen table. We do not think of this as a caseload.
We are paid by you, and only by you
No commission, no referral fee, no preferred provider list. It is the reason the advice can be blunt when it needs to be.
What we are not
We think it matters as much to be clear about what we do not do.
We are not a care agency and we are not a care home group. We do not take a commission, a finder’s fee or any other payment from a care home, a home care agency, a broker or any other provider for recommending them or for placing somebody with them. Nothing on this website is designed to move you towards one provider over another.
We are not financial advisers. We are not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, so we cannot advise you on care fee annuities, equity release, investments or any other regulated financial product. We can explain how the means test works and what the current thresholds are, and we will tell you plainly when you need a regulated adviser or a solicitor instead.
We are not solicitors and we do not carry out reserved legal activities. We cannot guarantee any funding outcome — nobody honestly can, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something. What we can do is make sure your case is properly assessed, properly evidenced and properly argued.
- No commission from any care provider, ever
- We will tell you when you do not need to pay us
- Only verified 2026/27 figures from GOV.UK and the NHS
- Clear about the limits of what we can promise
- Your information is never sold or passed to providers
Questions people ask us about us
Is Francis still a registered nurse
Yes. Francis trained in mental health nursing and maintains his nursing registration. We do not publish registration numbers on the website, but we are happy to confirm registration details directly with a commissioner, a solicitor or a family who asks.
Why does your background matter for my mum
Because most of what goes wrong for families is procedural, not medical. Knowing what the assessment should have covered, what should have been written down and who was supposed to do it is usually the difference between paying for care and having it funded.
Do you work outside East Sussex
Yes. The funding rules described across this site apply across England, and much of our work is done by phone, video and correspondence. Francis has worked in services across the country. Where a visit is needed, we will tell you honestly whether it is worth the cost.
Are you connected to any care homes
No. We take no payment from any care provider under any circumstances. If we ever had any connection to a service we mentioned to you, we would tell you before we mentioned it.
Who actually writes the guides on this site
Francis writes and clinically reviews the guidance, and Samantha reviews it for accuracy and clarity. Every guide carries a review date and links to the GOV.UK or NHS source behind the figures. You can read our editorial and accuracy policy.
Can I just talk to you before deciding anything
Yes, and most people should. The free 20-minute call exists for exactly that. If we think you do not need to pay us, we will say so on that call.
Talk to the people who have seen it from every side.
Twenty minutes, free, no obligation — and no commission from anybody.
No pressure. No care-provider commissions. Just a conversation about what may help.Independent · no commission from any care provider · fees published
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